Welcome to Log Entries by Tracy D. Connors
Airman Recruit Tracy Connors during Boot Camp at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Enlisting in the Naval Air Reserve, he was an Airman (E-3) before he was 18 years old.
One of the first things I was
trained to do when I joined the Navy as an Airman Recruit, was the
importance of entering important information in "the Log Book."
When I thought of a title for a
series of postings on various subjects about which I have opinions or
some personal interest, the log book came to mind.
I will be continually adding to
these postings from current events and from jottings I have prepared
over the years, but never had the proper forum in which to share
them--until now.
As you enjoy Log Entries, if you
would like to add a comment or clarification, please feel free to do
so. Simply send it along to belleairepress@earthlink.net We'll add your
"Amended Log" to that entry.
Most Recent Log Entry Postings...
Tim O’Keefe was a highly decorated combat veteran whose bravery and sacrifice were largely unknown because so much of what he did was and is, classified. He was a hero to his staff and associates based on what we saw of his vision and leadership to take the surface Navy into the 21st century. Only much later did we come to know something of what he had accomplished during combat operations far removed from those usually seen in a “surface warrior.” More...
Our Marines brought their brothers back from “Frozen Chosen” on the hoods of their trucks. The Air Force and Army brought their dead back from Vietnam, and after “Blackhawk Down.” The silent promise and a national commitment that no one is left behind has been upheld on all our hallowed battlefields, and the countless other locations around the world where American service men and women have defended Freedom. Until now! More...
Servicemen and women who may be killed in combat are promised that
“every effort will be made to see they are recovered and returned with
all the dignity and honor they deserve.” After waiting over 55
years, one small Massachusetts town is calling for the government to
“bring Ensign Ron Eaton home.” In fact, the government has had a
“don’t ask, don’t search” policy in place regarding Korean War KIA’s
for over two years—despite improved relations between the two countries. More...
America
has not even asked to talk to the government of North Korea about when
and where KIA remains searches can be resumed...in over two years. More...
After
55 years, Wilmington, Massachusetts is out of patience with lack of
government action to search for its most famous home town hero, Ensign
Ron Eaton, who was one of three airmen killed in the Korean War's
deadliest helicopter rescue mission.
More...
When the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV A-42) was towed toward the oblivion of the scrap yard in 1978, she consisted of some 65,000 tons of obsolete steel and equipment ¬but she left many more tons of memories with the tens of thousands of Navy men who had served aboard her during her 32 years of commissioned service. More...
For almost a hundred years, now, America has devoted a day--the day the guns fell silent to end the First World War--to honor and remember--the American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and other members of our armed services who have fought for--and protected--our country—and the right to freedom and self-determination around the world for over two hundred years.
Across our nation, we join in remembering and reflecting reflect on the service and sacrifices of American veterans of all our country’s conflicts.
I believe it’s a case of “sustema,” Doc.
Sustema?
Yeah, sustema, a composite whole, a Greek word we got from the Romans—only now we call it “systems.”
Oh, systems. But I don’t understand what that’s got to do with your feelings of helplessness, anger, alienation and nausea, especially when you see your Social Security Number.
Just that morning I had
been a carefree kid just starting the First Grade; now, I was almost a
convicted felon who was choosing self-preservation over “doing the
right thing.” Right there, in the sand lot of North Shore Elementary
School, of an autumn afternoon in nineteen hundred and forty five, I
sinned for the first time…not by accident, not by chance, but
deliberately.
Once in a while, however, the stifled snores would be cut short—a
clanging in the building next door would begin a measured cadence of
chimes—several short bongs, followed by several more. The bell
telegraph in the fire station next door—Engine 15 was being summoned to
duty.
He was still burning rubber IN FIRST when we sailed past Pearl
Street and Lucky Drive...he was IN SECOND and reaching the lower limits
of Mach something or other when we blew through Pearl Street and
Tallulah Avenue...darned near taking the doors off old "Doc" Brown's
pharmacy and potion palace.
Rev. Tom Collins liked to laugh...a lot...it was one of his most endearing qualities.
His
business associates called him "Mr. Connors," or "Old Man
Connors." His friends and relatives called him, "Arch." His
employees, when he wasn't present, called him "Fire-in-the-Hole."
Recollections on Jacksonville's old Springfield Branch Library at Tenth
and Silver Streets in the historic Springfield neighborhood. Deep down
inside I question whether the “trade off” of gaining so much
information so quickly is that we have lost the ability to discern the
important difference between data and knowledge. I wonder whether we
have sacrificed truth for timely. If so, we are by far the losers
in that trade. I cannot agree that today’s “information technician” is
more important that Mrs. Porter, the Priestess of the Temple of
Knowledge at Tenth and Silver.
Why doesn't Jacksonville, Florida, a "town" of over one million souls,
have a history museum? Isn’t it time that we reclaim the spirit and the
legacy of the City
of Jacksonville and its historic Springfield community? Isn't it time
that
Jacksonville earned its own “Legacy Preservation” merit badge, even as
it makes major strides as a city down its own “Eagle Trail”?
Stories
and recollections from her memorial service about Eva Connors’ life,
her warmth, her boundless love and devotion to her family, friends and
church—and of her faith and what it meant to her. Collectively,
they tell the story of how she lived well in the quiet routines of
life. How she served her family and the families of others to the
very best of her many abilities. How she filled a little space
because God willed it…and filled it…and filled it…and filled it…with
love…and patience…and humor…and generosity…and thoughtfulness…and that
hard-to-define quality that our younger generation simply describes as
“being there for you.”
While
transiting the Straits of Gibraltar in 1963, at midnight and running at
25 knots, the USS F. D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), loses electrical power to
the bridge. The young Officer of the Deck Underway must depend on
nothing but the "Mark 1, Mod 2 eyeball" to avoid colliding with another
ship in the crowded "choke point" entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It
was a "hairy," memorable watch aboard the Fru Dee Roo.
A strange combination of neverbefore seen signal flags from an
approaching destroyer baffles the Roosevelt's bridge watch team. But
there was to be an "Ah Ha!"
After
serving on the House Armed Services for decades and as Chairman of the
Seapower and Strategic Materials Sub-Committee, in 1980 Charlie Bennett
was the third senior member of the House of Representatives and the
second in seniority on the Armed Services Committee. At lunch he
asked me to serve as his Chief of Staff. It meant leaving an
interesting, fulfilling position as VP of Taft Corporation in
Washington, D.C. It was decision time.
My
personal "Eagle Trail" to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout depended on
surviving my first camping trip (doubtful) and somehow getting enough
money together to buy a real Scout uniform. To
this day I don't believe in miracles, much less that money grows on
trees; but, when I was 12, the nearest thing to a miracle that ever
happened to me--happened to me in the crepe myrtle bush that grew at
the end of our driveway. The Crepe Myrtle Miracle changed my life.
|