Saturday, March 28, 2009

"I've got to get back to that sugar shack, whoa baby..."


It's early spring in Vermont.

Horses are in search of a green pasture sprout.

Oxen are taking an early peak from the barn.

The Red Sox are heading north.


And from every hollow and hill throughout the state there are plumes of steam evaporating above the treetops.

It's sugaring-off season.


The taps in the sugar maple trees bring a steady drip of fresh sap into the covered tin buckets.


The buckets are gathered and dumped into the vat

While workers feed the fire...all day and well into the night if the sap is running.

Oh, and lest I forget, mud season.

Thank you for visiting.

Sugar Shack by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs 

Friday, March 20, 2009

"Satisfy my Soul..."

I am a regular listener of podcasts.  Like this picture of Knotts Island, they satisfy my soul.

For the uninitiated, podcasts can be downloaded from iTunes and synced to your iPod/Phone.  All of mine are free. I listen to them at my desk while writing, on my daily walks across the George Washington Bridge, and on long car trips.  Podcasts provide me with a delicious mix of news, opinion, ideas, and entertainment.

Following are highlights from my playlist.  Although I regularly listen to them all, I've put an asterisk next to my favorites: 
  • Apple Quick Tips (video)
  • Best of YouTube (video)
  • Bill Moyers Journal*
  • Front Page (a daily update of the NYT front page)*
  • Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips*
  • Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips
  • The Moth Podcast (true stories told live without notes)*
  • New Yorker: Comment
  • 7AM News Summary (NPR)*
  • Fresh Air (NPR)*
  • Planet Money (NPR)*
  • Pop Culture (NPR)
  • Simon Says (NPR)
  • Story of the Day (NPR)
  • The Nutrition Diva's Quick and Dirty Tips
  • On the Media (WNYC)*
  • Onion News Network (video)
  • The Onion Radio News*
  • Only in New York (NYT)
  • Suze Orman & Oprah Financial Podcast
  • Pen on Fire (writers)
  • The Best of Our Knowledge (PRI Wisconsin Public Radio)*
  • Real Time With Bill Maher*
  • Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson (WNYC)
  • Stuff you Missed in History Class*
  • This American Life (Chicago Public Radio)*
  • This Week in Tech (Leo Laporte & the TWITers)
  • Times Talks (NYT)
  • Radio Lab (WNYC)
  • 60 Minutes
  • 60 Second Earth (Scientific American)*
Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting.

Satisfy My Soul by Bob Marley & the Whalers

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

"Sowing the seeds of Love..."

Random House recently asked that I write an exclusive piece for Amazon.com that would expand on some element of Loon: A Marine Story.

I decided to use the initial correspondence between Bill Negron and me from 1993. These letters were the original beginning of the book, but were left on the cutting-room floor.

Bill is shown in this photo with Dan Burton and me at our first meeting in the fall of 2000. The Amazon piece follows:

"The seeds for Loon: A Marine Story were planted in 1993.  I was working in Washington, DC.  Bill Negron, our company commander in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Division, was teaching English as a Second Language to Vietnamese children in Scottsdale, Arizona.


I’d had no contact with my marine buddies since I departed Vietnam in July 1968. I had been a corporal serving out the final weeks of my enlistment. Negron had been a captain beginning his second tour in Vietnam.

Over time, I was able to locate him and write the following letter:

Dear Skipper, 

There must be little in you that could recall me after twenty-five years back in the world, but your memory rekindles in me often in a most positive way.

I was visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial last night saying yet another fond good evening to our many friends. It’s been twenty-five years since those awful three days that we spent in June 1968 on LZ Loon. The Wall has a lot of black marble dedicated to the memory of our company mates.

I have lost touch with everyone that was with us.  I pushed the experience out of me for many years. Time has smoothed out the rough edges, however, and I am increasingly interested in trying to figure out what in the world was going on over there and how others of us have reacted over time.

What happened with you? Perhaps you were awarded a Navy Cross or a Silver Star. I can think of no one, Skipper, who upheld higher standards of character under fire than you did.  You were an exceptional leader and I owe you my life for getting us off that hill.

Bill’s reply arrived several weeks later.

Dear Jack,

There is still a part of my memory left that recalls you, not many of my troopers left Vietnam to go to Harvard.  I haven’t heard from more than two or three guys who survived “Loon”.

I’ve only been to the wall once; it was one of those snowy cold winter days that shuts DC down. My tears froze on my face.  Yes, Charlie Company is well represented in black marble.  It is up to us, the living to keep their memory alive. We must remember them as they were, laughing, talking, having a beer.

I returned to Vietnam in 1973, my third tour.  I guess I got pretty burnt out and became a real problem for my family and the Cops.  I did manage to eventually retire in 1981 as a Lieutenant Colonel.  My first wife divorced me because she thought I was a little “fucked up”, she was probably right.

P.S.  I was nominated for a Navy Cross, but it was downgraded to a Silver Star.  I’m very proud of my Silver Star.

Several days later, I was surprised to receive the following letter from Bill’s wife Myrna:

Dear Jack,

The letter you wrote my husband, Bill Negron, brought him to tears.  He believes very strongly that his kids from Vietnam may be suffering.  He feels responsible for every man that served with him that didn’t make it home.
Seeking Bill out was important to him.  He is proud of you, and I think that’s important for you to know.  I wish he could hear from other men that were with him.

I never fully understood the meaning of closure or PTSD until I met Bill and other Vets from Vietnam.  If you know of any other men that served with you, I’m sure Bill would like to know they made it home.

Bill Negron is probably the toughest, kindest, gentlest man on earth. This is the man I married and the man you fought next to in Vietnam.  He is a proud American, and very proud of you too.

From that moment, Bill Negron and I began to track down the lost boys of Charlie Company one by one. 

Tens years later, I was driven to write our story. It has been at once the most glorious and humbling experience of my life."

Thank you for visiting.

Author's note: Many readers have expressed interest in the, occasionally oblique, song references that I use for my titles. Heretofore I will endeavor, at the conclusion of each blog, to identify same for those few who may miss the link.

Sowing the Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

"Wanna see my picture on the cover, Wanna buy five copies for my mother..."

Earlier this week, the actual Loon dust jacket emerged from the uber-talents at Random House.

Here's a first look at the front/back cover and the inside flaps.

Very cool.

I'm beginning to get emails from other survivors of the Battle for LZ Loon. For many, this book is a validation of that which they endured 41 years ago.  

I am unable to describe the feeling. Loon began as a remembrance for my three daughters. It slowly morphed into a beacon for my fellow veterans of Charlie Company. It is now emerging as a validation for countless Vietnam veterans and their families.

Vietnam really did happen.  

We really did fight in a war.  

Lots of our brothers died.  

We are all safely home.

It's time to let go.

Thank you for visiting.

On the cover of the Rolling Stone - Dr. Hook