Update from the
Heartland
No.715
24.8.15 – 30.8.15
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
This
was not a good week . . . into every life a little darkness comes.
On
Thursday, Channing Samuel Morse [USAFA 1970], 67, died doing one of the things he
truly enjoyed in life – flying.
Details of the incident are rather scarce at the moment. Chan was flying a single-engine, single
place, Piper PA-25 Pawnee tow plane in support of the Wounded Warrior Project,
offering glider flights to disabled veterans. He had completed a glider release and was on approach to Crystal
Airport, Llano, California. The
NTSB is investigating the accident.
Chan served a tour in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War as a combat
search and rescue pilot flying Sikorsky HH-53B/C “Jolly Green Giant”
helicopters – quite a few stories in that service alone. Chan and I were in the same section of
Class 73 at the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and
we remained friends and colleagues since completing our education and
training. As fate would have it,
Chan and I came back together as experimental test pilots with Hughes
Helicopters (McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company, and later Boeing). We worked together on a revolutionary,
digital, fly-by-wire, flight control system in support of the Army’s LHX
program. Chan went to a long list
of major aircraft development and certification programs including various
forms of the NOTAR (NO TAil Rotor) system. When he reached mandatory retirement age, he left Boeing and
started his consulting and pilot services company. Chan was a highly accomplished and skilled pilot. He was the 1988 recipient of the
Experimental Test Pilot Society’s Iven C. Kincheloe Award for his NOTAR work. May God rest your immortal soul,
Chan. You will be sorely missed.
On
Tuesday, Lieutenant General Frank Emmanuel Petersen Jr., USMC (Ret.), 83, passed
away. I knew Frank by reputation,
as a fellow but more senior Marine aviator. I met him, shook his hand and got to know him when I joined
the Board of Directors, National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) in 1991. I knew him as a generous, amicable,
humorous man of considerable wisdom, compassion, insight and presence. Frank made history as the first
American citizen with dark skin pigmentation to become a Marine aviator and
later a Marine general. He served
this Grand Republic through four decades including the tumultuous 60’s and
70’s. The honor of serving the
NMDP mission became all the more exciting and enjoyable with his friendship and
contributions. I strongly
encourage everyone to read and learn his story in Frank’s autobiography, “Into
the Tiger’s Jaw,” published by Presidio Press, 1998. Rest well, my friend . . . you have
earned it.
News from the economic
front:
-- The People's Bank of China (PBC) cut interest rates by another
quarter point and reduced bank-reserve requirements by half a point amid market
turmoil. The Chinese government
continues to struggle with their slowing economy and volatile market
reactions. The rest of us hang-on
and watch.
Comments and contributions from Update no.714:
“Thanks for your
update. Looks like we might have our comms sorted! I’m testing on yourself, my
colonial friend. Your update is the shortest ever and I have missed the opportunity
to put some of my views for what, some months. Ah well let’s see. It’s getting
passed bedtime here you’ll be amused perhaps to hear that my lap top
programme(s) was sorted by a lad in India working for our British Telecom…working
on the telephone and taking command of the lap top.
“Nasty flying
accident here at Shoreham on the south coast where a Hawker Hunter plummeted
onto a busy main road during a display. It was a twin seat Mk7, the pilot
survived critically injured but currently 12 killed in their cars. The
aircraft appeared to loop over the show and then flattened out instead of
climbing away and fell into some trees and the road. I never flew in one but
worked on them on 65 Squadron a Battle of Britain Squadron. A good aircraft.”
My reply:
Amazing
how all this technology works, huh.
So glad, you got things sorted out. Glad to have you back in battery.
Yeah,
the Shoreham accident has been big in the news in the colonies since it
happened. He is not the first
pilot to get caught in such a maneuver.
Rather infamous Thunderbirds solo F-16 accident a few years back . . .
virtually a duplicate. I hope the
investigators get to talk to the pilot.
The
Hunter was a good aircraft. I
never flew it either. The Swiss
had several squadrons and may still be operating them.
Another contribution:
“I have just finished an unsuccessful five-month run for Justice
Court (part time small claims and misdemeanors judge), motivated almost solely
by the revulsion I felt when a few days before the qualifying deadline I had a
chance encounter with the incumbent. I had known him as a mean and
arrogant attorney and for the past fifteen years had heard of his open disdain
for some defendants in the courtroom. His words that February day had
some reference to his verbal admonitions to defendants who used as an excuse
for their debts a delay in receiving their ‘check’ to pay their bills, voicing
a general attitude that I admit sometimes feeling about worthless welfare
recipients who should be working but one that I would never allow to enter into
my dialogue on or off the bench as a general pattern of treatment for an
assumed set of facts. It sparked a recollection of the day sixteen years
ago when he arrived unannounced at my law office to assure me that I need not
run, as urged by some supporters, for the position of the dying incumbent
because he was going to get the job and had some prodigious amount of money
already committed to the campaign. It was classic behavior for him.
He ran. I did not. He got the job. I could not stand
the thought of another four years for him without at least offering a choice
for the electorate.
“It was interesting. His financial report showed that he
received and spent more than three times what I spent of my own funds, I having
announced at the outset that in the interests of an independent
judiciary I would not accept any contributions. His reported
contributors included large gifts from the four-decade Godfather of [anon.] County politics and
several count seat attorneys who were among those sorely disappointed by my
election to replace their favorite state court trial judge twenty-five years
ago and are still smarting from the reforms I put in place in that court.
The incumbent's hundreds of yard signs and larger duplicate roadside
signs were all illegal, lacking any of the required subscription of approval by
any committee or the candidate or any identification of who paid for them,
while many of my modest yard signs disappeared from the yards of my supporters
in his home town. And with a well-organized and financed campaign, he
received more than three times as many votes as I got!
“Oh well, sometimes those ‘egocentric, narcissistic, flamboyant,
arrogant people’ you refer to prevail in our system, but it was worth it to
give the judge a run for his money. I think your friend, my brother Bob
would have been proud of me for trying, if not for being so [family]-like stubborn about
perceived principle.
“My loyal brother-in-law called and lovingly congratulated me for
losing and returning to my hard earned retirement....”
My response:
I
did not intend to strike a nerve; for that, I offer my most humble apologies.
Further,
I shall add my voice to your brother-in-law’s words and congratulate you for an
honorable campaign . . . regardless of the outcome.
Yes,
I acknowledge the assholes often win.
As a side note, I hung up my spurs as an experimental test pilot in
1988, to go into management for one primary reason: to prove you did not have
to be an asshole to success in business.
I failed. Only assholes are
successful. I am content with my
accomplishments, nonetheless.
Your
brother was indeed very proud of you.
He told me in many ways.
. . . follow-up comment:
“How nice of you to respond!
“I didn't mean to suggest that you had struck any nerve, so no
need to apologize.”
A different
contribution:
“In regards to humility, Golda Meir, the former Israeli Prime
Minister used to say, ‘Don't be so humble, you're not that great.’ I think she said that to nobody in
particular.”
My reply:
Oh
my, I certainly recognize my paucity of greatness, however, I have always found
comfort in humility. Further, I
have always found humility a far more admirable trait than arrogance, or worse
bombastic arrogance. I have always
believed in the old adage, let your actions speak for you.
. . . follow-up comment:
“I did not mean to direct my reply to you personally. I
thought that, like me, you and some of your readers would find this somewhat
amusing. I agree with the adage you quoted. Here is one that came
to my mind, from Proverbs 27:2. ‘Let another praise you and not your own
mouth.’”
. . . my follow-up reply:
Thank
you for your concern and explanation.
I did not find any offense or take it personally.
I
had not heard the Meir quote before, so thank you for that as well. This exchange will be in this week’s
Update for the benefit of the readers.
Proverbs
offered the same wisdom in the words of the Good Book.
The last contribution
this week:
“Email kerfuffle, huh? I like your choice of words. I
am baffled as well, but certainly more than somewhat. I am extremely
baffled. Aside from one thinking they are above the law, I really don’t
understand how this could happen. Certainly many of those in the State
Department must have known something was not right. When dealing with
classified material, as you and I have both done over the years, we know fully
the consequences of mishandling classified material. But still, I am
puzzled as to how someone in the State Department could think that the volumes
of sensitive information they deal with, sending and receiving, would not be classified.
But I think I may be getting off track. There was protocol in place for
there not to exist personal email accounts with which to conduct State
Department business, and forms to sign acknowledging such. I know what
happens when I do not sign the acknowledgment form—I lose my job. And why
is there such difficulty in recovering the lost emails? It is ludicrous
to think the Hillary server was not backed up by Platte River. You or I
would be sitting in jail right now had we conducted ourselves in the manner in
which some people at the State Department have done. Please believe me
when I say it is painfully difficult to ask without expletives what the heck is
going on with our State Department? Where is the leadership for an
organization that must espouse integrity at the highest level? Blood
pressure rising. Better call it quits for now.”
My response:
Good
observation. Having spent some
time on the dark side, our working papers, notes and such – precursors of
actual published documents – were always considered classified at the highest
of the source material involved, until the product document could be evaluated,
and properly and appropriately classified. That was back in the days of pencils and typewriters, before
electronic media. I can’t imagine
the rules are appreciably different today.
We
do not have the details of specific, applicable conversations back when
SecState Clinton decided she was not going to abide State Dept. or USG policy,
but likewise, I cannot imagine some conversation between Hillary and security
folks when she decided to conduct her business on a separate, private server,
not under the control of USG IT security professionals.
As
SecState, her thoughts by themselves could easily be considered highly classified
regardless of any labeling.
Further, there is no way to label on-going communications, thus they
should be considered classified until determined otherwise. The SecState IS A SOURCE, not an analysis
product, and had to be a highly classified source.
Bottom
line: her decision to mix personal and private electronic media on her private
server was wrong, full stop!
Whomever enabled her in doing so was also wrong. To me, it was the arrogance of
privilege, quite akin to the royal prerogative – I am not a fan.
My
very best wishes to all. Take care
of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
