In July 1945, the cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk following a top-secret mission to deliver atom bomb components to Tinian Island. This was the bomb dropped on Hiroshima that led to the Japanese surrender, three weeks later. After departing Tinian, the ship’s captain, Captain Charles McVay, set a high speed, direct course toward […]

On September 8, 1827, staged as a tourist attraction, three Niagara hotel owners decorated the schooner Michigan as a pirate ship and sent it over Niagara Falls. On deck were human-like dummies costumed in three corner hats, swords, and eyepatches, as well as two bears, a couple of raccoons, and a dog and a goose. […]

The dry lake beds found throughout Death Valley, called playas, are known for the mystery of its moving rocks. The large rocks, some buried several inches in the lake bed, have left a trail of their movement hundreds of feet long revealing the turns the rocks made. There are no footprints around the rocks to […]

My historical novel, Great Lakes Skipper, is based on the life of my great, great, great, grandfather, Ebenezer Fletcher Stark, who became one of the early settlers of a region south of Lake Erie known as the Western Reserve. Back in 1620, after the establishment of the colonies in North America, the English Crown formed […]

Irving Glick was the creation of my favorite Commanding Officer, Commander John Orrill. CDR Orrill used this fictional character to illustrate his squadron briefings. “Lt Irving might screw up and do this …” or, “I hope you don’t make a mistake like Lt. Glick.” Soon others in the squadron adopted Irving as their own. His […]