Published October 19, 2021 in DemCast and written by Alvina McHale.

In the fall of 1969, I started my first job as a caseworker on Capitol Hill. Over the next 7½ years, some days were terrible, like the ones when I worked to return home for funeral services the bodies of loved ones who had died in Vietnam. Other days were memorable; I once flew to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the launch of an Apollo mission to the moon. And then there was the day I stood with other staffers in the back of a Senate Watergate hearing and realized Richard Nixon would not likely survive as president. I was not afraid. I was confident the country would weather the storm. Read more.

Published October 13 in the Sun Gazette and written by Alvina McHale.

Fifty years ago, long before the poet Maya Angelou used these words, my mother said to me: When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Those words were good advice to a young woman. They are good advice today for Virginians less than a month away from electing a new governor. Read more.

When the 25-year-old James Madison did not sign the Declaration of Independence, and when the rest of the Founding Fathers (never the Founding Mothers) that NC-11 Rep. Madison Cawthorn constantly evokes created the Constitution, the average life expectancy in the newly created U.S. was 38 years, give or take. So the minimum age of 25 for Congress, as per the 1787 Constitution, assumed an entirely different life experience than that of today. The equivalent age today, factoring the change in life span of 78 years, would be 51. Which is to say that Cawthorn needs another 26 years before he can approach anything resembling the maturity needed to be a Congressman. Or from another mathematical angle, a John or Abigail Adams would deem Cawthorn’s maturity level to be approximately that of an 11-year-old child.

Thank God I wasn’t a Congressman in my twenties. Not that I wanted to be…

For the past months, I have been going through all the letters I wrote to my wife from SEA.

16 June 1973:  just when I was getting somewhat settled into my combat routine – we lost one.  An F-4 took a direct hit while dive-bombing a Triple-A position (AAA – Anti-aircraft artillery weapons).  The aircraft went in, no chutes, no survivors. This was a real wake-up.  When you fly there is a trap that many fall into complacency.  We had been warned about this repeatedly at RTU.  Although Cambodia was not as dangerous as flying north, it still was dangerous.  

Years later, I learned more of the details about this loss. In 2009, I read Colonel Phil “Hands” Handley’s excellent account of his flying career: Nickel on the Grass.   Handley told about his long friendship with GIB Captain Jack Smallwood and how he was stunned to learn of his death…

This appears to me to be headed towards an authoritarian act intent on waging war on the American people – a top/down coup orchestrated by a president bound and determined to have his way and remain in office no matter what he feels he needs to do to retain and extend his power beyond the next election. We don’t need martial law. We do need one who leads rather than dictates – who solves problems rather than trying force everyone else to be content to live lives of increasing desolation and quiet desperation. What will happen if his calls to violent action are allowed to escalate   on a continually increasing.

Trump needs to learn in no uncertain terms that a president is not above the law and will not be permitted to shred the Constitution on a whim. We need a government of, by and for the PEOPLE, not Donald…

When you fly in the military there is a path that you follow.  All do it.   You start as a student flier, earn your wings, become qualified in a certain aircraft, move on as a squadron member, and then if you are proficient, and do well, become an instructor for others.

From there you might become a member of the unit’s Stan Eval shop –or Standards Evaluation – which is the group that annually checks that fliers to make sure they are qualified and certifies their abilities in the air.

It  also should be noted that flying in the military is not just strapping on a fighter and taking off.  There are countless jobs that are done in addition to the primary duty of flying: Administration officer, schedulers, flight commanders, operations officers, supply officer, and the list goes on and on.

And if you are really crazy enough  you become…