He deserves to be recognized for his lifelong dedication to serving those humans he lived among, finally giving his life on 9/11/2001, yet saving the employees for the firm he worked for. Why? Because he knew, because he prepared, because he was courageous beyond what I can imagine across decades and continents, in a uniform of armed services, and in civilian clothes.

Black Five posts it again, the story of Col Rick Rescorla, USA (RET), a naturalized American, veteran of the British and US Armies. Hero on the battle fields of Vietnam, and, sadly, the last time, in the stairwells of the World Trade Center.

Read the definitive, detailed story of Rick by Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette and know people like this exist and will sacrifice themselves, not for 72 virgins in eternity, but for that person next to them.

When you’re filled with awe, get over and place your name on the petition to President Bush, requesting “Rick” Rescorla be honored by this nation with the award of the Medal of Freedom.

Last Friday, Rush got on quite a straight forward monologue, and a particular part of it got me thinking.

Over the last several years, the constant complaint from the Left has been that we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq. In actuality, we did so quite deliberately, rather than a spur of the moment idea. Rush was talking about this very thing and I realized the move into Iraq was brilliant. Why?

Trying to fight in Afghanistan, which is proving to be successful, is a tough proposition. Over not all that distant history, at least two major superpowers found out the hard way that taking conventional military forces into that region of the world caused disaster. The lines of communications are long, and between the sea and the mountainous country of Afghanistan are other sovereign nations, which requires diplomacy for the access or further military operations to seize and hold supply lines. We face the same thing today. Certainly, with the airlift capacity of the Air Force, we can haul lots of cargo and men, but there’s nothing that beats ships and logistics trains of trucks, trucks and more trucks. So, from a strategic logistical standpoint, fighting in Afghanistan is a too hard for a major conflict.

From a terrain standpoint, there are all sorts of issues. A lot of real estate, where the enemy can easily hide, are up at the top end of the altitude range for our ever present air mobile transports, in other words, helicopters. Add to that, the mountains make flying close air support a difficult task. Tactically, our ability to mass firepower becomes limited quickly.

From Afghanistan, troops can strategically tie down terrorist forces, and pick away at them, keeping them from the larger engagements in the GWoT. Not only can they keep them off the main field of battle, Iraq, as stated by the many communiques of al-Qaeda, but also out of our shopping malls and government buildings here at home. That, in and of itself, is a successful employment of our service personnel, and that of NATO and other allied nations to that country.

Iraq, on the other hand, while hot and sandy, has access to seaports (limited, but there is some, as well in neighboring Kuwait) and the land mass is characterized by lots of open terrain, ideally suited to bring many types of vehicles to any fight. Helos are not limited by the altitude and TACAIR isn’t in constant danger of colliding with ridges and mountains while carrying out their missions of ground support. Caves are not a prevalent attribute of the land, either.

But, let’s cut to the chase: When fighting a “stateless” enemy, with forces comprised of citizens from many countries, many whom are, at the national level, allied with us, just where do you stand to conduct the military operations? That’s the real salient point Rush got me thinking about. If not in Iraq, one at least with a basically secular and educated population, because of and in spite of Saddam’s rule, then where?

Which US citizens would provide their land within our borders to let us have the fight here, so we don’t conduct military operations on the soil of another country? My bet is tending toward none. For the Democrats, which Blue State would be first to offer their territory to serve as the staging area for the terrorists of many lands, to come and have the fight they are spoiling for? Tending towards zero again, I’d venture once more.

If the battles were to take place here, with the demonstrated ability of the terrorists to slip through our dragnets, who would actually want to risk them loose in our neighborhoods and cities? I think many would change their tunes about “freedom fighters” when they same were somewhere nearer to them than about 6,000 miles away.

Given the propensity of the Left to make this out as some sort of law enforcement effort, once the decision was made to not disturb any other country, would they want to turn the “work” over to police, sheriffs and the FBI? Something about Posse Comitatus might certainly come up, thereby depriving us of the most effective arm of the Government to take on this fight.

Fanciful, I know, the part at the end, but, if not in Iraq, as Rush alluded to, then where would we have had this war to date?

All in all, the choice or Iraq is brilliant for the full employment of our military forces, in my opinion.

Before I get started, don’t forget to get your day old dose of “Sunday Ship History,” this week with the theme of songs, when you finish the post here.

LCDR James “Jimmy” Thach, USN – CO VF-3, c. 1942

He retired as as Admiral after a long and honorable career in the service of our nation, but he made his name by pioneering air tactics, specifically, the “Thach Weave” in response to the capabilities of the Japanese Zero fighter to better the chances of the F4F Wildcat. From Wikipedia:

[…]
Working at night with matchsticks on the table, he eventually came up with what he called “Beam Defense Position”, but what soon became known as the “Thach Weave”. It was executed either by two fighter aircraft side-by-side or (as illustrated) by two pairs of fighters flying together. When an enemy aircraft chose one fighter as his target (the “bait” fighter; his wingman being the “hook”), the two wingmen turned in towards each other. After crossing paths, and once their separation was great enough, they would then repeat the exercise, again turning in towards each other, bringing the enemy plane into the hook’s sights. A correctly-executed Thach Weave (assuming the bait was taken and followed) left little chance of escape to even the most maneuverable opponent.
[…]

As CO of VF-3, flying from USS YORKTOWN (CV-5), at the Battle of Midway, he had his pilots successfully use this tactic against the Japanese, playing a part in the surprise success over the approaching forces. He was aided by ENS “Butch” O’Hare, later to win the Medal of Honor, in the development and execution of this ground breaking tactic. Later, the Marine pilots of the “Cactus Air Force” flying from Guadalcanal with cannibalized F4F Wildcats as their main fighter, employed this tactic as well.

After the Battle of Midway. LCDR Thach was placed where his keen mind could really be multiplied: Training new Naval Aviators. Unlike the enemy (Germans and Japanese), who kept their best pilots on the front lines, the US adopted a policy of rotating experienced combat pilots back to the school houses to pass along their lessons learned written in blood to give new pilots an instant advantage upon arrival in theater.

Later, CDR Thach was assigned to ADM John McCain Sr’s (Sen John McCain’s Grandfather) Staff and was present for the Japanese Surrender at Tokyo Bay.

Proving his skills for better better warfighting tactics, he was recognized by Time Magazine in 1958 for his work with an experimental anti-submarine warfare (ASW) unit aboard USS VALLEY FORGE (CVS-45). Later, he presided over the development of the A-7 Corsair II for the Navy (the USAF also bought this airframe).

ADM Thach retired in 1967, and passed away in 1981.

USS THACH (FFG-43) and SH-60B SeahawkUSS THACH was commissioned 3/17/1984, and is a “Flight III” version of the USS O.H. PERRY Class Guided Missile Frigates. She was initially outfitted with the full compliment of ASW equipment that was retrofitted aboard the Flight I and II ships of the class.USS THACH has been an active participant in the the Operation Iraqi Freedom Campaigns.In honor of this great tactician, the USS THACH (FFG-43) was named for him.

I’m not, by habit, a novel reader, but I was given a copy of “Under Enemy Colors” for review. It turned out to an engaging read, full of well written dialogs, and vivid descriptions of the action and the environment. Highly recommended for those looking for a good read about late 18th – early 19th century life and combat at sea aboard a British Navy Frigate.

Join the life of Charles Hayden, the First Lieutenant aboard HMS Themis, under the command of Captain Josiah Hart, who seems to hold his station in life due to his wife’s connections to the Admiralty, rather than by competence, yet he is somehow graced with a good reputation. Seen through the eyes of the Mr Hayden, the cast of characters are widely varied in their dispositions, but are painted in realistic manners, to fit well into the crew, disgruntled by the tyrannical reign of a captain who seem to avoid real conflict at any turn.

The book begins with the 1st Lt arriving at his new posting an finding the Captain gone and the ship not in adequate condition, where upon he sets himself to work to prepare the ship for the assigned mission to cruise French coast and harass shipping and ascertain the strength of their adversaries. Sailing into the Atlantic towards Brest, the story picks up speed, building rapidly on the characters developed during the tense days of refitting the ship. I wasn’t disappointed by the pace, and the twists and turns the author took me on, just when I thought I saw the course of the story.

I will admit I know little of the terminology of the sails and rigging of a multi-masted sailing vessel, but I suspect it is entirely accurate in the terminology and procedures used to tell the tale.

The book is not a dry accounting of  sailing an battles, but there are supporting threads of internal politics of the Royal Navy, alliances between men aboard ship, and the tugging of political strings to get things done, for good and for bad.

It appears, in the end of this book, there is certainly room for the story to continue in a serial manner, and I look forward to the next novel in the series.

If you want to get a sense of the mood and situation in the Pentagon on the morning of 9/11/2001, then don’t miss the Reflections of SteelJaw Scribe, who was in the building and is taking a few days to recount the experience…

Part I is here

Check back at his site the next few days for the continuation of this inside view of the attack suffered that historical day through the eyes of a Navy Captain.

There we were at NAVSCOLDIVSALV…praying we one day would be worthy of the title “Diving Officer.”

It was cold, it was wet, the MKV gear was not for the faint of heart, yet, in our (mostly) youthful exuberance, seemed to be worrying about the next meal.

Those days on the Diving Stations on the barge moored in the Anacostia River were long, beginning about 0600, ending about 1630, with a set of calisthenics on each end, and diving once, maybe twice each work days wearing a spun copper hat, and the rest of the grab to round out 198 lbs…no typo there…oh, and did I mention the Potomac had frozen over? The “playground” we were using refsed to, due to the copious amounts of entrained matter…today we would call it grossly polluted….

One day, while on momentary break for lunch, one of our hopeful number surveyed his tuna sandwich with some (but not enough) suspicion, as it had resided since just before 0600 that morning, in the locker room, which, was well heated with steam. Anyhow, Cloe decided he was hungry (the days were tough on us growing boys), so he hammered the sandwich, not giving it much thought for the environmental “issues.”

He had been tending all morning, and had yet to make his one dive…and later he did. The dives by then lasted about an hour, less if you had lots of manual dexterity and a capable mind for visualization, since no light penetrated the pollutionsilt.

“Topside, Red Diver. I think I’m gonna be sick!” came the message from 30 some feet bleow about 20 minutes into his dive.

“Red Diver, Topside. You better not puke in your helmet.”

The hand signals from the instructors let us know to heave around smartly on his umbilical and comm line, so as to get him to the ladder very soon. We got him up and on the bench, disaster, of the most smelly kind, was averted, but not before we all got a good laugh out of it and the rights to bring the subject up regularly…which we did…

Moral of the “sea story:” You know, don’t leave you mayonnaise laden sandwich sit out in the heat, even if it is cloder than the inside of your refrigerator outside.

Before you begin: Don’t forget Eagle1’s Sunday Ship History!

Today, a man I figured may have had more prominence in US Navy History than I have been exposed to: Captain Isaac Hull.

Captain Hull, I find was present at many more significant battles in our early history as a Nation than just as the Captain of the USS CONSTITUTION during the famous battle against the HMS Guerrière’s on August 19th, 1812. Born in Derby, CT on March 9, 1773, he was the son of a mariner and regularly accompanied his father to sea for local and longer distance sailings to the West Indies. HIs father died while he was young , and he was adopted by his uncle, William Hull, a veteran of many battles of the Revolutionary War.Beginning his own life at sea as a merchant sailor, Issac Hull had commanded several merchants ships during the 1790s, losing some to the French.

Earning a commission in the young Navy in 1798 as a Lieutenant, he served the US Navy for many years to come.His first assignment was aboard the USS CONSTITUTION. As a result, he would have seen action in the Western Atlantic during the Quasi-Wars with France.

In 1805, Isaac Hull was the captain of the USS ARGUS in the Squadron commanded by Commodore James Barron, stationed in the Mediterranean during the Barbary Wars. Here we see Lt. Issac Hull becoming part of the legendary beginnings of the US Marine Corps. The ARGUS was tasked to deliver William Eaton, an secret agent for the US, along with 8 Marines and supplies to Egypt, in a mission that would begin the US’ first land war on foreign soil. One of the Marines embarked on ARGUS was Lt Presley O’Bannon. On April 27th, 1805, after Mr. Eaton had raised an Arab and Christian Army to help get Hamet Karamali back into power in Tripoli (now Libya) and marched west to the outskirts of Derna, the USS ARGUS, accompanied by USS NAUTILUS (Lt O.H. Perry commanding) and USS HORNET, with now Master Commander Hull in command, provided naval gunfire support, while Eaton, O’Bannon and their army stormed the city from landward.

Certainly, Master Commandant Isaac Hull played a significant role in making the history we know of the Barbary Wars, as well as his later exploits as Captain of the USS CONSTITUTION. In the early days of the War of 1812, sailing from Annapolis in July after re-coppering the bottom of CONSTITUTION, Capt Hull almost lost the ship to a far superior force of an entire British Squadron, comprised of 4 frigates and a 64 gun battleship. The story of the escape from enemy forces is told in “Six Frigates” by Ian Toll, in great detail. Not having the wind to retreat, the crew put the boats in the water and used kedge anchors and the ship’s capstans to pull the ship away from the British. For three days, the becalmed warships fought for any slight advantage, yet remained out of effective gunfire range of one another. The crew of the CONSTITUTION did not rest the entire time, being needed to row, man guns, or the capstan bars to save themselves and their ship.

A month later, Captain Hull would show his skill as a warship skipper, soundly beating Captain Dacares of the HMS Guerrière’s, one of the ship’s that had hounded CONSTITUTION in July.

Captain Hull went from the CONSTITUTION to command the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, ME, where the construction of the USS WASHINGTON, the US Navy’s first 74 gun battle ship was begun. This, it seems, was a task fit for someone with courage and constitution for battle. from the website SeacoastNH:

When Hull arrived at the new federal yard he discovered a miniscule facility with only a few buildings, not a single guard or defensive cannon and just 18 men.

Isaac Hull was unshaken. He had done the impossible before. A year before, pursued near New Jersey by five ships from the world’s finest navy, Hull gave the British fleet the slip. Then with the American fleet outnumbered 100 ships to one, he pitted the USS CONSTITUTION dead against HMS GURRIERE outside Boston in August 1812. When the smoke cleared, the American ship had won the battle, puncturing the Royal Navy’s claim to invincibility. It was largely a morale victory, but just the boost a politically divided young country needed. His surviving ship became known as “Old Ironsides”.

Still the War of 1812 raged on. Before it was over the British would torch the new nation’s capital city of Washington. Even as Washington burned, Hull was building the USS WASHINGTON, the name eventually assigned to his 74-gun project. Despite the crude shipbuilding conditions there, Hull’s initial assessment of Portsmouth Harbor vibrated with enthusiasm. He highly approved of the government’s chosen site on 58-acre Fernald’s Island on the Maine side of the swiftly flowing Piscataqua River. Sheltered, yet close to the sea in a deepwater port, Portsmouth Yard was more convenient, he wrote, “than any Yard belonging to the United States.”

But building WASHINGTON quickly became a political land battle rivaling anything Hull had experienced at sea.
[…]

More incredible details on the effort to get the WASHINGTON built are there…read them!

Hull later was shortly on the Board of Navy Commissioners, then commanded the Boston Navy Yard, before taking the Pacific Squadron, operating in the Pacific Ocean. Following that seagoing command, he ran the Washington Navy Yard, and finally was assigned as the Mediterranean Squadron Commander. Two years after his retirement in 1841, he died on Feb 13th, 1843.

I began this post saying I wondered why this man has not been had a more prominent place in daily naval history. During my years of service, I knew of the USS HULL (DD-945), mostly because she was the test platform for the Mk 71 8″ Gun. Based on the information I have come across in the last few days, between reading “Six Frigates,” seeing a History Channel show on the Tripolean War, and finding other websites about Isaac Hull, it certainly appears he was one of the most experienced ship commanders of all the many names of the early American Naval heros, but he also managed to grasp a difficult problem of building large ships and get the job done well, despite disputes, enemy blockades and infighting.

While five Navy vessels have been named for him, none of them were “Class” ships (those who were the first of a type of ship, and therefore the others in the class would be all associated with the first on, such as the SPRUANCE Class destroyers):

• USS COMMODORE HULL – sidewheeled steam gunboat – 1862-1865
• USS HULL (DD-7) – 1902-1919. DD-7 spent most of her years in the Pacific Squadron, but moved to Norfolk, VA in 1918 and made anti-submarine patrols off the East Coast.
• USS HULL (DD-330) – CLEMSON Class DD – 1921-1930
• USS HULL (DD-350) – FARRAGUT Class DD – 1934 -1944. This ship was stationed at Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec, 1941 and fired her AA batteries, despite being moored to t Destroyer Tender for repairs, at the Japanese aircraft. She sailed to escort USS ENTERPRISE (CV-2) back into Pearl Harbor. She participated in the Guadalcanal landings, screening cruisers. In April 43, she was part of the force supporting the amphibious assault on Kiska, providing gunfire support to the landing force. Other combat actions included Wake Island, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, Truk and the famous “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” and the invasion of Guam (July 21st, 1944). This HULL was lost in one of the most tragic accidents in our Navy’s history, the loss of ships during the typhoon in the pacific that struck ADM Halsey’s battle force on 18 December, 1944. In a related post regarding the uparmoring of HMMVEES, I blogged about similar issues of the FARRAGUT Class DDs in early WWII, that contributed significantly to the loss of life in this maritime disaster. The book, “Typhoon: The Other Enemy” by C. Raymond Calhoun (who was the CO of a FARRAGUT Class DD that did survive the storm, tells an incredible story, worth reading for any seagoing professional.

• USS HULL (DD-945) – 1958-1983. This HULL made six deployments to Vietnam, conducting gunfire support, search and rescue, and carrier escort duties. In 1974 and 1975, she was the test platform for the 8″/55cal gun mount, originally envisioned for the SPRUANCE Class Destroyers main battery. While I only heard sea stories of the testing as a junior officer, it seemed the MK68 Gunfire control system was not well suited for the task, thereby degrading the accuracy of the firings. Rumor had it that the Chief Gunner’s mate would apply some “Kentucy Windage” to the firing equation and became a pretty good shot, but the fact that the electronics weren’t up to the task ruled out his personal corrections. Additionally, the forecastle structure had it’s limitations, since the ship hadn’t been designed for such weights on the gun roller path. Once more, rumor had it accuracy suffered. Net result: The program was canceled and the SPRUANCEs went to sea with 5″ guns, which, ironically, were also designed to be light weight, in order to be installed aboard the PF-109/FFG-7 class frigates as the main gun.

To wrap up, it seems odd that we have never elevated Isaac Hull to greater visibility, given his earned reputation as a superior sailor, captain, leader and shipbuilder. I think it is a disgrace that a single DDG-51 could not have been found to honor his history, yet we can manage to name them after living admirals, who’s greatest contribution to the Navy was to manage to get AEGIS installed on many ships. It used to be you had to be dead to have a ship named for you. In the past decades, that trend has obviously changed. At least we will soon see the USS JASON DUNHAM at sea.

I know…everyone is busy (except you retired folk), but today, like the rest of the week will be busy getting orders back for Labor Day to the customers.

I’ll point you elsewhere to feed your need to read:

If you’re not already a fan of the weekly series of “Flight Deck Friday” and you love aviation history, SteelJaw Scribe takes an every 7 day journey down this path in a Naval way. This week, the Navy’s first jet!

CDR Salamander, that mysterious active duty officer provides glimpses of exceptional devotions to duty in naval history in his long running “Fullbore Friday” series, most times the subject being on the US, sometimes engaging stories of navies of other nations. This week: USS Harry Lee (AP-17/APA-10). So what’s an auxiliary got to do with showing some guts? Click here and find out.

I’m off to work, all the while considering how the Navy is turning into a sea going Air Force with such grand adventures as this (damn touchy feely types!) and, how the body count rises, yet we can’t seem to deploy weapons that might cut it down…oh, yeah, on both sides of the equation, for fear of a bad report on CNN to the world, full of ridiculous assertions as discussed here (damn lawyers!).

Now all we need is more “lifer” (and I do mean that in a derogatory way) Congresscritters to pretend they are the President, safely behind the fact they are not the one who has to not only make incredibly complex decisions, but will be the one to shoulder forever, even beyond the grave, the responsibility for such judgment to make the news day complete. Those after the psychologists who tell us what went wrong at VT by not treating our adult offspring like they have no brains and are to be herded about like cattle from now on because of one incident and how the rest of the world needs to know what they are thinking at all times.

Ever notice how there is lots of stress at military schools (show in news, movies and TV shows regularly) and no records (that I know of) mass murder by someone who couldn’t take taking the classes and because people made them feel picked on? Solution: Expand high school and college military schools to grow some adults for the future…and that will be tomorrow’s topic.

Post yer trackbacks here!

Not so much of a “sea story” today as a “war story” to put my context on some recent news….

The dispatch from the 5 NCOs in the 82nd Airborne Division was illuminating, but not necessarily in a complimentary light. The President and many other Government reports say the Surge is bringing results. The NCOs say they see daily problems. So, who’s telling the truth?

Both, I submit and here’s a little personal experience that leads me to this conclusion: I first became a pin cushion for the medics in 1962, in order to move overseas to Okinawa. Off my father packed us up for a two year adventure to see the world. We first lived just west of MCAS Futema, with a few families of Army sargents living next on the same street of a few concrete block houses. Thus began my “indoc” into military life. I played in the sugar cane fields and around the large above ground tombs, occasionally finding artifacts and ordnance left over from a massive conflict not quite 20 years past. We moved about a year later to live on Fort Buckner, housed amongst the Green Berets, the pride of John F, Kennedy.

From our association in these neighborhoods, and the concentrated presence of the military, I began to absorb the first person history of the war in Vietnam. Being in 3rd and 4th grades, I wasn’t much of a newspaper reader or news watcher, so the information came in listening to the adult discussions.

Back home we went for a few years, then off to Guam for 8th through 11th grades (67-71). More massive exposure to the military, this time the Navy and Air Force, with some Marines and Coast Guardsmen sprinkled in. BY now I had pretty much set my life study path on warfare and modern history, and, with the war in Vietnam being larger, I heard more, plus I watched the news and read the papers and news periodicals now. In Boy Scouts, and on sports teams, I had military men as leaders and coaches. I listened to their “war stories.” Being overseas in a large concentration of military bases also brought me “Stars and Stripes” newspapers.

The net result of this is I grew up in the middle of first person accounts of the conditions in Vietnam, from the Special Forces A_Teams, to the Marine who had a three crossbow bolts go past the tree trunk he was sitting against, all the while thinking more mosquitoes were swarming, until he turned to look. Add to that the DoD press of the “Stars and Stripes” generally putting a detailed, yet rosy face on the war, and ladled on top, the stateside media that seemed to tell a story much different than what I was getting from my “other sources.”

Were any of these sources not telling the truth? For the most part, they all told it as they saw it, albeit through the filters they each put on it.  No one author or story teller had access to the “big picture,” even if they claimed to.  Those filters, by default, cause even the most detailed oriented writer to miss the mark.  I believe most people actually comprehend this concept, they just don’t acknowledge it often when they voice their opinions.

My long term reaction? For several decades, I voraciously read all things on Vietnam I could come across. There are many stories and it’s not that they don’t match up, but they tell stories as varied as the direct, uniformed troop combat in I Corps, to the SEALs skulking about in the night among the Viet Cong controlled villages in the Mekong Delta.  To this day, it’s almost like three separate conflicts to me, due to this multi-facted exposure.

The NCOs provide a valuable first person view of the villages they walk, but they do not see all of the story, nor does any one else, yet all of the reports, in this war from bloggers, from bloggers become published authors, to guys with digital video cameras becoming movie producers, and then, those “standard” reporting sources. One day, when we have the time, and the dust has settled and tempers cooled by decades of reflection, we will have a better chance to see what really is happening now, as word of mouth and first person stories at the top, middle and lower levels come forth.

It would be foolish, as I’m sure many with military experience, and those with historical perspectives, to base the overall progress of the war on the reports of 5 well spoken non-commissioned officers, but we would also be foolish to not make significant note of the problems they face daily, indicating there is more good work to be done.

From NewsDay.com, a story of years of inspiration and an email 38 years later that answered some questions. A good read.

My cousin Frankie

How a childhood hero killed in Vietnam was a lifelong inspiration

BY MARIO DE LUCIA

With the inception of home computers and the Web, I began to hunt around for some information about Frankie. I placed my e-mail address on various Marine Corps Web sites and Vietnam blogs, asking for anyone with information to contact me.

I became active with the alumni association of my high school in Patchogue, and over the years have been introduced to many of Frank’s former classmates, teachers and friends. Many of them remember him fondly and all have a story about him that they long to tell. I think of those stories every time I visit that school and see the gray plaque and the eternal flame in the lobby with Frankie’s name and the dozen or so names of other graduates of Patchogue High School who lost their lives in Vietnam.

After the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania, I finally retired from the New York City Police Department. My wife and I relocated our family to the mountains of east Tennessee several years ago. While unpacking, I took a break to check my e-mail. There was one unread message from an unknown person. After opening it, I stared at the stark message, which stated simply: “I was there when he was killed. E-mail me back for more info.” It was signed “Sgt. Doyle Clark.”

[…]

Read the rest for a bittersweet story of family relationships.