WHO THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS ANYWAY? PART 2
Editor's Note: This is actually part 3 of a series published a year ago on the personnel of the American Admiralty Information Services network. Last week we published part one and promised to specifically introduce you to these two maritime scholars last week. We decided to rerun the crew's introduction because last week we picked up 400 new readers from France, 43 from Great Britain, and about 100 new American readers.
Anyone new to the blog can't help but notice that we rarely attribute posts to real people. Either one of our fish staffers writes the article or one of our humans using a pen name. We have a reason for that. We often have to tell truth to power or truth about power. Power doesn't like truth so we try to insulate the staff from power on the rampage. But you the reader should have a good idea of the level of nautical and maritime expertise of the real flesh and blood people who do the writing and editing. So in this series we give real biographical information but associate that real information by pen name only. Today we introduce you to two of our older mentors within the group.
Anyone new to the blog can't help but notice that we rarely attribute posts to real people. Either one of our fish staffers writes the article or one of our humans using a pen name. We have a reason for that. We often have to tell truth to power or truth about power. Power doesn't like truth so we try to insulate the staff from power on the rampage. But you the reader should have a good idea of the level of nautical and maritime expertise of the real flesh and blood people who do the writing and editing. So in this series we give real biographical information but associate that real information by pen name only. Today we introduce you to two of our older mentors within the group.
 |
A Different Motley Crew From Another Time and PlaceMeet Vegee and Yoda
"Vegee" is a retired senior commissioned officer of the one of the sea services that will go unnamed, a marine educator, and lawyer, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Mechanical Engineering and a leader in the maritime labor movement as well as a working licensed U.S. Merchant Marine Engineering Officer. He was once the commanding officer of Og and later his academic boss when Og was a nautical educator. It was Vegee who taught Og "there is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting". Vegee has written for publication many times and actually signs his real name. You have read something by him in our blog not so long ago as a news release. He has an official position within the National Mariners Association. Vegee is actually older than Og which really makes him one day older than water and two days older than dirt but he is the one among us who exemplifies the Buck attitude of utter fearlessness.
The Yoda is so named because he is small of stature but a mental and spiritual giant, and he literally lives in a South Louisiana swamp that looks for all the world like the Yoda lair in Star Wars. The Yoda is a former nautical arts and science educator and author of nautical texts many times over. He virtually invented the National Mariner's Association. He has a 1600 ton ocean master's license and experience working in the offshore oil and mineral industry both on board ship and in management. He has often been constructively critical in print about certain Coast Guard policies and programs. Despite the fact that his criticisms of the USCG have been constructive, as we have so often said power doesn't like truth and he has been called in print "Coast Guard Public Enemy Number One". Unfortunately for the USCG the YODA has never been proved wrong in the long haul. We don't call him the YODA for nothing. You have read many pages of his stuff if you read the National Mariners Association reports some of which we have reprinted on these pages. In the maritime world there is only one Yoda and in South Louisiana we know how to find him.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment