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Sunday, March 10, 2024

I, Soldier - part 38

 I was initially optimistic when Reagan became president. Iran freed our hostages the day he was inaugurated. Reagan gave eloquent speeches and talked a good game about reducing government spending. He never actually got around to that part though. Instead, he shoveled more money into the military-industrial complex and got us into a proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Hundreds of our Marines were killed by a suicide truck bomb in Lebanon shortly after Reagan deployed them there. That misadventure didn't stop Reagan from bombing Libya a few years later. I was left with a terrible feeling that the US would one day be involved in another long quagmire in the Middle East similar to one in Vietnam.

Alexandra was not a fan of Reagan either. She didn't think a former actor was qualified to lead a nation, even if he had been the governor of California beforehand. I noted that Reagan was a Democrat as a governor but then switched parties when he ran successfully for president. It was another piece of evidence to support my theory that the ideal political strategy is to be a flip-flopper. In fiction, this idea was presented in 1984 where the totalitarian government of Oceania falsifies its own past newspapers and such to cover up its inconsistencies.

I turned 38 in 1983. It was good year for me. I bought a TRS-80 computer to replace my Underwood typewriter. Pioneer 10 passed Neptune and so set a new record for the greatest distance traveled by a manmade object. Alexandra and I watched the launch of the Challenger space shuttle in Cape Canaveral. She insisted our kids wear earmuffs for the launch, though we were so far away, it was about as loud as a fireworks show. It was a night launch; the first of its kind. It was in incredible to see that orange plume of flame from the engines against the pitch-black sky. It was like a reverse shooting star seen from up close.

The election of Thatcher was encouraging. It was nice to see a new conservative leader in Britain, and a woman to boot. Despite decades of Soviet subversion, Britain had not fallen to communism. If anything, the USSR was failing. They bought 10 million tons of grain from us in 1973. Later, Carter put an embargo on grain exports to the USSR as a punishment for invading Afghanistan. Reagan, despite his tough-on-communism rhetoric, campaigned on lifting the ban, and so easily won the farmer vote in all the midwestern states. Just as no one expected Nixon to open up diplomatic relations with red China, no one expected an ex-Democrat to lift a grain export ban on our arch-nemesis. 

On the whole, as I entered statistical midlife, at least according to actuarial tables, I felt at peace. I had a wife and children, no health or money concerns, and the painful memories of my time overseas had greatly dimmed. I continued to be thankful that I left the Army with all the body parts I came in with. So many others weren't nearly as lucky. Reconnecting with my mother was a risky move, but worth it. To keep my spirits up, I taped a quote to Alexandra's picture on my nightstand so they would be the first things I'd see every morning. That quote is:

***
The key to happiness is freedom and the key to freedom is courage.
-Thucydides
***

THE END

I, Soldier - part 37

Once, Quint was sleepless. So I held him in my lap, and we watched TV together until the sign-off message came. The national anthem played, the Iwo Jima flag raising statue was shown, and Quint drifted off to sleep not long after. I did the same thing with Cathy a few times. The Star-Spangled Banner seemed to comfort them both. Alexandra spoke with me one time after one of these incidents.

"When we talk, I'm usually the one asking the questions. What questions do you have for me?"

"When we first met, you were dressed as a hippie. Are you?"

"No, in fact, my father served in the Army in WW2, just like yours. I was raised in a conservative, patriotic home. That's why my parents sent me to Catholic school. I told you that the first night we spent together."

"Oh right, I forgot. Sorry. My life has been a long, strange journey and I forget important details sometimes."

"Clearly. Keep talking."

"What do you believe about politics and religion?"

"I'm skeptical of organized religion in general and anything else that seeks to demean women. For similar reasons, in politics, I favor the liberal side."

"What's so great about them? The first state to give women the right to vote was Wyoming. It was also the first place in the world to give women the right to vote. That place is hardly a liberal Mecca. Cowboys can be surprisingly progressive."

"I did not know any of that. Tell me more."

"Wyoming is the center of my spiritual universe. I love that place. Great scenery, friendly people, and plenty of space if you just want to be left alone. I passed through there a few times."

"Do you like living in a city like DC?"

"It's OK. There are advantages to living here. I prefer to be wild and free. I got used to that in the jungle."

"It seems like you miss the jungle, as you call it."

"Yeah. It was the time of my life where I felt like I was doing something important, something special."

"You're doing important things now; by being my husband and a father to our children."

"I tell myself that life is a special operation. It helps me carry on."

"Keep carrying on. Don't give up, soldier. Ever thought about going on a new adventure? It could be good for you."

"Maybe years from now, when our kids don't need me to take care of them. I'd like to build a boat and sail around the world. Or maybe walk to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America from here."

"Running with the bulls in Pamplona would be safer, cheaper, and take less time."

"Good point. That's also the reason I have no desire to climb Mt Everest."

"You could go on a river cruise through Europe. We only visited three cities there on our honeymoon."

"Yeah. I've always wanted to see the sunrise in Istanbul. A trip like that wouldn't take long. It would also be safe and cheap. The Oriental Express is another option for that. I like trains. Get on at Paris, pass through a dozen countries or so, and get off in Istanbul."

"That's a great idea. Plan out that trip. I can come with you when the time is right. I'd like to see more of the world."

"In the meantime, I'll focus on my writing. It's a cheap hobby. I'm reminded of the guy who wrote The Anatomy of Melancholy. Writing was therapy for him, so he wrote his own encyclopedia filled with whatever he thought was interesting."

"I think whatever book you end up writing will sell well."

So that was the genesis of the idea. The entelechy of it unfolded gradually. The word was coined by Aristotle. Entelechy is garbled Greek for actuality. It's a good look I continued to study Greek long after my interest in dinosaurs waned. There was always something interesting to be discovered. The words lactose and galaxy both come from the Greek word for milk. Saying the Milky Way Galaxy is like saying the Milky Way Milky. Though my single favorite bit of Greek trivia is that the words potion, poison, potable, and symposium all come from the Greek word that means drink. Symposium literally means "drinking-together-place". Having been invited to speak at a few conferences, I can assure that the booze flows freely during happy hour.

The Anatomy of Melancholy merits a digression. It's a remarkable book that touches on many subjects, and so is basically a miniature encyclopedia. The author, Robert Burton, defines melancholy as:

***
Melancholy, the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition or in habit. In disposition, is that transitory Melancholy which goes and comes upon every small occasion of sorrow, need, sickness, trouble, fear, grief, passion, or perturbation of the mind, any manner of care, discontent, or thought, which causes anguish, dulness, heaviness and vexation of spirit, any ways opposite to pleasure, mirth, joy, delight, causing forwardness in us, or a dislike. In which equivocal and improper sense, we call him melancholy, that is dull, sad, sour, lumpish, ill-disposed, solitary, any way moved, or displeased. And from these melancholy dispositions no man living is free, no Stoic, none so wise, none so happy, none so patient, so generous, so godly, so divine, that can vindicate himself; so well-composed, but more or less, some time or other, he feels the smart of it. Melancholy in this sense is the character of Mortality... This Melancholy of which we are to treat, is a habit, a serious ailment, a settled humour, as Aurelianus and others call it, not errant, but fixed: and as it was long increasing, so, now being (pleasant or painful) grown to a habit, it will hardly be removed.
***

He also wrote "I write of Melancholy by being busy to avoid Melancholy." That's something I can relate to.

I, Soldier - part 36

 "OK, new topic. Do you think I could get elected President?"

"Yes, but we'd need to raise a lot more money somehow. TV ads aren't cheap. Maybe someday there will be a cheaper way to reach millions of voters."

"What is the best way to raise money for an election campaign?"

"Giving exclusive speeches that only rich people can afford to attend is a common method. Book deals are another. There are other legal, yet dishonest methods, like selling art through an intermediary. It's basically money laundering. The good news is 18 presidents were US representatives first. 20 were governors before becoming presidents. Those are the top two previous jobs for presidents, besides being a lawyer."

"Should I try to become a governor? Or seek some other experience?"

"The longer you stay in Congress, the better your chances are. If you get offered a cabinet position, I'd take it. Same goes for an offer to be someone's running mate as vice president. You have a solid place on a powerful committee. Try to become in charge of it. The chair of the Appropriations Committee is the second most important representative after the Speaker of the House. That's another office you could aim for in the future." 

"And you...what are your plans?"

"I'm not ambitious anymore. When I was young, I thought that maybe I could become a general or some other great military leader. Later, I was convinced I would die in battle in my 20s. From my perspective, I have already reached Valhalla. I climbed all the mountains and killed all the dragons. Now all I want to do is live quietly in peace, help you with your endeavors, and watch our kids grow up."

"There's an air of sadness in your words; a taste of unfulfilled dreams."

"Maybe. That's your perspective. From my point of view, once you've cheated death enough times, you start to feel sorry for the Grim Reaper."

"You're never too old for a new adventure. Keep an open mind. For me."

"Roger, good copy."

Given the demands of parenthood, I didn't want to stray too far from home. I decided to spend my free time reading the classics and writing poetry. It was a nice change of pace from writing military articles. Many men have written on war, yet poetry has had a greater impact on civilization. I particularly enjoyed Kipling and his famous poem If. Here it is:

***
If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
***

Kipling was a soldier himself and had a reputation as a patriot. His only son was later killed in battle during WW1.

Another poem that spoke to me strongly is Invictus. It was written by a man who had a leg amputated because of tuberculosis and then had to have the other leg amputated a few months later. 

***
Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
***

The poems of Kobayashi Issa also spoke to me. His pen name means Small Forest One Cup of Tea. Despite a life full of tragedy which included the death of his mother, wife, and children, he remained optimistic and often funny. He wrote thousands of haikus, often about animals. My two favorite poems of his are below:

***
New Year's Day—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.
...
O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!
***

I, Soldier - part 35

The accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was a particularly depressing day for me. I became convinced that no new nuclear power plants would be built, and the existing ones would be shut down eventually. Something similar happened to warplanes for a while after Billy Mitchell proved it was possible to sink a battleship with a bomb or torpedo dropped from an airplane. Love for battleships was deeply ingrained in the Navy at the time, and instead of being rewarded for his innovation, Mitchell was court-martialed on trumped-up charges of insubordination.  

As I researched US military history and reminisced on my time in the Army, the same pattern emerged over and over. It was the way bureaucratic concerns and entrenched interests stood in the way of innovation and common sense. One of the things that cheered me was reading Army manuals written by men who were also interested in reform. In an Army manual on the use of military intelligence, I found the following:

***
At the outset of the Spanish-American War, Colonel Arthur L. Wagner was head of the Military Information Division (the War Department’s embryonic intelligence organization). Driven by public sentiment, President McKinley and Secretary of War Russell A. Alger were determined to attack Spanish forces in Cuba not later than summer 1898. Wagner at once prepared a careful assessment of the Spanish forces, terrain, climate and environmental conditions in Cuba—the basic intelligence needed for operational planning. Wagner’s assessment also identified recurring outbreaks of yellow fever in Cuba during the summer months as a crucial planning consideration. At a White House meeting, Wagner recommended postponement of any invasion until the winter months in order to reduce what would otherwise be heavy American losses from the disease. President McKinley reluctantly endorsed his view. As they left the meeting, Secretary of War Alger was furious with Colonel Wagner. “You have made it impossible for my plan of campaign to be carried out,” he told Wagner. “I will see to it that you do not receive any promotions in the Army in the future.” 

The Secretary of War made good on his promise, for although Colonel Wagner was promoted years later to brigadier general, the notice of his appointment reached him on his death bed. Furthermore, Alger influenced McKinley to reauthorize a summer invasion of Cuba. Fortunately, United States forces won a quick victory, but as Wagner predicted, the effects of disease soon devastated the force. The ravages of yellow fever, typhoid, malaria and dysentery accounted for more than 85 percent of total casualties and were so severe that by August 1898 less than one quarter of the invasion force remained fit for service. According to his peers, Wagner deliberately jeopardized his career in order to satisfy a sense of duty, rather than bow to political pressure. Information that American lives could be saved by avoiding the worst time of the year for yellow fever was more important to him than currying favor with the Secretary of War. 
***

I was moved by the integrity of Colonel Wagner's actions. It made me wonder how many times Colonel Truman faced similar dilemmas in his career. During my time in Vietnam, the military intelligence reports I received from others, whose names I rarely learned, were crucial to my decision-making. Military intelligence might be everyone's favorite oxymoron, but for me, it was a matter of life or death. I called Trautman and asked if he remembered the names of anyone who helped prepare reports for me, because I wanted to send letters of thanks to all of them. He gave me a few names, I wrote the letters, but only got one response. It read:

***
Your letter came as a welcome surprise. I had begun to doubt whether I had done anything worthwhile during the war. Maybe someday when the memorial is complete, we can visit it together.
***

I had read a bit about the planned Vietnam War Memorial. It was supposed to be a simple black wall with the names of all 58,000 American troops who died there. It seemed a bit ugly to me. A war memorial that size should at least have a flag and a statue. 

My favorite soldier from the Vietnam War was Specialist Minnock. I never met him, but I read about him. He was a signals intelligence analyst. Through his work, he became convinced the enemy would attack at a certain place and time. Because of his low rank, he feared he would not be believed by his South Vietnamese counterpart, so he impersonated a US Army captain when he gave his presentation. The ruse worked, his advice was followed, and the predicted attack was repulsed with minimal friendly casualties. 

One night, after Alexandra came home, she asked me what I thought about the wall.

"It's an odd situation, my dear. I sort of understand now how Confederate veterans must have felt about the memorials set up for them. That is, it's a nice gesture, but doesn't undo the damage of the defeat, and the pain of being on the losing side. Still, it's important that we have such reminders of the risks of war."

"What do you think about Confederate flags and monuments?"

"I grew up seeing them all the time, so for me, they're just a bit of history. It's like seeing a picture of the pyramids in Egypt. The only emotion I feel is curiosity for a bygone era. There were surely Egyptians centuries after the pyramids were built who wanted them demolished. Many ancient monuments have been defaced in Egypt and elsewhere over the centuries. That doesn't make it right, though."

"What if people want them removed because they don't like them or think they're hateful?"

"Emotions are always valid, even if the reasons for them aren't. People are free to dislike things and petition to have them removed or demolished. I think there's a lot to be said for leaving history out in the open where everyone can see it. It's like having lots of little museums everywhere."

"Lots of offensive things get banned, censored, or regulated. It's still illegal to swear on broadcast TV and that's enforced with fines."

"Yes, but Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 are not an instruction manuals nor should they be. The FCC should stick with regulating the electromagnetic spectrum. It's a classic case of mission creep. It's the same reason the feds went after marijuana after Prohibition ended."

I, Soldier - part 34

Alexandra continued to get funding for NASA projects. I could tell she was proud of that, as she spoke often of the various spacecraft and missions that were being planned. It was hard to keep up with the Apollo program while it was underway, as I was busy with college and later the Army. The space race did interest me as a kid. Sputnik was visible with a telescope and I remember building a crystal set radio to pick up its "beep beep beep" signal. 

I continued to write military articles for think tanks, though at a much-reduced pace. On the conventional side, I noted that the US military should greatly reduce airborne training given the high casualty rates from operations during WW2 as well the danger and expense of the training. It's a great for getting attention and I admit to enjoying the sight of paratroopers descending en masse. And of course there was my own experience from Vietnam, though I suspect my success in that raid was due more to luck than anything else. No one wants to admit how often the outcome of a battle or war hinges on luck or unforeseen factors. 

There was an amphibious landing during WW2 which failed because no one bother to check the phase of the moon, and so they miscalculated the tide. It was the Battle of Tarawa, I think. Because they overestimated the depth of the water, the landing crafts got stuck on the coral reef surrounding the island and the Marines had to wade several hundred yards to reach the shore, all the while under intense enemy fire. It was another one of those times when astronomy had military consequences. The exact event at Tarawa was an apogean neap tide, meaning the moon was at its apogee, or furthest point from the earth. There was another time during WW2 where a German submarine was able to take advantage of the opposite effect to enter a harbor and sink the HMS Royal Oak. 

In the realm of nuclear strategy, I was critical of the nuclear triad, that is, bombers, submarines, and land-based missiles. I noted that deploying a warhead from a land-based missile was about one tenth the cost of doing the same with a bomber or a submarine, and that in any case, we had almost 40 times as many nuclear warheads as what could possibly be necessary, even for a full-scale nuclear war. In my article, I noted:

***
In 1957, Admiral Arleigh Burke, then the chief of naval operations, estimated that 720 warheads aboard 45 Polaris submarines were sufficient to achieve deterrence. This figure took into account the fact that some weapons would not work and that some would be destroyed in a Soviet attack (Burke felt that just 232 warheads were required to destroy the Soviet Union). At the time Burke made this estimate, the U.S. arsenal already held six times as many warheads.

Several years later, in 1960, General Maxwell Taylor, former Army chief of staff and future chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote that “a few hundred” missiles (armed with a few hundred warheads) was adequate to deter the Soviet Union. Yet by this time the United States had some 7,000 strategic nuclear warheads.
*** 

If Japan was forced to surrender with just two relatively weak atomic bombs, then surely a few hundred much more powerful hydrogen bombs would have an even greater psychological effect. Furthermore, if the idea was to deploy as many warheads as possible, land-based missiles would be the most effective way. 

I also wrote about the nuclear war maneuvers the Air Force conducted with bombers early on in the Cold War. Basically, large numbers of bombers were sent on practice bombing runs of American and European cities to test how well commanders could coordinate such operations. It's interesting that the US inadvertently became the beginning of the Soviet bomber force after an American B-29 bomber ditched in the USSR during WW2 and was reverse-engineered by Soviet technicians. The Soviets went on to produce hundreds of such copies which they called the Tu-4. 

I didn't expect my articles would have much of an effect. Too many people were getting rich off our bloated military, and when that many people are getting a piece of the action, the gravy train keeps rolling. It was frustrating to see the same mistakes being made as during the Civil War, where repeating rifles and Gatling guns were slow to be introduced despite Lincoln's orders. The established officers and military contractors stymied the reform.

There was an attempt in the 1950s to build a nuclear-powered bomber which could stay aloft for 120 hours at a time. JFK cut the funding to that project not long after taking office. By that time, it was clear that missiles and not bombers were the best tool for long-range nuclear attack. Unlike bombers or subs, land-based missiles require far less maintenance, and so all the expense of things like resupply at sea or port, aerial refueling, etc., is prevented.  

Meanwhile, the Soviet strategy for undermining the US did not rely on nuclear weapons at all. Instead, they focused on propaganda and psychological warfare. They weren't even much interested in espionage per se, as far as I could tell. The secret of nuclear weapons was lost to them during WW2, and that was the most important one we had.

By the time Reagan got elected a few years later, I all but given up on writing military articles, as I was sure they would fall on deaf ears. I do remember criticizing Reagan's so-called Strategic Defense Initiative as a provocative boondoggle and a technological pipe dream. In the press, the idea was derided as "Star Wars". It was one of the few times I agreed with the media on a military matter or even in general.

I, Soldier - part 33

One evening, we were cooking dinner together. The conversation turned to nuclear power. I had been reading up on it and had been exchanging letters with some scientists on the matter. 

"Tom, do you think nuclear power is the future?"

"Yes. The waste problem is not nearly as serious as most people think. Spent fuel rods only emit alpha and beta particles, which can be stopped with cardboard. They do emit such particles in dangerous amounts for hundreds of years though. Basically, radioactive materials like are only dangerous if you eat or breathe them."

"Everything I've heard and read about nuclear power suggests that it's expensive and dangerous."

"See that smoke detector up there? It uses nuclear energy. It works off the radioactive isotope Americium-241. The principle is the same as a Geiger counter. The isotope's radiation charges the air near it. If that charge changes because of smoke, the circuit which powers the alarm is triggered. If you look closely at the label on the side facing the ceiling, you'll see a warning not to tamper with it because there is radioactive material inside."

"So there's a nuclear reactor in my kitchen. Great."

"It doesn't emit enough radiation to be harmful. We all get exposed to natural sources of radiation which our bodies are adapted to continually repair. The plastic case shields us from the alpha and cluster radiation, and only a tiny amount of gamma radiation leaks out. It's very hard to shield against gamma radiation and x-rays. That's why you wear a lead vest when you get x-rayed at the dentist. Your skull protects your brain and the lead vest protects your other vital organs."

"Does anything else in this house emit radiation?"

"Our TV puts out a small amount of X-rays. If I had a Geiger counter, I could prove it to you. Radium was once used for making glow-in-the-dark watch dials. The women who painted them were told to lick the brushes. Many of them got radiation poisoning from swallowing small amounts of radium. Marie Curie probably died of radiation poisoning because of her work with radioactive materials. No one knew about the risks back then."

"Kind of like how everybody smoked back when no one knew about the health risks."

"Basically, yes. Same idea. Every form of technology can be dangerous. We don't stop using electricity even though people die in electrical accidents every year. Same goes for cars, airplanes, medicine, surgery...hell, even fire can be dangerous. It's amusing to think about what sort of debates cavemen had over fire safety."

"Alas, The Flintstones were silent on that subject. It's as mysterious as how Wilma managed to acquire a pearl necklace despite clearly living far inland."

"And it would take Fred far more effort to move his car around than to simply walk. Though I enjoyed the dinosaur workers at the quarry. And all the critters who said 'eh, it's a living'."

"I would not mind a vacuum cleaner in the shape of a baby elephant."

"I should add that nuclear energy is great for space probes. Solar power isn't practical once you get more than about 93 million miles away from the sun, which is about how far away we are. A nuclear thermocouple is the solution to that."

"What's a thermocouple?"

"If you take two wires made out different metal, say copper and steel, and join both ends, you can get electricity by heating one end. This is how an electric thermometer works. Your body heat powers the thermocouple and different amounts of heat create different amounts of electricity which a circuit can detect and measure. So for a space probe, it can get all the electricity it needs for hundreds of years if the heat of radioactive decay is used to power the thermocouple. The Soviets have been using decay heat reactors to power unmanned lighthouses near the Arctic circle for a long time. Nobody would want to work in such a harsh and isolated environment."

"I've read a bit about the nuclear reactors the Navy uses on subs. They have a great safety record."

"Right. We have dozens of nuclear reactors moving around in the ocean, yet people are scared of a stationary one on land. I guess the association with nuclear weapons is what gets people upset."

"Is there anything the Science Committee can do to promote nuclear power?"

"Deregulating the nuclear industry would be best, but it's a tough sell. And I doubt the Department of Energy will ever be disbanded. It used to be called the Atomic Energy Commission, if I recall correctly. It got renamed, sort of like how the War Department became the Department of Defense."

"It sounds like I might need to trade favors to get any support for nuclear power."

"Not necessarily. Simply advocating for it could be useful. You could try a petition from scientists. The Pioneer 10 probe which NASA launched a few years ago gets its electricity from a plutonium thermocouple. Not many people know about that."

"I don't want to be a shill for the nuclear industry."

"You won't be as long as you're being honest and factual. The campaign contributions might come in handy. As Voltaire said, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

"We certainly do not live in the best of all possible worlds."

"It doesn't matter how slowly you move as long as you don't stop, according to Confucius. Ancient Chinese philosophers are worth reading."

"I'll keep that in mind, Hong Kong Phooey."

I had become an expert of sorts in cartoons during my adventures as Mr. Mom. There was often one playing on the TV whenever Alexandra came home for lunch or dinner. The kids liked the talking animals and wackiness; I liked the easter egg adult jokes hidden in the dialog. Perhaps someday there would be a TV channel with just cartoons; a sort of "cartoon network" if you will. The excursions to local sights continued. Cathy particularly enjoyed riding the life-size triceratops statue at the National Mall in front of the natural history museum. It was named Uncle Beazley after a dinosaur in a children's book. What a shame it would be if kids were ever forbidden to ride that statue. 

I, Soldier - part 32

Alexandra continued to network and I continued to advise her. She got a seat on the Appropriations Committee as a junior member and also on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. I also started writing military articles for think tanks. My own combat experience helped me get my foot in the door, but what really helped was my knowledge of current events and military history. The weapons change, but the same tactics and strategies show up over and over, and the same goes for the flaws that lead to defeat and the virtues that lead to victory. I didn't expect my articles to change much, I just enjoyed the attention and the money I got for them. It's hard to stop or change an idea when a lot of people have a stake in not changing it. Fight the ocean and you will drown. It's hard to make an impression on the world; the best the greatest souls have ever done is leave a dent, which often becomes obscured through nearby dents. It's like a wall covered in graffiti; it's hard to tell who wrote first or best, only that many have written and a lot of it is not worth reading. 

Cathy had begun to walk and talk. It's interesting how quickly someone's personality becomes visible. She always seemed to find a way to climb to some precarious position. I once watched from where she couldn't see me as she escaped from a playpen, moved as quickly and quietly as possible into the kitchen, then stacked some books to create a crude ladder to reach the counter where I put some fresh chocolate chip cookies. In fairness, I left the tools she needed to reach the prize, which I had also placed intentionally. On the floor nearby, I placed cushions as a safety measure. Before she could ascend her book-ladder, I stopped her and we each ate a cookie. I decided the experiment had been a success and there was no reason to let it continue.

Alexandra became pregnant again, but continued to work with a gradually reduced pace. Her energy seemed boundless. When Jimmy Carter took office, it seemed her star would rise or fall with his. I advised her to hedge her bets by making some connections with the opposition. A lot of deals are made in the cloak room. So much so in fact that when Thomas Edison proposed a device that would allow all members of Congress to vote remotely from home via telegraph, it was bitterly opposed. The reason why was voting by telegraph, while allowing senators and such to spend more time with their constituents, completely removed the face-to-face interactions that so many politicians depended on. It was reminiscent of a Roman emperor, Vespasian, if my memory serves, who opposed a certain type of crane as it required less labor and would put many people out of work. In fact, the word sabotage comes from the act of throwing a wooden shoe, or sabot, into a factory machine to get it to stop turning. Many workers during the Industrial Revolution opposed various kinds of new labor-saving devices. 

The next few years were a series of psychological setbacks for me in spite of the birth of my next child, a son. Alexandra let me pick the name, so I decided on Quint, after the shark hunter from the film Jaws. I loved that movie. The first setback was the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. All though the accident itself was minor, it more or less killed the reputation of nuclear power, something which I always thought would be the future. Then came the Iran hostage crisis, which for me was like watching the Fall of Saigon all over again. There was a failed rescue operation, the news of which depressed me further. I decided that focusing on my children and marriage would ease my troubled mind. I took Cathy to the various Smithsonian museums, though she was still a bit young to appreciate the exhibits. It was great for me to see so much natural history on display. I was taken back to my childhood and the many hours I spent reading the encyclopedia and other books about such things. 

Alexandra's political career seemed rock-solid. She won re-election easily and was clearly enjoying her work. I tried not to spoil her fun with too much realism. The Mars landing idea she had led to other more practical deals, though she never gave up on it. There was a joint US-USSR space mission called Apollo-Soyuz in which an American spacecraft docked with a Soviet one in 1975. It was literally a friendly handshake in orbit. Alexandra was not involved in funding that, but she did continue to advocate for more joint missions, but that wouldn't happen again until many years later with the Shuttle-Mir program, which paved the way for the International Space Station. She did succeed in getting funding for the Viking program, which landed two unmanned probes on Mars. It was a successor to the Mariner program of the 1960s in which probes flew by and orbited Venus and Mars. 

It's interesting to note that the guy who literally helped NASA get off the ground was an ex-Nazi rocket scientist named Wernher von Braun. The rocket which took the Apollo astronauts to the moon was basically a supersized version of the German V2 ballistic missile. It became the first object to reach space in 1944, 25 years before the moon landing. The V2 had a single stage, whereas the Saturn V moon rocket had several stages that fired one after another so it could travel farther and faster. Von Braun wrote a book in 1948 called The Mars Project in which he explained the design of a spacecraft that could carry human explorers there. 

In my own home state of West Virginia, there was a man named Homer Hickam who built model rockets with his friends as a teen. He was inspired by the launch of Sputnik in 1957. He learned to scuba dive in the Army as a hobby and later ended up working for NASA designing underwater training to simulate the weightlessness of being in space. I heard him give a speech much later where he said that astronauts are easy to teach because they already know everything. But I digress. Often.