The Dwarfs, including Richard, had broken up the evening before, and I sat to consider what I was going to do about everything. Hoodoo had gone as far as he could in trying to find anything about the Cobb woman but had come to a dead end with one single minor violation for entering the country in Florida with an expired passport. The only surprising thing about it, other than providing a first name of Viola, was the fact that she’d been permitted to enter the country from Cuba with that out-of-date document. I knew Hoodoo was right when he said that any other information would have to come through someone at the compound, since intelligence agency and federal enforcement information wasn’t available in the public forum. Libraries would be useless to explore as police sources. Unless the woman had committed other violations of the law that were federal in nature then it was almost hopeless to search as states all kept their own legal information.
I sat drinking a bottomless cup of coffee at Tom and Lorraine’s restaurant on Del Mar Avenue, set in the very center of San Clemente trying to come to terms with everything that was going on.
Holy smoke talk about twists and turns!!!! Keep them coming James.
Where we are headed is somewhere between the Twilight Zone and the Outer limits. I wonder how many people reading this stuff
are ready to go there? i wonder if I’m finally ready….
Semper fi, and thanks for the motivating compliment…
Jim
i Love Turnbull and Asser shirts had several
damn business casual
Yes, I came to love them too Richard, especially when I was CIA with an unlimited Amex card and only having to explain myself once a quarter!
Your friend,
Jim
Great chapter,Lt.
But it seems the water is still getting muddier and it is still hard to see through to the murkiness to ascertain what is at the bottom.
Thanks so much Walter for the compliment and accurate observation….
Semper fi,
Jim
Been reading and enjoying each chapter since the beginning of 30 Days. Really riveting – keep up the good work. Im starting to think Richard is/was a Navy Seal and perhaps was the one who was driving the yacht?
Some of you people are present on here! Thanks for the opinion, the sleuthing and the compliment, as well.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Jim, Another riveting chapter, looking forward to seeing you in July when we are in Wisconsin and updating my signed Strauss book collection.
Semper Fi,
Reb
It will be my pleasure to host you in Lake Geneva this July.
Not too many people come here from the selection of vets who are most of my reading base.
You will be most welcome.
Semper fi,
Jim
Amazing; never realized that! I was senior to you by 1309….then as you went through promotion boards you were reorder by the selection process! 2L/Ts initially ranked by Basic School position & commission date. Getting “passed over” put you senior for that rank. Was the SSgt comparing the Stoner to the caliber supposedly used by Oswald?
The Oswald weapon so studied and analyzed was 30 caliber, which is about one third of an inch in diameter. The hold in Kennedy’s head, easily observable
from the still published autopsy photo today is a quarter inch in diameter. Of course, nobody really wants to talk about stuff like that anymore.
A belief system is created and then that creation develops a cement-like quality in people’s heads.
thanks for the question and your usual straight forward comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
OK, I had lots of questions last chapter, now I’m totally lost!! My thoughts on Richard seem to be panning out. The shirt and cufflinks definitely mean you are being watched closely. People seem to know more about you than you know yourself. Great chapter, keep going Lt! Semper Fi Sir
Surveillance professionally is almost impossible to spot unless experienced in what is being used technologically and also
if one is totally paranoid enough to figure out that the results are just those, results, not made up junk. Going backwards to
figure out conclusions based on facts are harder to do than most people think.
thanks,
Semper fi,
Jim
Continuing with the “spookiness” of the Western White House! You sure have one of the most talented writer’s brain I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
Chapter after chapter, you reel in we, the readers, with the increasingly build up of expectations and anticipations.
Great character development, by the way. You are putting flesh on bone of each of the characters as we go along.
Do ya think it will be a done thing by Christmas? If so, I will plan on getting a new book for my little library.
Speaking of libraries, Jim, I’m 77 and fairly eaten by Agent Orange. Don’t know how long it will be, but when I pass, I plan on all my books going to our local library. I will put a note with them indicating “Thirty Days” and the “Cowardly Lion” books are non-fiction.
I copied an pasted your critique to my Facebook pages. What a wonderful critique it is. Do other authors get these kind of compliments that I couldn’t even
be able to dream up and write myself? I don’t know. I’m just on here with your guys and gals and this is so very real. You keep me going and right on
through the difficulties physical and mental you keep plowing me though, like Richard’s boat.
thank you does not suffice.
Your friend,
Jim
DAM SAM!!
Laconic two word gret compliment. Thanks a million.
Semper fi,
jim
“This isn’t entertainment,” I hissed, “there’s danger in whatever’s going on and, apparently, nobody else seems to understand that.”
No kidding LT !!
Great chapter with more undertones of things to come 🙂
SEMPER Fi
You are spot on, as usual, SgtBob. Thanks for the compliment inherent in the body of your comment…again, as usual.
Semper fi, my old friend,
Jim
Hotel Oscar Lima Yankee Sierra Hotel India Tango. All I got LT. SF.
Great compliment in the encrypted message my friend.
Thanks so much.
Semper fi,
jim
James, Never a dull moment.
I only had time for one reading – so may have missed something.
Some minor editing suggestions follow:
The Dwarf’s, including Richard,
no apostrophe
The Dwarfs, including Richard,
trying to find anything out about the Cobb
“out” and “about” seem redundant. Maybe drop “out”
trying to find anything about the Cobb
whirling dervish “Sufi whirling is a form of physically active meditation which originated among certain Sufi groups, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order…” So actually a spiritual exercise, not a negative experience. IIRC mentioned by Rumi.
Now for chaos how about a tornado or cyclone?
whirling cyclone of a world that I was surrounded by.
I’d thought to come home from the hospital and rest
Instead of “to” maybe “I would” or “I’d” If “I’d” then change first “I”d” to “I had”
I had thought I’d come home from the hospital and rest
I put the coffee cup gently down and tried to think of a really nice
way to tell Lorraine to leave me alone.
Backspace to join sentence.
Lorraine said, tapping the pencil against my saucer she usually carried stuck into the bun she made of her hair
Maybe change “the pencil” into “her pencil” and then add “the pencil” before “she usually carried”
Lorraine said, tapping her pencil against my saucer, the pencil she usually carried stuck into the bun she made of her hair
especially since your fresh back from
“You are” or “you’re” instead of “your”
especially since you’re fresh back from
have to trust the people you need to share it with you
Drop final “you”.
have to trust the people you need to share it with.
“You still selling life insurance? she asked
Close quote after question mark
“You still selling life insurance?” she asked
and sometime in the evening
Maybe “sometimes”
and sometimes in the evening
I mean if you make enough commission to pay that?’
Change single quote to double quote at end of sentence
I mean if you make enough commission to pay that?”
you’re going to trust me too., and besides
Several possibilities:
Drop the period after “too”
Keep the period; drop the comma; begin new sentence with “And
you’re going to trust me too, and besides
OR
you’re going to trust me too. And besides
Secret Service agents’ months
Drop apostrophe
Secret Service agents months
as I went through the apartment’s front door
Maybe “came” or “entered” instead of “went”
as I entered through the apartment’s front door
I wasn’t a secret agent but I also know
“knew” instead of “know”
I wasn’t a secret agent but I also knew
quarter of an inch is a lot different than the third
“from” preferred to “than”
quarter of an inch is a lot different from the third
paying for and then begin measure for the required tuxedo.
Maybe “being measured” instead of “begin measure”
paying for and then being measured for the required tuxedo.
“Here,” leaning down to pick up
Maybe add “she said”
“Here,” she said, leaning down to pick up
West Coast that I know of.
Close quote at end of sentence
West Coast that I know of.”
arced along the bottom of the curve.”
no need for quote
arced along the bottom of the curve.
What was he doing and why was whatever he was doing or really was might be important to me
“really was” is unclear. Maybe “who he” before “really”
What was he doing and why was whatever he was doing or who he really was might be important to me
goofy expressions the Dwarf’s al wore
Drop apostrophe. “all” instead of “al”
goofy expressions the Dwarfs all wore
Blessings & Be Well
One reading from you is like a simply Pearly Gates Review by Saint Peter!
Thanks for all your work and how much you care and let me know that on a regular basis.
Most Sincerely,
I remain,
Semper fi,
Jim
I was a pharmacist you met in San Clemente. In the very short time I was acquainted with you, I was changed. You told me the outline of your story and said you were writing a book about it. You showed me the trunk of your 240D and I knew what you revealed had to be true.
Until I read “Thirty Days Hath September,“ I had no clue to the truth of the war in Vietnam
I know that reading the trilogy will never inform my life like the experience you had informed yours.
Knowing you as briefly as I did, never left me. “ Thirty Days” is a trilogy everyone who cares about America should read.
It should be a text for US Military leadership.
Humbly Yours
Leo
Leo Freis. What a brilliant man and the greatest pharmacist I’ve ever known. I haven’t been in contact with you for so long, but you
and your terrific wife have never been far from my thoughts. It is so typically strange of this culture that we can be separated by
geography and then leave the past to slowly decay away until all we have left is a sense of wonder and loss. Your spirit of generosity
and care helped me though a difficult time in San Clemente. I went through some bad periods there and I was ‘carried’ through those by
some very wonderful people. You were, and remain I am certain, one of those wonderful people. I am happy that you have been reading my
works. Thanks for this wonderfully supportive comment…which tells me that you haven’t changed a bit.
Your old friend,
Semper fi,
Jim