The first phase of my Navy flight training involved 16 weeks of instruction called Preflight. There was no flying during that time. It was the equivalent of Officer Candidate School and included a grueling indoctrination week some referred to Hell Week. There were 46 of us, all college graduates with one exception. The exception was […]

The September 2nd issue of the Herald-Times newspaper featured a fascinating story about ancient warriors on the mid-Mediterranean island of Mallorca who 2,000 years ago BC used to sling stones at invading Romans. They could sling the rocks with such force they could punch holes in the hulls of the Roman ships. The article also […]

  The glider course I had signed up for at the Lookout Mountain Hang Glider School included several days of training on a hill where we would practice launches by running off the top of the hill to get airborne, controlling the glider’s direction in the descent, and then learning how to swing our feet […]

“Rosie” is the name of my motorcycle. That’s really a nickname because the full name was: Rocinante” the name of Don Quixote’s horse—of Man from La Mancha fame. I had five motorcycles over the years, and the “Rosie” christening didn’t actually occur until my second to last Honda Goldwing. Sometimes while spending hours in the saddle […]

I met Suzanne Giesmann and her husband Ty in 2009, after Suzanne had published her book, “Living a Dream” about her and her husband sailing a boat around the world. Suzanne had retired as a navy Commander and had been an Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Wow, impressive! Ty was […]