I call this series “Just Vignettes” because that’s what they are, just short snapshots of things that have happened to me or have been told to me. I can vouch the stories you read here are mostly true.

The Bahrain night of January 16, 1991, was cold and crisp. Our captain, who commanded the USS San Jose, had offered to buy dinner for most of the officers not on duty at a restaurant in the city of Manama. President George H. W. Bush’s ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait was set to expire in about six hours. All indications were that Saddam had not and would not comply...