A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

A Chinese frigate sinks in the East China Sea after a hit from a Mark-48 ADCAP torpedo. All game design elements in these screenshots are © 2017 Killerfish Games  Hello, again, Dear Reader.  As you can tell, I am still playing the U.S. vs. China South China Sea 2000 campaign in Cold Waters, a submarine simulation from Killerfish Games that its designers tout as the spiritual heir to MicroProse's 1988 classic Red Storm Rising. As in that sub sim — which was designed by Sid Meier and is based on Tom Clancy's 1986 novel about a conventional war between the Soviet Union and NATO — Cold Waters depicts undersea warfare in an alternate timeline with three different iterations of the Cold War turning hot at three distinct periods; 1968, 1984, and 2000. A beautiful shot of USS Jefferson City, my third command in this deadly war between the U.S. and China.  Since this is my first serious attempt at playing a Campaign game, I think I am holding my own even though I am not winning ou...

USS John S. McCain was ordered to tarp over her name so as to not offend Trump. What would you have done if you were the Captain receiving such an order? f I were a serving commissioned officer in the United States Navy and received a message from my superiors that read something like this: FROM: COMSURFNAVFORPAC, CINCPACFLT TO: COMMANDING OFFICER, USS JOHN S. MCCAIN (DDG-56) RE: PLACING TARP OVER STERN TO HIDE SHIP’S NAME BE ADVISED THAT POTUS WILL BE IN AREA YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. COMMANDER SEVENTH FLEET HAS RECEIVED A REQUEST FROM WHITE HOUSE REQUIRING YOU TO PLACE A TARP OVER YOUR SHIP’S STERN TO OBSCURE HER NAME. SENIOR OFFICIALS BELIEVE THAT POTUS WILL BE ANGERED IF HE SEES NAME OF CAPT MCCAIN AND HIS FOREBEARS, SO THEY STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU MAKE SURE IT STAYS OUT OF SIGHT WHILE POTUS IS IN VICINITY OF YOKOSUKA/SEVENTH FLEET ANCHORAGE DURING HIS VISIT TO JAPAN. Well, regardless of my political stance, I would have to comply with those orders...

Map of Pacific Ocean territories and their respective owners. Credit: World of Warships  On Quora, Matthew Lewis asks I understand the U.S. "Island Hopping" strategy during WW2 in the Pacific, but why did Japan choose the strategy of occupying all those islands in the first place? My reply:  After the First World War - indeed, as early as the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 - the Japanese military, particularly the Imperial Japanese Navy, began to look at the United States as their great trans-Pacific rival. This, of course, was to be expected once Russia and China, Japan’s close-to-home enemies, became (in Tokyo’s eyes) weak and toothless paper tigers mired in revolution and civil war. During the first three decades of the 20th Century, the same Japan that had been content to be an isolated feudal island kingdom developed an unhealthy appetite to become just as imperialistic as the European powers that controlled vast expanses of Asia and Oceania. Se...

(C) 1992 Penguin Books  Pros: Fascinating study of one of the most famous - and toughest - World War II battles. Cons: None. On August 7, 1942, eight months to the day after Japan's "dastardly attack" on Pearl Harbor and barely eight weeks after the Battle of Midway ended a 6-month-long string of defeats for the Allies in the Pacific, elements of the First Marine Division, supported by the largest U.S. fleet yet assembled, came ashore on the beaches of Guadalcanal and two nearby islands in a barely opposed initial landing. Their mission: to capture an airfield (which the Marines named Henderson Field, in honor of Maj. Lofton Henderson, who had died at Midway) that, if left in Japanese hands, could have helped cut the lifeline between Australia and the United States. The initial success of the landings, however, was followed by some of the fiercest land, air, and naval battles of the Pacific War. Japanese and American naval forces struggled ince...

(C) 1999 Berkley Books The late Tom Clancy is best remembered as the creator of the Jack Ryan series of novels that began with 1984's The Hunt for Red October and continues, to this day, via the works of his last co-authors, Grant Blackwood and Mark Greaney. Clancy, even in life, became a "name brand" which is used to market military-themed computer and video games ( Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ) and book series ( Tom Clancy's OpCenter ) which consist of novels that were not written by Clancy himself.   Before his death at the age of 66 in October of 2013, Clancy was also a respected commentator on military affairs, Second Amendment rights, and politics. He was not shy about his conservative views; the Jack Ryan series often depicts liberal politicians (such as the hapless and unethical Edward Kealty, a thinly-disguised doppelganger for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts) as morally weak, idealistic-...

Hi there, Constant Reader. It’s 11:03 a.m. EST on a cool Saturday morning in Miami. The current temperature is 76 degrees Fahrenheit under cloudy skies. With an east-northeasterly wind blowing at 15 mph (gusts of up to 21 mph) and humidity levels at 51%, the feels-like temperature is 76 degrees Fahrenheit. So it’s not too chilly here, but not warm enough to turn on the air conditioner. I have been reading a lot over the past few days. Partly because I have been a voracious reader since I was a child, partly because I am a book reviewer for Examiner, but mostly because I need to read a lot in order to be a good writer. Right now my main focus is non-fiction, with an emphasis on U.S. military and political history. I’m also half-heartedly reading some fiction, especially Stephen King’s 11/22/63 and his epic Dark Tower series. I used to post my “current reading lists” at the now-defunct Bubblews and the soon-to-be defunct Persona Paper every so often, especially in “blog doldrums...

In December of 1945,  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Loews released director John Ford's They Were Expendable, a film about a U.S. Navy motor torpedo boats fighting against the Japanese during the dark days of late 1941 and early 1942. Starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed, They Were Expendable is an adaptation of William L. White's 1942 best-selling book of the same title.  Written by Frank "Spig" Wead, a former naval aviator, the screenplay dramatizes White's "non-fiction" account of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron  Three and some of its officers and men, covering the dark days of the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands (December 1941-May 1942). Though its factual veracity is, shall we say, doubtful, is one of the best war movies made during World War II, (or the period shortly after) partly because - except for the score - They Were Expendable tries hard to capture the emotional truth of the PT men's struggles to survive under th...