My Girl was an EST’y and a Very Good Cook. Werner Earhart was Our Dinner Guest Several Times.

Werner’s delightfulness came from the fact that every conversation with him was always 100% fresh. He brought no assumptions, no memories of prior talks, no past gripes, or premises.

Every conversation began at Zero.

So, it was fresh.

It was like he hit “clear” on a calculator, and wiped out all previous numbers, equations, or items in memory.

This is a very energetic way to encounter a person.

Clear. Start at Zero.

Be really really, there there, with them, right there.

I don’t know where Werner learned this but he seemed to know a lot about Zen.

He loved to laugh. He was always ready to make s joke, or get a joke that somebody else made.

Werner was charming. I did not resent my girl liking him. Or cooking extra special for him.

She was a devoted ESTy. She brought me a lot of what Werner taught her. I ended up being an ESTy once removed.

The EST view was fully present in the Special Forces people I later was privileged to work with.

They sensed that I was sort of on their wavelength.

They did what I asked them to do. They trusted me as a diplomat, as a JAG, and as an observer.

They knew I was on the Admiral’s staff. They may have thought the things I said came from the Admiral. They never did. I never told the Admiral anything he did not need to know. My job was to make his life simpler, not more complicated.

I made the SEAL team stop their Benny Hill salutes to Senior officers. They were about to be written up. JAGs make trouble not happen. Things that don’t happen rarely make the news.

I observed the Greyback hearing as a note-taker. I observed the SEAL team on some training exercises. My diplomacy duty are was from Pearl to Oman East Africa — about 1/3 of the world.

My background in high explosives was why the SEALs picked me over two other JAGs who actually knew a LOT more law than I did. I never knew any law. I relied on a pal at JAG Headquarters to write all my legal briefs. I signed them, but I did not know what they said. But the Judges did know. So I had clout. I never suggested to any Judge that I knew anything about law. They knew I was just a work-a-day trial lawyer — a brawler, not a scholar.

We did get rid of some Huks that were shooting Katushyas over the fence. SEALs a very quiet. It only takes 4 foot pounds of force to drive a dagger into the brain. The Huk goes out like a light. Not one sound.

Subic was a place I liked to be. I did a LOT of Summary Courts Martial. On ships tied up at the docks.

Cubi was actually an important place. The Magazine was in the jungle behind Cubi. I had a jungle ready motorcycle so I saw all hundred buildings. I was attacked by a wild boar but he missed me. Left a dent in my motorcycle.

Navy later made me the Deputy JAG at CRUITCOM and paid for my MBA at GW.

Washington was OK, but not a patch on the good times I had at Subic Bay in the Philippines.