CHALLENGES IN THIS DIGIT WORLD WE LIVE IN

Well I knew I would get back to blogging sooner or later, but many things got in my way. It has been seven months since my last post and I have been busy. There are many juicy topics out there −the Islamic State and Bowe Bergdahl are still in the news.  I could have blogged about our celebration on the 23rd of December of Festivus. Then there is the topic of the dwindles, and my mother-in-laws recent passing. But I have posted on death and mortality before so I wanted a new direction.

Yesterday I learned that we generate over 100 billion emails a day. Yes, that is billion with a b and not million with an m. My brother, claims to get a billion of them daily and I get a scant million. So we have a well-accepted (although I will contend otherwise below) form of digital communication. Yes, electromagnetic mail messaging is here. Well, sort of, as in case of our recent local Festivus Celebration when I sent out three emails to our invitees and then had to follow up by phone. Linda and I could not believe that our small home would hold the 52 people who showed up.

Now I hardly ever write a check. We pay bills and do banking on-line and use our American Express and MasterCard credit cards. Then there is Google Wallet, but that is a topic for a later time. 

So emails, texting, and instant messaging have replaced snail mail which these days seem to only contain junk mail from local merchants. My Inbox has become an In-bin. My land line and mobile get a host of Rachel calls, so I often don't even answer the land line.  It is not an issue today, as the line is dead. We had an unusual power outage a few days ago and I suspect also a power surge. So now it is silent. 

Back to the subject of emails. I will tell you a story.  

A CAUTIOUS AND APOCRYPHAL TALE FOR OUR TIME. A STORY ABOUT THE BROTHERS GRIMM AND A GRIM STORY.   

The Grimm family lived in Burlington, Vermont. They raised all boys. The boys like to get together at least once a year. Bruce Grimm decided to have his brothers join him in the family hunting lodge in Montana in a couple of months.  So he decided to send the invitations out, you guessed it, by email.

By sending it out he would have the time and day it was sent on his copy of the message.  He decided to use one of those electronic invitations where you could click on the received email to register whether you could attend or not. Maybe also send a gift, but he knew that was not necessary this time. He just wanted to know who would make it out to the Big Sky Country.

First there was Bob in Phoenix. He was sure he would come to get out of the heat. Well, Bob had Comcast for cable and internet. The company that is often rated in the pits. You know the one which is linked to NBC and Universal and has swallowed Time Warner. Bob never got the email because in a fit of pique he stopped paying his bill. He knew any of his friends or family knew how to reach him in an emergency. 

Bill was in San Francisco in the land of the fruits and nuts (which now has a drought according to Moonbeam so will have little of the first and less of the second.) He did get the email message in his in-bin and recognizing his brother's name and wanting to get somewhere where was a least some water, clicked on yes and assumed it would get back to Bruce. He was in. 

Basil in Chicago, got the email, and decided to wait. After all it wasn't for a couple of months, and he could send the acceptance then. Plans do change. So no email now.

Barry who lived in New York City when he wasn't in Mexico running guns, saw the invite and clicked "NO." He wouldn't give his brother the satisfaction of a visit.  He was e-strange-d from his brother and did not want to attend.

Byron, who hung his hat in Miami was in. He would do anything to get away from those gun-running Cubans.

Bacchus, lived in Boston and was the family alcoholic; he would attend any party where there was booze. But he saw the email and decided not to respond. He would send a letter when he sobered up. And the other Boston denizen, Baker, did not even have the courtesy to reply. Must be the smell of the Sam Adams brewery.

Bailey, just over the line in Keene, New Hampshire, saw the email and just clicked that he wouldn't attend.

Ben, Bruce’s favorite from Columbia, Maryland, played trumpet and guitar and normally would be the entertainment.  But, alas, he had a gig out of town and could not make it back in time.

Brian, from the City of the Angels, didn't even get the email. Guess it was because of a wrong email address.

Ballard- apparently lost the message in his LA in-bin. Billy, another Angelino with a meh attitude, just deleted the whole message.

So Bruce tallied up the damages. Yesses, sort of: Bill, Basil, and Byron, and maybe Bacchus. That was five including him.

No-shows included Bob, Barry, Baily, Ben, Baker, Brian, Ballard, and Billy. Well it certainly was their loss.  Eight, he made a mental note to reevaluate this shindig next year.

 Lessons learned: He should have had each of them send an email to him, WHEN they received his invite, not days or weeks later. He would now have to check his file, long depleted of accurate phone numbers, and sigh, call each of them. He hoped he didn't have to snail mail them also. You just never know with family.

As people say with family outings, “Wait until next year.”

Reflections on an early Sunday morning in September

Civilization on a Sunday Morning in mid-September 2014
Good Morning – it is 0622 in Columbia Maryland in the United States of America. I wake up after a dreamless night of sleep, but a somewhat restful sleep. I wanted to pen these first thoughts before I checked the news. Yesterday we received news of a beheading of the third innocent Western person by the Islamic State.
Based on my seventy-years of life in civilized society, I am very troubled by the recent events in the Middle East. Yes, I have been trained in the military. I served for thirty nine years in the United States Navy. Honorably. I retired fifteen years ago.
But more importantly, I was educated in a profession. I am a medical doctor. For me that is calling and I took an oath to do no harm.
I awake to hear the birds chirp and the sky to lighten. It is morning.
I have not heard the news this morning. My last thoughts at midnight were from a live broadcast from BBC television from the United Kingdom. I learned of the hasty meetings of leaders in the U. K. and the U. S. A.
This is shaping up as nothing less that Civilization versus the uncivilized. It is organized and functioning countries facing a threat of internal insurrection. No it is not Christians and Jews against Muslims. Most Muslims are well functioning members of civilized countries. Even the pope, has weighed in. BBC has learned that he had called this fragmented World War Three. His ancestors have fought in world wars before. To me, even religion will be called up on to take sides.
This is not simply a series of actions in an uncivilized part of the world. It is a global threat. To civilization as we know it. I do not think that I over dramatize this. As my Internet is down I cannot access the World Wide Web. So I turned to a print dictionary in my book case. It is a Webster’s dictionary of many decades ago. It defines threat as “an expression of an intent to inflict evil.” British Prime Minister David Cameron referred to this latest event as “evil.”
Civilized man and woman will discuss these events today around the world. Even down under where Australia yesterday expressed concern. It seems to be a major issue for the world’s youth. Many unemployed and unengaged in meaningful activities. Frightening. I am sure that many of the world’s population will pray on this. It is Sunday morning and I expect churches will be filled with anxious people looking to our God for guidance. Even Pope Francis has said that war is not a satisfactory approach to organized, or unorganized evil.
So as I reflect on my own seventy-five years, I am worried. I too, will turn to God for guidance. I know this situation will affect all of us. No one will be able to sit on the side lines this time.
The sky is lightening and somewhere close the sun is up. I will take a break, reread this stream of consciousness and meditate and pray. Really. For eternal guidance.
As I sum up, I can hear a jet plane on an early morning flight. Now another. People on their way across this globe. Immediately it reminds me of that morning thirteen years ago when the passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Now it seems to be symbols of our business, military and life that were attacked. I will take a break, eat breakfast and reenter our world. It is 0727.

D Day Plus Seventy

D- DAY PLUS SEVENTY  --   FROM LINCOLN TO BERGDAHL 

FRI 6 June 14, 2014 1724  

Today is D Day plus 70.  As one who was born in the late 1930s it is interesting to contrast the world today as compared with seventy years ago.  I don’t pretend to have a special insightful view of the changes in our daily lives, but I was struck on some observations reading the Washington Post over the last few days.

On the day allied forces landed in the beaches of Normandy, our nation was engaged in one of the most vociferous and costly wars this young nation had ever faced.  At the time it seemed that the whole fabric of Western civilization hung in the balance.  As a small child growing up on southern Long Island I certainly didn't realize the significance of the battles beyond my family’s fears as spelled out in the daily newspapers.  But I do remember the air raids then when I hid under a table in my home as my parents turned out all the lights.  The air raid warden was making her rounds to underscore the necessity of our responses as there were German submarines lurking just off the coast of New York.  Guess it was true.

Korea came and went.  I did not have a dog in that fight and maybe being a teenager I thought I had more important things to do, like fitting in, girls and may be college?

Viet Nam was different.  It was personal.  I had been in the Navy and flew off of Atlantic Fleet aircraft carriers, I believed in the mission.  My brother was serving two tours of in-county Vietnam and saw combat as a helicopter pilot and was wounded.  He received multiple awards and ribbons, but also saw the terrible consequences of a combat culture.  He and his unit had confronted Lieutenant Calley when the young Infantry lieutenant took the hostilities into his own hands and seemed hell bent on exterminating the North Vietnamese and civilians he encountered.  This was My Lai and photographers recorded the senseless slaughter.   Hundreds were reported killed.  A confrontation ensued between Calley and the pilot in my brother’s unit who landed and tied to stop Calley.  Several Vietnamese were rescued and a report was forwarded up the chain of command of this atrocity.  Somehow this report was lost, but the pilot who had this dust off with Calley and others on the ground were heard and a commission headed by General William Peers did investigate this debacle.  Pulitzer Prize award winning journalist Seymour Hersh chronicled this sad chapter of our history in dispatches on the war.

Today I remembered another chapter in this saga.  A good friend and my late son’s Godfather also perished in Vietnam.  He was flying when he was picked off by a chance shot by a ground fighter.  He was one of the good guys right?  We both were loyal Americans serving our country’s and our best interests.  Correct?  It just didn't seem fair.  I cried long and hard when his brother called me and told me the horrible news.  It was a just war, wasn't it?

Iraq came and we committed troops for another fight.  It was followed by conflict in Afghanistan.   We are told that we will be out of Afghanistan and turning the hostilities over to the Afghans by the end of this year.  We will see.   Late journalist Michael Hastings wrote a great book on the generals in these wars (The Operators).   He was as a gifted young journalist who tragically died in an auto accident about a year ago.  His tome is thought provoking and a good read.

Now we have Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who was traded for five Taliban warriors a few days ago.   He had been held by the Taliban for over five years during these late days of American involvement in a place nearly a half a world away.  It is very controversial to the American public, especially the military.  Was Bergdahl a deserter and a traitor?  It seems clear that he left his post on possibly multiple occasions and had views on the war that did not support our role.  We do not have a lot of facts except he apparently was very ill and the Obama Administration felt that it was best to get him home.  In an iconic photo in today’s Washington Post, the President is shown from the back with his arms around Bowe Bergdahl’s parents.  Remember that he is a sitting US President who brought home a controversial soldier who left his post and was captured in this controversial war.

We have covered a lot of ground of American wars over the past seventy years.  Why am I interested?  Partly genes, partly because of the lessons we have to learn about man’s insatiable need to war within our species.  According to presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin President Abraham Lincoln put his cabinet together from his rivals in the 1860 Republican primary (Team of Rivals).  Lincoln’s primary rival was his future Secretary of State, William Henry Seward who he finally beat on the last ballot.  The two men were close and author John M. Taylor highlighted this kinship in a well-researched and annotated book, (William Henry Seward - Lincoln’s Right Hand).  I owe my middle name to my progenitor, aka Uncle Henry.  So said my mother.  What do I know?  The things you learn at the dinner table.

Lincoln had his share of problems with his generals in the Civil War.  The lines of communication were simpler, but subject to individual reporting through the press which was very controlled.

As a nation, which had suffered Pearl Harbor and the threat of Hitler, we were much more united by D Day.   Electronic and print journalist Tom Brokaw (The Greatest Generation) looked back on D Day in 1984 and proffered that the World War Two generation’s perseverance through difficult times set the tone for the greatest generation.  Yes, this was before television and the Internet.  Opinion makers were fewer and more concentrated in our country’s population centers and Big Media. 

Still there were some doubts.  CBS brought General and past President Dwight Eisenhower back to Normandy in 1964.  The former Allied Commander on that fateful June 6, 1944 day viewed the crosses in the US cemetery at Saint Laurent and reportedly said, “We must find some way…to gain an eternal peace for this world.”

We are now fifty years after our entry into Southeast Asia and Viet Nam.  As my generation’s war, we were committed to the mission, but I know few, who served in the military during that time who were born in the 1930s and 1940s, who do not now have misgivings about our involvement in that faraway place whose culture we never did really understand.  Are we the confused generation?

Iraq and Afghanistan occurred for us in the Internet generation.  The public which was interested had an unfettered access to facts and opinions on the wars.    As Michael Hastings reported President Obama fired General Stanley McCrystal and effectively ended the careers of several other four star officers.  

But now, the press is embedded in combat units and can report instantaneously on the activities of the troops during fighting and even during liberty.  Anything is grist for the mill.

Which brings to Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.  Michael Hastings first reported on him several years ago in the Rolling Stone.  According to Hastings, the sergeant was emailing his parents with his disillusionment with the war.  Imagine that.  Instant communications.  Sure changes the calculus.

Lincoln and Eisenhower did not have to contend with the hyper-connected world that Obama has to.  Still civilian control of the military is of paramount importance, as is an open and unfettered press.  The press will have increased pressure to report only those things that are in the public interest.  That will continue to be a difficult call and challenge to the government to constantly assess what needs to be kept from the public currently.  We will hopefully be a power for good in an increasingly conflicted world.

The Bergdahl saga has many more news cycles to go.  We should be patient for ultimately only careful review by the powers that be will tell us more details.  History will provide a more balanced view of this enigma in an Internet era.

Why am I interested?  I was born in 1939 and a world away from current technology and its implications.  As the first father and leading prophet of the electronic age Marshall McLuhan said in 1977 “The Medium is the Message.”  Think about it. 

-ooo-

Douglas Seward Lloyd was in the military from 1961 to 1999 first as a Naval Flight Officer and later as a Medical Officer. He served in the active duty and reserve Navy and retired in 1999 as a Navy Captain.

He was trained as a physician and spent most of his forty year career in government public service at the state and national level in addition to his time in the military.  He lives in Columbia, Maryland where he is semi-retired.  He likes to blog, a new found interest.

UPDATE on Thursday 31 July 2014 - As I was retyping this today and correcting some grammatical errors, I checked the Web and saw the US House Armed Services Committee passed a non-binding resolution two days ago condemning the President for the swap of Bergdahl for the five Taliban prisoners.  It will be considered by the full House and Senate just before the fall Congressional elections.  Still haven't heard from the US Army except that he has been returned to full active duty.

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A Great American is Laid to Rest in Arlington National Cemetary

Bugles sounded once again at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday as a great American was laid to rest. Jeremiah Denton joined his brothers and sisters at arms in a solemn ceremony at our premier national resting place for Americans who are true heroes.  He has served his country and served well.  I did not know him but I wish I had. He was an Rear Admiral, US Senator, Naval Aviator, Gentleman, and not necessarily in that order.  He was also a Father, Son, Brother, Grandfather, and Patriot.

Our paths never crossed but they might have.  I only remember him as a member of our club, Navy fliers. And we had served in our squadron VC/VAW-12 but at different times. We were the eyes of the fleet.

He had an illustrious career and lived in Virginia Beach until his death at age 89 on March 28th of this year. Like many other Navy fliers he epitomized the values of our country and retired to a community where many of our shipmates settled after duty.   It was a friendly community where former and retired military folks could feel at home.

He's the one who served his country in battle and as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton  He is remembered famously for blinking T-O-R-T-U-R-E during an interview with a Japanese television reporter while at that infamous abode during his imprisonment.  Other prominent Naval Aviators there included late Vice Admiral and Naval Aviator James Stockdale who ran for Vice-President and John McCain who also became a US Senator.  Admiral Stockdale who spent a incredible four years in solitary and 7 1/2 years as a POW received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits. Senator John keeps watch over the veterans interests now.  A daunting task.  For that he deserves another medal.

So much is happening in our county now, that we must not forget those who fought for us.

Admiral Denton:  Jeremiah Andrew Denton, Jr.  was born 15 July 1924 in Mobile to Irene Steele Denton and Jeremiah Andrew Denton Senior.  He was the oldest of three boys and I am embarrassed to say I never read his book or know about his parents.  They must have been a strongly positive influence in his life.  He attended McGill Institute and Spring Hill College in Mobile. It was war time  probably the last great one for us, when he went to our Canoe Club, the US Naval Academy.  Due to the need for recruits for WW II he had entered the USNA in 1943 and graduated in the accelerated class in 1947.  He didn't make that one but did qualify as a blimp and fixed wing pilot.  He served in a variety of aircraft including one of the predecessor aircraft to the WF-2 or E-1B where I spent many a hour on aircraft carriers and in the air.  He was also a test pilot, flight instructor and commanding officer of an attack squadron and was in his plane, the A-6 Intruder when he was shot down. His area of specialty was Naval Operations and Strategy in the era of the big aircraft carrier.  While he was a giant in Naval lore and tactics during the mid fifties, his value today is that he is a patriot and a role model for future Naval Officers.  For his service he received the Navy Cross, two Distinguished Service Medals, three Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Bronze Star for Valor and the Purple Heart.  He had other accolades and you can search the web for that as I did.

He wrote a book titled, When Hell Was in Session.  It was made into a movie in 1979 with actor Hal Holbrook playing the leading role as the admiral.  I intend to find it.

Now, it is not my intent to use this blog to proselytize for any particular point of view or political philosophy, but it just strikes me that a lot is happening in our world around the clock that is interesting to reflect on.  Maybe I can get a dialogue on our great land and what we stand for as it is clear the times are a changing.

First of all we must honor those patriots who served so we can enjoy the best quality of life in we have ever seen. Thankfully we won't see another war like the Second World one unless we decided to exterminate life as we know it.  Personalty I don't think we will see another Vietnam, but we did see incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Those who actually served in those wars that I know, don't feel about them like noted TV journalist Tom Brokaw --who who wrote about the greatest generation-- has observed about that generation.

Now we have Bowe Bergdahl and terrorists who blow- up airliners if even a mistake and a horrible one if it was.  Sergeant Bergdahl was sick and may still be sick, I don't know and don't intend to use this blog to ply my clinical training as a doctor.  I know as a military man, and I still consider myself as one but not a combat veteran, the US Army needs to investigate that debacle and let the public know what happened when he left his post.  From this side of the pond, it seems like the US Army had its share of problems in-country Afghanistan, no too dissimilar to those reported out of Vietnam.  But then again, we sailors spend most of our time off shore where the conditions are better than in a foxhole or where ever one is bivouacked in these "police actions."  We used that term in Korea and it probably applies to the next three or so combat actions.our nation was involved in.

Then we had terrorists killing in cold blood 289 innocent civilians who did nothing more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our sometimes friend and former cold war adversary says, "Who me ?" But social media caught his armored missile carriers slinking back to home.  Can't hide anymore.

How about our allies who wage war by shelling the homes of their enemy.  Don't know about you, but I feel very uncomfortable about that.  Hope Secretary Kerry can broker a cease-fire there, but the whole area is a snake pit.  I think ISIS is another word for viper.

Courage, conviction in a set of positive values, an ethical framework, good health practices which leads to resilience and honor to our fore-bearers are paramount to all of us.  In a former life I was a Boy Scout and we were taught that we were to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The Boy Scouts are not as popular as they were forty years ago, but the world is changed.  And we need to change with it.  Our values shouldn't.

To Admiral Denton.  BRAVO ZULU.  You have served us well.  I for one will tip one for you in a few months at our squadron reunion.  I know you will be there in spirit.
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The passing of a friend and memories of a half century ago

The passing of Navy shipmates and the reexamination of one's life  FRI 4 APR 2014

This week has been an interesting one for me as I lost a good friend from cancer.  Lou Rell  was a close friend whom I served with over forty years ago and while we were not in touch except at squadron reunions, his passing caused me to remember the good times together and our mutual friends.  In this era of the Internet, staying in touch is easier but not as personal as getting together.

Lou was a pilot in the squadron, VAW-12 which is an aircraft carried based unit which provides airborne surveillance of ships and aircraft.  This was before the wide use of satellites and GPS based navigation systems.  Lou served in the 1960s and followed up his time in the Navy with a career with TWA, the now defunct international airline where he retired as a captain.  He frequented a bachelor pad known as the Red Feather Inn just around the corner from my apartment on Willoughby Spit in Norfolk, VA across the bay from our squadron home.  His web site and a funeral home connection from the Internet provided a treasure trove of pictures and remembrances from Lou's life and from other members from the squadron.  It was a link to the past that brought up many a pleasant memory of our time flying and relaxing together.  Our aircraft the E1B "Willy Fudd" included the two pilots up front and the two air controllers in the two back seats.  VAW-12 was based at the Norfolk Naval Air Station and aboard about a half a dozen aircraft carriers in the 1960s which deployed to the North Atlantic, other East Coast ports and counties on the Mediterranean Sea.

Using the Internet and email I contacted many of our shipmates.  Lee Edmonston was a close friend who lives in Virginia Beach (I live in Columbia, MD).  Lee and I came through training in the 60s as Naval Flight Officers and Lee and I stay in close touch.  Lou and Lee frequently flew together and were on liberty (what we called off duty time) when the ship was in port.

Jodi Rell, Lou's wife had been Governor of Connecticut.  While it had been years after I was the Connecticut State Health Commissioner, Jodi and I knew many of the politicians  and enjoyed sharing stories when we got together at squadron reunions.

Then about two days ago I read a front page article in the Washington Post  of the death of a prominent Alabama citizen, Senator (1981 to 1987) and retired Read Admiral Jeremiah Denton.  He is famously remember for his eight years as a prisoner of war (1965 to 1973) and subsequent release in the 80s.  His jet had been shot in 1965 in Vietnam and several propaganda films of him were shown in the U.S as a POW.  In one clip he blinked his eyes in Morse Code the word "torture," missed by his captors but picked up by the CIA and military men.  Again I went to the Internet and sure enough he had served as a pilot in our squadron in 1954. 

I was discussing this flood of memories with a psychologist a few days ago and I told him that, due to my serious illness last year, I wondered if I was also reevaluating my life.  He remarked that it was common to spend time think about one's life in the senior years, especially in the 70s and 80s.

I know the brain does not store many events of the past in everyday conscious memory.  Long ago events may be triggered into consciousness by association with other memories and sensory input.  This is why you may remember events of your childhood when smelling a baking apple pie. 

For me, the Internet offered me a rich panoply of names, dates, events, and even feelings.  I am getting interested in Facebook and that has provided me with another avenue of associations, but had also provided with thoughts on privacy and the unreliable factor of Internet postings.  Lately I have thought about the use but limitations of the Internet and our current technology.

This will be the a future topic for my blog.  For now this is enough.