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Quote by Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"

“Ruling Venezuela as the unelected military strongman from 1948 to 1950 and as President from 1952 to 1958. The President of Venezuela was Marcos Pérez Jiménez, a Venezuelan General, who also considered himself to be a civil engineer. He spent much of the country’s oil profits modernizing the infrastructure, including the construction of the new Caracas to La Guaira highway. The new road was terribly expensive requiring bridges and tunnels. Two tunnels alone cost $20,000,000 and nearly broke the State Treasury, but the road was completed in 1953, just in time for me to ride on it up the mountains to Caracas. The old taxi went uphill at very steep angles, reaching an altitude of 7,400 feet before dipping back down into the city. Looking into the deep ravines next to what had been the old road, I could see wrecks of the vehicles that were unlucky enough to have gone off the road. Finally crossing the top of the Coastal ridge, we followed the winding road down into the extinct volcanic basin that housed the capital city. As we got closer to the downtown district, I noticed that the Guardia National police were everywhere! The traffic was horrendous and there was a layer of smog in the valley, but everything was reasonably quiet except for loud banging sounds. Since there was a noise ordinance in Caracas, cars were not permitted to blow their horns. Instead, the cabdrivers banged the side of their car door with their hand.”

Quote by Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"

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Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"

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“On December 22, 1946, it was during a meeting at the Hotel Nacional that Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante, Jr. from Tampa, Florida, and other underworld figures planned Havana’s future as the new playground for the Americas. Joe Bananas, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, just to mention a few of the Mafia hierarchy, were present for the largest Mafia forum since the Chicago meeting of 1932. One of the main topics at the Havana Convention was the narcotics trade. It was a long-standing myth that the Mafia was against narcotics trafficking. Their involvement actually started when Luciano was a kid and running narcotics for the mob in New York City.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "The Exciting Story of Cuba"
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“In 1939, a poet and author, Robert P. Tristram Coffin, recorded and put his version of this bizarre story to paper, as prose. I presume that he changed the name from Bucksport to Tucksport, to allow it to be considered fiction. In this rendition, Colonel Buck, being a Justice of the Peace and the highest civil authority, took it upon himself to have the woman nailed to the door of her home and then callously had the house set on fire. In this interpretation, her last words were that she would haunt the Colonel forever. In Robert P. Tristram Coffin’s version, it almost seems that the story of Robert Trim was commingled with the story of Jonathan Buck. The story continues that after the roar of the fire subsided, the woman’s son pulled his mother’s only remaining limb out of the fire and struck Colonel Buck on his back with his mother’s barbequed leg, thereby crippling Colonel Buck for life. Bad as the story was before, it became even more macabre under the pen of Robert P. Tristram Coffin.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“Bacardi Limited was started in Santiago de Cuba by Facundo Bacardí Massó, a wine merchant. Having immigrated to Cuba from Spain in 1830, he refined the method of making a quality rum, which until then was considered an inferior drink compared to grain whiskey. Filtering the rum through charcoal gave it a smoother taste and made it the drink of choice in the island nation. One hundred years later, the company headquarters moved into an art deco building in Havana. Other than drinking it straight, the favorite way of drinking rum was with Coca-Cola, which is now called a “Cuba Libre.” At the time I was there, the midshipmen bought cases of rum for very little money and brought them back to the ship without anyone objecting. The Navy also routinely flew to Cuba, and brought airplane loads of Bacardi Rum back to Pensacola, on what were called “Rum Runs.” This was not considered smuggling, but rather was thought of as “routine multi-engine training flights for U.S. Navy SNB-5 pilots.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“The red light district in the old section of San Juan was around Calle Del Cristo. The Army operated a Pro-Station, right in the middle of this area, and its bright blue identifying lights served as the lighthouse to guide us in. We arrived believing that we had safety in numbers, so the three of us went into one of the many rowdy sailors’ bars that had the kind of atmosphere we were looking for. Before long, we were throwing back Cuba Libres and laughing with some young ladies, who had magically appeared and were hanging onto our arms. The loud Latin beat drowned out our conversation, but there was no doubt but that the girls knew what we wanted. I was still hesitant about going through with it. I had thoughts in the back of my head of the recent warnings. I nearly chickened out, but as my brother used to say “the juices were flowing!” “This story is happily continued on page 301 in “Salty & Saucy Maine.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“Bundled up in my gloves, woolen thirteen-button bell-bottomed uniform pants, navy blue shirt and pea coat, with the flaps up, I negotiated the slippery steep incline of High Street. I knew that I was in Maine, known for adverse weather, but this was unreal. It was all I could do to hang onto this precious cargo with my cold fingers in my wet gloves, and put one foot in front of the other. Little by little, I made progress against the elements but, the longer it took to walk the distance, the more I looked like a snowman. Now the white stuff was getting heavier, and started to pile up. It stuck to my uniform, turning the dark blue to white. By the time I got as far as Congress Street, my feet and fingers were totally numb again, and my ears frozen. The box was getting heavier by the moment and I couldn’t even cover my ears with my hands. Finally I just put the box down into the snow, crouched down against a building, and pulled my pea coat over my head. Breathing into it, I managed to generate a little heat. I pressed the flaps of the coat against my ears until I could feel them again. Aside from my frozen feet, I warmed up enough this way to be able to continue. Picking up the box, I got up and once again faced the harsh elements. There was little sign of life, and with this cold wind, I could easily have gotten frostbite. Most people who lived in Maine had better sense than to be out under these arctic conditions. The plows had not cleared the streets yet, and behind me I could see a lone car spinning its wheels, trying in vain to make the steep grade. Once again I had to put down the box. I took off my gloves and tried to warm my hands by blowing onto them, as I did a little dance stomping my feet, but nothing helped anymore; my hands and feet were numb. When I picked the box up again, the bottom was caked with snow, making matters even worse! With only a short distance left I thought about Ann and the aroma from baking brownies, so I continued trudging on. I could now see the statue of Longfellow, slouched in his massive chair. “Hi, Henry. What do you think of this glorious weather?” Not getting an answer, was answer enough. I was convinced that his bronze butt was frozen to the chair, but in spite of the weather, he still looked comfortable!”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“As the librarian of the Buck Memorial Library, Geraldine Spooner, pointed out, the legend ignored many conflicting facts. Colonel Buck was described in the Bangor Historical Magazine as being a man of strong mind, retentive memory, and steadfast purpose. For instance, the Colonel was only a Justice of the Peace, not a Judge! He didn’t have the legal authority to pronounce the death sentence on anyone, much less his mistress. He was considered a righteous man of exemplary piety, who was respected by all. After all, in 1779 the Colonel had organized his own troops and, leading them, stormed the British garrison at Castine. This attack was repelled by the British, but Colonel Buck became a legend. The early history of Buckstown never had a bad thing to say about their Colonel. In March of 1795, the Colonel died and was laid to rest in the small village cemetery close to the tidal water, under a headstone that was inscribed to read “In Memory of the Hon. Jonathan Buck, Esq. who died March 18, 1795 in the 77 year of his age.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“GI’s were returning to the United States and many others were being shipped to the Pacific to finish what looked to be a difficult battle ahead. The Japanese soldiers were a formidable foe, many of whom were willing to die for their country. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and three days later dropped one on Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese Navy was now unable to continue conducting operations and their army would no longer be able to withstand an Allied invasion of the Japanese islands. Less than a week later, on September 2, 1945, Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the Japanese Instrument of an unconditional Surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor. In the United States, everyone celebrated VJ Day, Victory over Japan Day, and the end of the war.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"
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“The capital city of the Dominican Republic is Santo Domingo, founded in 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher’s brother. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo served as President from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, continuing to rule for the rest of the time as an unelected strongman using figurehead presidents. He renamed the capital city of the Dominican Republic to Ciudad Trujillo after himself. His régime lasted for over thirty years, until his assassination on May 30, 1961, while riding in his car on the outskirts of the city. After he was gunned down, his riddled body was taken to France and interred in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, bringing to an end “La Era de Trujillo.” Six years later Trujillo’s body was moved to the El Pardo Cemetery near Madrid, Spain, where it now rests.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“Our efforts to brace and strengthen the ceiling in the dark and dismal cellar of our home, with poles that were spaced about three feet apart, soon proved to be totally inadequate. We also fashioned window and door guards using scrap iron and steel as protection against the nightly rain of relentless horror by the bombings from above. Every time an air raid alarm sounded the five children and three women, living in this old building, stumbled down into the dark, damp basement. It was extremely difficult for one person to fit a baby carriage down the steep stairs and since my baby daughter’s pram was just too large for me to handle alone, I had to lift Ursula out of it and carry her down steep stairs to our makeshift subterranean pantry. The extreme cold of winter made the intolerable situation even worse. To care for little Ursula, my baby girl, I was forced to sit on the floor of this subterranean pantry. I can still remember the thick coarse material of the heavy coat I wore, as I crouched in what I thought was a protected corner, on the dirt floor. With the upturned collar of my heavy coat scratching my cheeks and uncertain of my surroundings, I fumbled and struggled in the dark and severe cold trying to burp, change and nurse my small, hungry child.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Suppresed I Rise"
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