Historical Archives - OPPREMO

Swift Boat Down

Mimi — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 00:42:04 +0000

A Swift Boat is sunk by two rockets from an unidentified aircraft near the border between North and South Vietnam. It is June 15/16th, 1968, around midnight, and now five sailors are dead or missing. Two survivors and several witnesses report seeing lighted aircraft that move and hover like helicopters flying in the area. U.S. Jets are scrambled to the scene and report hits on enemy aircraft. The following night the jets return hunting the elusive helicopters and in the confusion, one American Cruiser and one Australian Frigate, are hit by air-to-air missiles. The result is two dead and eleven wounded aboard the Australian ship and minor damage to the American Cruiser. An investigation, based on pieces of U.S. Missiles found on the two ships, determine that it was “friendly fire”. This sailor was aboard another Swift Boat, PCF-12, patrolling south of the sunken boats position. Ordered to the scene to assist in the rescue, PCF-12 came under attack by helo type aircraft, identified as hostile, receiving one rocket and machine gun fire. This Swift Boat returned a deadly barrage of 50 caliber machine gun and other small arms fire causing the two helos to break contact and run away. The crew believes that one of the helos was damaged or shot down by this hail of gunfire. The investigation findings were “friendly fire” mostly because of the lack of wreckage of the helos and the pieces of Sparrow missiles found on board USS Boston and HMAS Hobart. News accounts attempted to connect the two incidents by blaming the same pilots for attacking the ships and sinking the Swift Boat. This book uses official records, logs, and message traffic to back up eye witness testimonies that refute the “friendly fire” decision. There are many people affected by this story. Those of us that were there have carried pieces of this incident in our memories for 37 years. Families and friends of the dead and missing have wondered about the truth behind the decision of “friendly fire” vs “hostile fire”. This book will answer many of those questions and put many lives at rest again.

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Of Hope

Mimi — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 11:22:48 +0000

The book also describes the hope engendered by my remarriage and my remarkable family. The epilogue describes the current reality of the Covid 19 pandemic and the rising awareness of the need to heal the long unfair relationship with black Americans as well as an increasing deprived underclass. The book suggests bringing hope to those now deprived using some of the methods of absorption we used in Israel.

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Under Vesuvius

Mimi — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 02:05:11 +0000

Under Vesuvius: A Reflective Travelogue in Verse and Prose traces a 2016 vacation in and around Sorrento, Italy. In the spirit of the Grand Tour and Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, the author writes about sights and sounds of the Italian countryside, shorelines and islands around the Tyrrhenian Sea, from Naples to the Amalfi Coast and the islands of Ischia and Capri. Under Vesuvius celebrates life in what feels like a magical land of cliffs and flowers, olives and lemons, evidenced by locals met along the way. It simultaneously discovers and contemplates lessons from the region’s long past peoples and the places and edifices they left behind, whether still incredibly above ground and undisturbed for two millennia in Paestum, or sadly buried for as long by Vesuvius in Pompeii and Herculaneum. This book urges a consideration of faith, art, sacred spaces, friendship, honor, witnessing truth in the face of abusive secular and ecclesial authority, the holiness of a person’s name, and the relentless, devastating effects of lead toxicity on unsuspecting victims two millennia ago and in our current day.

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This Last Mission

Mimi — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 02:05:08 +0000

Consuelo sat watching her air force pilot husband pack his flight bag and prepare for a mission. The mission was for an undetermined number of days to an unspecified location. He could not tell her where he was going nor how long he would be away. She was a seasoned military wife. She knew not to ask. Jeff was a B-2 bomber pilot.
She sat quietly trying to beat back tears as she became lost in memories of their lives together. She had to be strong. She didn’t want to show signs of weakness and give him anything to worry about on the home front. She dreaded the lonely days and nights that lay ahead while she waited and wondered where he was, and if he was safe. She knew she would be notified if he wasn’t.

Days later, Jeff called. “It is just a cat and mouse, waiting game. We are hoping against hope and praying with all our might that we do not have to take off unless it is to return home. We are waiting for the other shoe to fall.”
“Oh Jeff, we are praying that cool heads will prevail, and that the enemy doesn’t decide to escalate the rhetoric with his threats. The world is holding its breath.”

As they were saying their goodbyes, Consuelo could hear the alert horn sounding over the phone. Jeff quickly said, “Goodbye, honey. Love you Gotta go.” And the line went dead.
Consuelo sat in stone silence praying for his safety and for all the other pilots and military personnel who were scrambling to their duty stations and airplanes because of impending danger. She prayed silently that it was a false alarm and not a real and present danger to America or our allies.

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