Tough memories

A throwback, an admiral, a general ... and Falco. Also, 7 other things worth your time.

A little while ago — 32 newsletters ago, in fact — I shared the story of a South Vietnamese air force pilot named Buang-Ly, who stole a single-engine, two-seater airplane during the fall of Saigon, packed it with his wife and five children, and escaped advancing communist forces via a daring landing aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier.

One of my little down-time work hobbies since then has been to try to track down either Buang-Ly or his family, hopefully to interview them and learn what Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story” — what happened once they arrived in the U.S.

(I have a few leads, but no payoffs yet. You never know who might read this article, so if you happen to know them, please pass this along.)

Today, I’d like to talk about another character in that story, as a jumping off point to highlight someone else who marked a big milestone yesterday — both for himself and for the United States.

The “other character” in the Vietnam story is Admiral Lawrence Chambers, who…