"Find the Cost of Freedom..."

John McCain is on my mind this morning.

The reason is the following email from my son-in-law:  

I just recently had some of my negatives scanned from when I was living in Vietnam.

Surprisingly, in a roll were some photos from a visit to the infamous Hoa Lo Prison, better known as the "Hanoi Hilton."

Designed and built by the French to house political prisoners then converted to house American POW's, 2/3s of the site was demolished to make way for, get this, serviced apartments, basically a hotel which is where I usually stayed while in Hanoi.

They've preserved some of the prison as a museum, hence my visit there one weekend afternoon while I was there.

While the Vietnamese try to sugarcoat the way US prisoners were treated there, and emphasize the awful conditions that Vietnamese were subject to while there under the French, just visiting the place gave me an uncomfortable sense of dread.

I wasn't quite sure who to share these with, but figured you were the one closest able to appreciate these.

Thank you, John.

The Presidential race is in its final days.  Barak Obama has an increasingly commanding lead and John McClain appears to have lost his rudder. Should the lead hold, may we pray that Obama proves to be the best person to govern our country during these impossible times. The task will be daunting.

But John's email brings me back to John McCain. Not  the presidential candidate or senator, but the American role model who served us all with such distinction.

The son and grandson of US Navy Admirals, John McCain graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1958 and went on to become a naval carrier pilot.  

Nine years later, in July 1967, McCain nearly lost his life during a horrific fire on the deck of the USS Forrestal that did kill 134 sailors and wounded 161 others.  Hs Phantom jet destroyed and his carrier critically damaged, the war could have been over for John McCain.  

It was not to be.

McCain lobbied, influenced, begged, and used all that he could muster to be reassigned to a new jet on a new carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin - a highly improbable accomplishment.  Three months later, in October 1967, McCain's new jet was shot down while on a bombing mission over Hanoi. He was severely injured, captured, and, as we all now know, imprisoned in North Vietnam for the following five years.

John McCain is worthy of our admiration and thanks for his service on a wide variety of levels. Foremost in my mind, was his selfless determination to get reassigned to a combat support carrier after the Forrestal tragedy.  

Now, that took courage.

Thank you John McCain.

Thank you for the pictures, John.

And, thank you for visiting.

Jack

"Those were the days, my friend..."

Ah, the 50's, I thought wistfully. Now there was a time! We were at peace, banks were solvent, jobs were aplenty, and cars had fins.

The catalyst for my mental wandering was a plaque before me that bore the inscription:

May 17, 1957 * Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam

I was walking up the stretch of lower Broadway known as the "Canyon of Heroes," so dubbed, as it was the site of New York’s renowned ticker tape

 parades. Since my last visit years ago, the city had placed individual plaques for the honorees in ascending chronological order along the street’s eastern sidewalk.

Diem?

A ticker tape parade?

At first it struck me as random. Few New Yorkers back then had heard of Vietnam and fewer still could have known of its new President. Yet, upon further thought, I began to smile, and softly uttered philosopher George Santayana’s notable phrase, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Diem, Catholic and a fervent anti Communist, was able enough, but his family was fabulously corrupt. Regardless, he garnered enthusiastic support from the United States as a symbol of Indo-China’s cold war resistance to Communism and, consequently, was greeted personally by President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles when he arrived in the US in 1957.

The rest, as they say, is history. Diem was assassinated in 1963 (reputedly by the CIA), North Vietnam continued their incessant pressure on the South. In the summer of 1967, ten years after Diem’s triumphal ticker tape parade down Broadway, I joined 550,000 other American boys to fight for the “International War Against Communism” in Vietnam, of all places.

The political insanity that began with Eisenhower, but did not end there.

No thanks to:
Dwight Eisenhower
John Foster Dulles
John Kennedy

Robert McNamara
Lyndon Johnson
Richard Nixon
Henry Kissenger

Republicans? Democrats? 

There was plenty of blame to go around.

There will be again.

Thank you for visiting.

Jack

"Money for Nothing..."

Before there was Lehman Brothers.  Before there was Bear Sterns. Before there was Merrill Lynch.  Even before there was AIG. There was:

Brown Brothers Harriman

Private Bankers 

59 Wall Street

estab 1818  

To say the firm was venerable would be understatement in extremus.  Its partners, descended from the Mayflower, went to Yale, and professionally slid back and forth between Wall Street and Washington - making money and making laws.  Life was good. 

They sat behind roll-top desks and, best I could determine, had a license to mint money. They alone legally operated outside of the restrictive bounds of the Glass-Steagall Act for 75 years. That meant they could act as a commercial bank and an investment bank at the same time. Whoa!

Several years ago, in a fit of irrational exuberance and a tsunami of lobbying pressure, Congress repealed most of the more onerous provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act thereby allowing everyone else to get into the game.  

The rest, as they say, is history.  

When I arose this morning, the news was of foreign financial markets that had really tanked. Today could be a record setter on Wall Street - not in a good way.  As it was yet another matchless fall day I, like a moth to a flame, grabbed my camera, walked across the George Washington Bridge, hopped on the A Train and headed south to Wall Street where (presumedly) the action was. 

I once worked on Wall Street, but hadn't been since before 9/11, so I was struck when I emerged at the corner of Broadway and Nassau - struck by what I didn't see.   The view in the picture to the right never existed.  The towers of the World Trade Center blocked the two buildings behind which were, by the way, built on the landfill created by the World Trade Center's excavation in the 60's.

It was now starting to sink in.  This relatively small piece of Manhattan Island had now been an international ground zero twice in less than a decade.  

I'd come to Wall Street to snap pictures of modern-day bankers, brows furrowed, shoulders sagging, world at an end.  I'd be an invisible observer in the middle of a hurricane.  

What I got was beyond what I could have imagined.  Wall Street 2008 is a post-9/11 theme park.  Most of the street is  blocked off, some with those big steel come-out-of-the-road things that you see all over Washington.  Flak-jacketed police with machine guns were ubiquitous, including several in front of the formerly sacred grand entrance to the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company which was now slathered with available real estate signs akin to an abandoned waterfront warehouse.  

And bankers?  I saw these two on the left.  Period.

The old Brown Brothers is a Pink shirt retail store (pictured above) and the second floor (where I will now confess my first office was) is a fitness center. The old limestone, granite, and marble bank facades are condos, retail stores (Tiffany & Co.) and a garishly renamed - The Trump building at 40 Wall! Gasp!  Gone are the bankers, traders, and age old denizens of the street that once huddled around incoming schooners to transact the nations brokerage business.

Really gone.  

Like the rest of tourist New York, it is choked with class trips, foreign tourists, and in Wall Street's case gawkers like me.

The structures remain the same, but all else is changed from the Wall Street that I first saw as a rookie bank trainee in August 1972.  The stoic age old institutions that I naively felt worthy of staking my fledgling career, are crushed, dismembered, or significantly altered.

One institution, however, happily remains the same...

"sine 'em up, young man, shine 'em up."

The shoe-shiners in front of the Trinity Church Cemetery on Broadway.  

Wall Street a block in front of you.  The World Trade Center a block behind you.    

Good Lord, what you have seen.

Thanks fellas.

And thank you for visiting.

Jack

"Last night I took a walk after dark..."

As anyone over 50 knows, the next line by Freddy "Boom-Boom" Cannon was a swingin' place called Palisades Park.  
Palisades Park enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the town of Fort Lee - mostly hate.  

The Park was certainly the most popular destination in Ft. Lee New Jersey for most of the 20th century (it's no bother, it's no fuss, take the Public Service bus.)

Cannon, a native of Lynn, Massachusetts, had his career launched at the Park.  Several other 60's bubblegumers  were also there discovered including Bobby Rydell (Wild One), Leslie Gore (It's my Party), and Little Anthony & the Imperials (Goin' out of my Head). 


There were a number of serious fires over the years in addition to the obvious problems inherent in having such a neighbor.  (We lived nearby, but our parents never made it a destination for the McLean children.)

The Park was built  in the early 1900's by the Bergen County Traction Company which ran trolleys in the area.  As their electricity charges were on a flat rate for seven days a week, they created the Park to help generate otherwise limited weekend revenue.   

The trolly company (and thereby the Park) was eventually bought by Public Service Electric & Gas in the early 1970's which, noting decreased attendance and soaring real estate prices along the Palisades, sold it.  

Its fate became that of other local attractions of the time (Ebbits Field and the Polo Grounds) - high rise apartment buildings.

If you are still reading, you either have an abiding interest in me (thank you) or Fort Lee. If the latter, here is another fun fact.  

Fort Lee was America's original movie capital. The dense woods and the spectacular cliffs of the Palisades were considered to be dramatic backdrops for the burgeoning silent film business.  It is also the birthplace of the term "cliffhanger".

The phrase comes from the classical end-of-episode situation in silent film days in which the protagonist (usually a woman in distress) is left hanging from the edge of a cliff.

An episode of the Perils of Pauline, filmed in 1914, ended with Pearl White, the title character, literally hanging off the cliffs of Fort Lee’s Palisades.  Her eminent demise would somehow be resolved at the beginning of the next episode.  

And thank you for visiting.

Jack

"These are the Times That Try Mens Souls"

"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

Thomas Paine wrote these remarkable words in December 1776 in Fort Lee, New Jersey. They were published in his pamphlet American Crisis. His previous pamphlet, Common Sense, published a year earlier, was known to have had a powerful influence on the drafters of the Declaration of Independence.

Fort Lee, New Jersey?

For most of us, Fort Lee is the place where traffic backs up for the George Washington Bridge toll.  In fact, the location has been a well used Hudson River crossing since the Revolutionary War when Fort Lee was a supply center for the New York defensive fortifications across the river.  George Washington made his retreat in November 1776 from New York, across the river, and down what is now Main Street in Fort Lee.  It was upon this sight, at our young nation's darkest hour, that Thomas Paine wrote his most remembered line.  

These days, I cross the Hudson River every day by foot.  It is my morning routine.  The sun is just rising, the air is crisp, and the views upstream, downstream, and right in front of my face are amazing.  As readers of this space are aware, I'm particularly fond of the Little Red Lighthouse that protects the shore on the New York side.

The walk over is into the rising sun and affords the best views of midtown Manhattan and the constant maritime traffic below.  

I occasionally think of General Washington and his ragged boats of refugees from the Battle of New York far below who, under cover of darkness, were fleeing for the very life of our country. Other times I look up and marvel at the daring of the steel workers who built this magnificent structure, many of whom gave their lives.  There was no OSHA back then.

Mostly I listen to podcasts on my IPod and gaze blankly at the frantic cell phone caller, manic makeup putter-oner, and the most breathtaking cityscape on earth.

Thanks Thomas.

Thanks George.

Thank you Fort Lee.

And thank you for visiting.

Jack 

"Martha my dear you have always been my inspiration..."

Martha first arrived in New York in the fall of 1999 to attend the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising. 

As the college had neither a campus nor a dormitory, her first room was a ten by sixteen box with one window that she shared with a roommate.  Located in the the Marcle Salvation Army Residence on West 13th Street, it was not the scenario of which we had dreamed for our daughter's first day of college.  As we left our dear child behind, Roz and I tried to reinforce each other that this was for the best, but in fact, it was all we could do not to rush back and grab her. 

There was, however, one feature that I did like about that room.  The window afforded a a tiny sliver view of the Empire State Building. Wow, thought I, here she is in her first New York apartment and she already has a view of the Empire State Building!  To me, it represented all that was possible for Martha over the following four years at college and beyond in her life.  One could do worse that to be inspired by the Empire State Building while brushing your teeth at the beginning of each day.

That moment flashed back to me last Friday morning while standing on the corner of 33rd Street and 8th Avenue.  At Martha's urging, I had enrolled in the Landmark Forum, an intense fifty hour grind over three plus days that we hoped would help achieve a positive transformation for my life.  This was the school where she had dropped me off.  We both knew I needed it.  I knew I was ready for it.

As I glanced down down 33rd Street, I saw the Empire State Building, vividly showcased against a blinding blue October sky.  It took me back to the Marcal Residence in an instant. 

There had been such changes in less than ten years.  

Martha had graduated, successfully worked through several industry jobs, and was now commuting back in forth to London.  She is helping to establish a New York presence for the British brand Top Shop (www.topshop.com)  As she is involved with recruiting, I must also direct you to the following link if you or anyone you know is interested in a terrific NYC (Soho) retail opportunity starting in the spring 2009. (http://arcadia.peoplebank.com/pbank/owa/arcadia.TopshopTopManSearchUS)

So I'm her father...O.K.?

Martha has the kind of job of which I always dreamed.  She also has the self confidence and drive to make certain that I don't just sit back and live her dream.  She is determined to have me become fully self expressed in all that I think and do.  

My personal development is now her missions as hers was once mine.  

Hence, the introduction to Landmark.  

The recent immersion is now coursing through me and bringing illumination to areas of my being that have been dark for years - if not forever.  

Thanks, Martha.

And thank you for visiting.

Jack

What a Wonderful World

I'm back.  

Thank you loyal readers for your patience!

September seemed to be a lost month.  

The move to Ft. Lee was disorienting and I wasn't feeling well.  The reason turned out to be caused by spinal meningitis which put me in the Englewood Hospital for ten days. 

Thanks to a terrific group of doctors and nurses, and family and friends that were WAY over the top, I'm mostly better now and improving.  I'm happily settled back into 5B. 

My spirits have since been lifted by several Loon related events.  

First, as you can see below, the cover is completed!  

The image is of me on a patrol.  The background is my field map of Gio Linh, Vietnam.  If your eyes surpass mine, you'll note the North Vietnamese border above my head, and several circled mortar targets.

These details will be more apparent on the cover of the actual book which is now available pre-order from Amazon.com.  The link follows:

http://www.amazon.com/Loon-Marine-Story-Jack-Mclean/dp/0345510151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223082251&sr=8-1

Thank you for visiting

Jack