I didn’t march today. But I did remember

Fifty years ago today I marched in the Elizabeth Pennsylvania Memorial Day Parade. It was a family tradition for a number of years and in 1972 it would be my last one as a civilian. I had already joined the Navy in the delayed entry program and would leave a few weeks later. I remember […]

May you live long enough that you long for your past despite the hardships and difficulties.

The definition for nostalgia that comes from Webster’s Dictionary include these: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period of irrecoverable condition the state of being homesick With apologies to Webster and company, this is my definition: May you live long enough that you long for your past despite […]

Rear Admiral Taussig and the Warning Before Pearl Harbor

Rear Admiral Taussig and the Warning Before Pearl Harbor An obscure article in the Southern Jewish Weekly put forward an interesting idea in the form of an article published on January 30, 1942. In some ways, this is part three of a series about Taussig. But it casts the story in a different light and […]

We Regret to Inform You… January 1942 and the aftermath of Pearl Harbor

We regret to inform you. The attack on Pearl Harbor was so swift and deadly that the military was not prepared to deal with the consequences of not being prepared for war: Identifying the souls lost and notifying the families about their loss. Considering the number of dead and wounded, it should not be a […]

Remembering Pearl Harbor – The Story of Gunners Mate Second Class John C. Pensyl

Their voices cry out from the past. 2403 Americans died from the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of that figure, 2,008 of them were enlisted with the Navy, 218 were members of the US Army, 109 were Marines, and 68 were civilians. While much is written about the event, we need to never lose focus on […]

The coming storm

Warning: If you don’t like posts about Patriotism, stop reading now. I was taking inventory of my life in the last few days and here is what I think I found. First, I was born an American which means that because of decisions my ancestors made, I wasn’t born in Scotland, England, Ireland, Germany, […]

Two Fine men

Two fine men. John MacPherson and John Dixon were proud veterans that served their community side by side for years. They lived in a time where segregation had been a part of their world growing up and they could have used that as a reason to never work together. But these two fine men set […]

How could you be so mean? I mean, that person is a veteran!

How could you be so mean? I mean, that person is a veteran! A veteran is someone who once raised their right hand and promised to do whatever was required to defend the nation. Veterans on the whole are honorable people who deserve the thanks of the nation. Since retiring in 1994, I have been […]

In December 1983, It wasn’t even on the list.

In December 1983, It wasn’t even on the list. I was cleaning out some piles in my Zombie room this afternoon and I found pictures and letters from a long time ago. Some of them hadn’t been touched in years other than to move them to a different location. I am a Master Procrastinator and […]

Happy Father’s Day 2020… to the Dad’s who didn’t quit

Where are the fathers? Happy Father’s Day. The words come tripping off the tongue with such ease, we forget what they are supposed to mean. We forget that this was meant to be the one day in the year where we could pay honor and respect to the men who didn’t just help to create […]