What Would Jimmy Do?

President Eisenhower is noted for establishing the Interstate Highway System. He’s also noted for something else that’s probably more important to the country than interstate highways — the establishment of the CRITICOMM System. Here’s a little background in case you don’t know what the CRITICOMM System is….

On October 4, 1957, Russia launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth. The launch was a complete surprise to the intelligence community, including NSA. President Eisenhower didn’t learn about the launch until 24 hours after it occurred. To say he was a little annoyed would be an understatement. The intelligence community had come up short several times under Eisenhower, notably the attack by Israel of Egypt in the Sinai in response to Egypt’s nationalizing of the Suez Canal and Russia’s seizure of Budapest to crush the Hungarian revolution. The Director of NSA issued an alert of the seizure of Budapest, but it didn’t leave the building for seven hours. Again, the President found out about these events well after the fact.

President Eisenhower responded to these failures by establishing several committees to reform the intelligence community. His objective was to see that he had warning of impending crises — not learn of them after they occurred.

One of the reform committees that Eisenhower established was the Critical Communications Committee. The committee defined “critical information” as that information “indicating a situation or pertaining to a situation which affects the security or interests of the United States to such an extent that it may require the immediate attention of the President and other members of the National Security Council.” The committee also recommended that critical information should get to the President within ten minutes of the recognition that it met “Critic” criteria as defined above. President Eisenhower accepted this recommendation in August of 1958 and National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 7 was promulgated.

The problem with the committee’s recommendation was that no communication system existed that could meet the ten-minute deadline.
A study published in 1953, concluded that NSA’s handling time on the most critical information was not less than five or six hours from the time of intercept. NSA told the President that 90 percent of the expected warnings would come from Communications Intelligence (COMINT) so NSA was put in charge of creating the new notification system. NSA’s plan called for the establishment of communications relay centers where messages could be routed faster due to the fact that messages would never have to be re-encrypted to be passed along. One big problem with this plan was the various military services were required to fund the relay centers located near their intercept sites. The services usually chose to use their funding for things other than the relays.

In 1958 when NSA was put in charge of building a CRITICOM system — by 1961 — they did not have an automated relay switch that would satisfy the requirements and the relay centers didn’t exist.

Luckily, two technical achievements came along in time to allow NSA to meet its goal. The two devices were the KW-26 and the shunt box. [These are both good subjects for future blogs — I had a fair amount of experience with both devices.] The KW-26 was an on-line encryption device that speeded up transmissions because it could encrypt communications transmissions in real time. The shunt box was developed by the Teletype Corporation — it was a device that could recognize a unique combination of letters and route messages automatically through the relay centers all the way to Washington. If critical information was being sent, nothing else could travel on those circuits. All the relay centers got built — probably because of the Presidential mandate. The system became operational in 1961 and NSA met its timeline goal.

So next time you’re driving down the interstate highway, thank President Eisenhower, but also remember that because of him, every president since 1961 has been warned of impending crises or potential crisis situations in a timely manner….
— 30 —

We were driving the other day and, I’m not sure why, but I asked Claire what is the difference between a Church and a Chapel. Turns out that neither one of us really knew the answer. We attend St. Agnes Church, but a block or so away is the St. Agnes Chapel. We’ve gone to Mass in both buildings… why is one a church and one a chapel? Well, I figured this subject just begs for some extensive research on my part. Like a lot of things I’ve dug into lately, a satisfactory answer to how a church differs from a chapel is difficult to come by.

Since we go to a Catholic Church, I figured the Code of Canon Law might be a good place to start…
I found these definitions:
Can. 1214 — By the term church is understood a sacred building designated for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of entry for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship.
Can. 1223 — By the term oratory is understood a place for divine worship designated by permission of the ordinary for the benefit of some community or group of the faithful who gather in it and to which other members of the faithful can also come with the consent of the competent superior.
Can 1226 — By the term private chapel is understood a place for divine worship designated by permission of the local ordinary for the benefit of one or more physical persons

These definitions are interesting, but not especially satisfying. My research uncovered some more definitions — some I hadn’t even thought about, but tend to expand the terminology and instead of zeroing in on the solution just expanded the question….
A shrine is not attached to a specific community, whether a parish or an order or school, etc., but usually just to commemorate a specific saint or site or event. It’s a place people visit, but are not regular congregants.
The mother church of a diocese is known as a cathedral. It is the official church of the bishop of a diocese. The greek word cathedra means “chair” or “throne;” the bishop’s “chair” symbolizes his teaching and governing authority and is located in the principal church or “cathedral” of the local diocese, of which he is the chief pastor. The cathedral is always the most important church within a diocese.
A basilica is originally an architectural term — from the Greek basileios (“royal”) and referred to Roman government buildings. When Christianity was incorporated into the Roman Empire, the first public building used for worship were copied after this model, and retained the name and architectural style.

So religious places and/or buildings go by various names and there appears to be a good reason for each being called what it’s called….. obviously this whole subject became much broader in scope than I had anticipated. I though it was pretty simple question but….

Anyhow, here’s what I think, maybe, that I’ve concluded with all my extensive research. To look at the big picture, the Roman Catholic Church is a church — in this case the term church can refer to the entire community of Catholic Christians worldwide or a particular location, like a parish. The Sistine Chapel is a chapel — a physical location/facility.

I think a chapel can be a church, but not all chapels are churches. Some churches have small rooms or structures within the church called chapels — there are also small standalone structures called chapels that don’t have all the characteristics of a church. And there are private chapels or chapels in single rooms in buildings like hospitals, airports, etc.

So….
In summary, this is what I’ve concluded, and I’m going to leave it at that.
A church is a center of a community with its priest — a chapel is not
A church is consecrated — a chapel is not (I’m really not sure about this one)
A chapel can be a structure inside a church — or — inside another building
A chapel is usually a place for individual worship — a church usually has a regular worship service.

I guess if you’re looking for God, you can find him in a church or a chapel. Of course if you’re looking for God and you think you have to go to a church or a chapel to find him, you probably won’t find him at all….
— 30 —

We were talking a few days ago about our first cars and the best and worst car we ever owned… some of us had old Studebakers, and beat up Chevys and Fords, but no one had a “foreign” car when they were growing up. It would be interesting to hear the same conversation from our kids… and grandkids.
Anyhow, I got to thinking about the most unusual “car” that I ever owned. I didn’t own it for long, and legally, I probably never really owned it. Here’s the story….

More than forty years ago I was working in Jakarta (Indonesia.) I was there for several months and traffic was bad, even back then. I stayed at a downtown hotel, but it was maybe a little more than a couple of miles from the American Embassy where I was working. Every morning I’d call a cab to get to work and every morning I wound up waiting and waiting for one to arrive. When they did arrive, they often had to stop to get gas, or the cab broke down on the way to the embassy. All in all it just became a nightmare to get to work every morning.

Jakarta, like a lot of Asian cities, had tons of Peticabs, or as they were called in Jakarta at the time, Cyclos. They were basically a seat with a bicycle attached to the back — there were a lot of them in Vietnam, but most all in Jakarta were motorized. It was cheaper to take a cyclo than a taxi, but the drivers were — to say the least, reckless — and the cyclos were very noisy and all of them spewed black smoke, so sitting in the seat you were subject to all the noise and fumes, plus whatever the weather was at the time.

So after experiencing the cab issue for a couple of weeks, I got fed up one morning and approached a cyclo driver outside the hotel. To make a long story short, I bought his cyclo. I paid him two hundred U.S. dollars and away I went. When I got to work, the guard at the embassy looked at me funny, but waved me in because he knew me. I drove the cyclo everywhere I went while I was there — to work and when I went out to eat. A little kid watched it for me when it was at the hotel and there was always someone to watch it at the various restaurants… never an issue with theft.

One evening the Ambassador had a party at his house we were invited. I gave my co-worker from the Philippines, Conrad, a ride to the party in my cyclo. When we arrived, the guard at the gate was totally confused… it looked like we might be invited guests, but apparently no Americans had ever arrived at the Ambassadors residence driving a cyclo. He started questioning us, and I guess we caused such a commotion, that the Ambassador came out, kind of rolled his eyes, and motioned us on in.

When we left Jakarta, I sold the cyclo back to the guy I bought it from — of course he no longer had the two hundred dollars, so I sold it to him for a few Indonesian rupiahs. It was easily worth the $200 not to have to worry about transportation during my stay.
So that’s the most unusual vehicle I ever owned, or at least I like to think I “owned” it — I never had a title or any paperwork that said it was mine….
— 30 —

The topic of the day after golf last week was Maine. One of our regular golfers spends his summers in Maine, and Kelly, Chris, Emily and the pups are vacationing in Maine with the Giffords. Anyhow, someone said that our friend, Fred, might venture out in his boat and end up in Africa. That statement was met with a few puzzled looks around the table. The speaker went on to explain that Maine was the closest state to Africa…. and the discussion started.

Someone thought Florida was closer to Africa than Maine, so the iPhones came out and the search was on. I think we all learned in geography class that if you cross the Atlantic Ocean from the United States, you can end up in Africa. But where should you leave from along the east coast to make the trip in the shortest distance?

We had three opinions — Florida, North Carolina and Maine. Turns out the correct answer is Maine — all our iPhones agreed. Maine, specifically a peninsula called Quoddy Head, is the closest point in the United States to Africa. The peninsula is home to the Quoddy Head Light, a quaint little lighthouse that is just about 3,154 miles from El Beddouz in Africa.
So golf is not only good exercise for the body, it’s good for the brain, too.
— 30 —

A number of years ago, I had quite a bit of work to do in Jakarta, Indonesia and before returning to Manila, where we lived at the time, I had a couple of things to do in Medan. Medan is located in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra. Claire met me in Singapore where we spent a few days and she accompanied me to Medan.

The trip was memorable — probably more so for Claire than me. We intended to stay at a friend’s house, but after spending a nice evening with them, when they showed us to their “guest house” turning on the light in the bathroom revealed more than a hundred (big) roaches. This isn’t an exaggeration… the floor was completely covered. Needless to say, we went to town and checked into a hotel. But there’s more to this story, and a good subject for another time.

What I intend to talk about was the Medan International Airport. What made me think of this is all the news about the Boeing 737 Max and all the safety issues associated with it. At the time we visited Medan, the 737 was relatively new, but it went through a few growing pains to correct a number of safety related problems. We flew a Malaysian Airlines 737 from Singapore to Medan; the day before we left, the station in Singapore had received an advisory concerning a safety warning for the 737s. We had no problems on the flight and landed at Medan without incident. However, Claire was amazed at the airport — it didn’t look like an international airport. There was a single asphalt runway, 140 feet wide and 9800 feet long, but only 9000 feet of the runway was usable. At both ends of the runway were houses — in fact, the airfield was completely surrounded by a residential area.

The airport basically served flights to several Indonesian and Malaysian cities, but did have a flight to Singapore and Thailand. The official name of the airport was Polonia International Airport and it operated until 25 July, 2013 when the new airport, Kualanamu International Airport opened. The old airport now belongs to the Indonesian Air Force.

I remember asking about the very close proximity of houses to the runway, and was told that the airport was deliberately located in the wealthy Polonia area because of an Indonesian superstition that the loud noises from aircraft drive away malevolent spirits. Strange world…..
— 30 —

This subject has come up before, but last week it surfaced again… everyone seems to have their own opinion as to what the “D” in “D-Day” stands for. During our after golf discussion that address “important subjects,” it was decided that the “d” in d-day stood for departure or decision or doomsday or debarkation or day of decision or just plain day.

The fact is that the “d” doesn’t actually stand for anything — it’s just a placeholder used to designate a particular day on the calendar. Time Magazine reported on June 12, 1944 that “as far as the U.S. Army can determine, the first use of D for Day, H for Hour was in Field order No. 8, of the First Army, A.E.F., issued on Sept. 20, 1918, which read, ‘The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel salient.’” So the term stretches back to World War I. The term allowed units to effectively coordinate their operations ahead of time even when they didn’t know the actual start date, and also provided flexibility in the event that the launch day shifted.

“D-Day” as we have come to know it refers to the morning of June 6, 1944 when Allied forces staged an enormous assault on German positions on the beaches of Normandy, France.
But the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 wasn’t the only D-Day of World War II. Every amphibious assault — including those in North Africa, the Pacific, Sicily, Italy, etc. — had its own D-Day.

Just another point of interest…. we usually see the “D” in D-Day capitalized. That’s because it usually is referring to the Allied invasion of Normandy. It is properly written in lowercase when the term is being used generically, and capitalized when it refers to the 1944 Normandy invasion.
— 30 —

A lot of people, including a few members of our family, believe that a full moon brings out the worst in people. I’ve read all sorts of stories about more suicides, more violence, more accidents, and more aggression occurring when the moon is full. The influence of the moon on behavior has been called “The Lunar Effect” or sometimes, “The Transylvania Effect.”

Claire had to go to the emergency room a number of years ago. She was there several hours and I had to spend most the time in the emergency waiting room. It turns out there was a full moon that night and I do remember a lot of bizarre things going on — it was actually entertaining just sitting there watching. I remember a nurse saying something like, “you can sure tell it’s a full moon tonight.”

Despite all the claims that emergency rooms and police departments are busier on nights when there is a full moon is…. at best, debatable. I won’t bother you with a lot of data, but there is a lot of data as a result of studies attempting to tie the full moon to behavior. The results of the studies are inconsistent. Some studies indicate that a particular behavior will occur more often during a full moon and other studies show no relationship between that behavior and a full moon. Like any study, the parameters are all important. Some of these studies include “full moon” behaviors that occur a few days before and after the full moon, while other studies include only those behaviors within a single day of the full moon. Inconsistency is  pretty much the story with all “lunar-effect” claims — when you look at them closely, they fall apart.

So how do we explain all those cops and emergency room nurses who believe in the lunar effect? It may be because nobody notices when there’s a full moon and nothing happens — you only notice when something does happen. It’s kind of like heads I win, tails don’t count…. or — maybe not.

But anyhow, once a month, sometimes twice a month, there’s gonna be a full moon (it’s possible to have month without a full moon — it doesn’t happen often, but it happened in February 2018. It can only happen in the month of February.)
So if you’re a believer, plan a nice quiet night at home once (or twice) a month…. except for those years you can live it up all month in February.
— 30 —

Over the years, I’ve had a number of occasions to have physical therapy. I’ve been told, and I don’t disagree, that this type of treatment can do miraculous things for certain aches and pains or injuries. I have friends that swear they have been helped tremendously by “PT.” I’m certainly in no position to argue with them.

There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands, of methods to treat aches, pains and injuries… there are many alternative treatments that are experimental at best, and probably too good to be true.

In my experience, many physical therapy treatments are based on some really antiquated ideas and offer surprisingly little evidence that they accomplish what they are supposed to. It isn’t quackery, but it certainly falls short of good, modern procedures with proven benefits.

You can probably tell by now that I am of the opinion that physical therapy is over rated and mostly unnecessary. There is a physical therapy facility in just about every shopping center and more opening every day. It’s inconceivable to me that so many people have something wrong with them that can supposedly be helped, or cured, by physical therapy.

After my numerous experiences with PT, I think it’s a trick. Their “treatment” is to give you so many exercises that other parts of your body begin to hurt and it takes your mind off the original problem. If you have a headache, and you hit your thumb with a hammer, your headache goes away….
— 30 —

Yesterday I’d mentioned that I lived on Tu Do Street when I was in Saigon. It was, and still is, the most historic street in Saigon. It’s original name was Rue Catinat (the French seem to always attach rue to the names — I think basically means street or road.) Anyhow, the street was home to the city’s most famous hotels, restaurants, bars, boutiques and retail establishments. It was named for Nicolas Catinat, a French military officer between the 17th and 18th century.

The street has undergone two name changes in the relatively recent past. Between 1955 and 1975, during the Vietnamese War, it was known as Tu Do Street. That translates into Freedom Street. Once South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam it was changed to Dòng Khòi that translates to General Insurrection or Total Uprising Street.

So the street, as well as Vietnam, has gone through a lot of changes through the years… Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City and Tu Do is now Dòng Khòi — but I guess I’ll always remember it as Tu Do Street.
— 30 —

Fifty years ago today, the US astronauts landed on the Moon. It’s one of those events that just about everyone can remember where they were when it happened. I was in Saigon at the time and I watched the moon landing “live.” It wasn’t in color and the small TV’s picture wasn’t particularly “crisp and clear.” I wondered if the picture quality was due to a poor signal from the moon or the condition of the TV.

The TV was located in a bar (I don’t remember the name of the bar) on Tu Do Street — a street famous for its bars during the war… and also the street where I lived for three years. It turns out that July 20, 1969 was a Sunday and by 1969 the war in Saigon had subsided enough that we didn’t work Sundays. (I only mention that so you don’t think I was shirking my duties.)

Like most people, I guess, I was excited and proud to be an American.
— 30 —