I was sailing aboard a destroyer escort when I served in the Navy. It was a rough sea and I was sick for 4 days. I had no sympathy from my shipmates who offered me sardines and any other number of foods to make my symptoms worse. On the way home, we hit Cape Hatteras and its rough weather. I had gained my sea legs and all my mates were ill. Needless to say, I offered all of the kinds of the most disgusting combination of foods. There is justice.
My uncle who retired as a Rear Admiral had a treasure trove of War Two mementos including shrapnel from a bomb that nearly hit the ship he was commanding. I always enjoyed seeing “The Admiral’s” collection. I was the only one who called him uncle. He married late in life to a wonderful woman Edie. I remember going to his apartment after the marriage and there was a remarkable transformation. All the mementos were gone replaced by landscape scenes and pink walls. I was definitely a feminine transformation of a bachelor pad. I asked my uncle about it. He raised his eyebrows and said, “don’t ask’” and I didn’t.
In the early days of television, there was a very buxom star named Dagmar. She happened to be one of my dad’s patients. Naturally, I wanted to meet or should say see her. My dad called and says she was coming in and I could come by his office and say hello. She was, to say the least very impressive. I asked my dad how he could concentrate on his work when she was in the Dental chair. His answer, with a wink,” was “I only look at her teeth.”
This article reviews the academic research context for terrorism studies before and after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, from the perspective of a long-time specialist in the study of terrorism.
