Mister Rogers and the U.S. Navy

Connected, but not quite how you think. Plus, uniforms and why some people wear them, links to the sunglasses companies I mentioned, and 7 other things worth reading.

In 2017, a Navy destroyer called the USS Fitzgerald collided with a cargo ship off the coast of Japan.

It was a terrible tragedy. Seven sailors were killed.

The destroyer’s captain, Commander Bryce Benson, had been asleep in his cabin during the 1:30 a.m. collision.

His naval career was over. He even faced a court-martial, although the Navy ultimately dropped the charges and decided to let him to retire.

Afterward, the guilt and the pain of being abruptly cut off from the military life he’d known were tough. As his case unfolded, he coped in part by volunteering at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Benson wore “a yellow polo shirt and ball cap stitched with the word ‘volunteer’ and the round emblem of the national park,” reporter Meg Rose wrote this week, in covering his story for Pro Publica.

“This,” he told her, “has provided me a place to come in a uniform.”

I’m Bill Murphy Jr. Welcome to Understandably, a daily email newsletter.

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