"That's no-man's-land out there. It would suck up Kimball Valley and burn clear to Barona — another 4000 acres—there wouldn't be anything we could do to stop it before it got to Wildcat Road."

Glen Hall, torpedo room

Photo by Robert Burroughs

Aboard the Blueback

"Our people need to know what the bad guys are going to sound like — if they ever become bad guys .... Excuse me,” Fargo says suddenly. “Chief, do you smell smoke?” he calls through his doorway. “I think I smell smoke.” After four men sniff alertly in the area of the wardroom, Fargo is assured that he’s smelling paint from work being done topside.

By Neal Matthews, Nov. 29, 1984 Read full article

John Howard. Blood has soaked his sock and collected in his shoe. His wrist hangs in languid pain.

Photo by Craig Carlson

150 miles an hour on a bicycle

“Early in my marriage, when I came home from bike races, my wife would meet me right at the airport gate," he says. “Then a year later she'd be in the lobby. Then at the baggage claim. Then out front. Then it was, ‘Take a cab.' I think you could say her enthusiasm for my cycling diminished."

By Stephen Meyer, Nov. 15, 1984 Read full article

Ron Athon told Hunter that if he saw any burning rabbits to hit them with the hose before they had a chance to run across the fire line.

Wildfire!

"We're gonna need more engines and hand crews right away." Crandall and Wedel did what they could to contain the fire to the immediate area behind the ranch. When the air tankers arrived on the scene — two S-4s out of Ramona, and B-4s out of Hemet, in Riverside County — Crandall asked them if they could hit the head of the fire, but one of the pilots answered, "No way."

By Steve Sorensen, Oct. 25, 1984 Read full article

John Ratajkowski: “Zina, the gallery director, came over to me and slapped my face, ‘You don’t understand what’s going on here.'"

Photo by Craig Carlson

The Warsaw connection

Suddenly a man about his age stepped from the shadows, introduced himself as Stashik, and took from him the centuries-old Italian violin. At this point, John Ratajkowski might have stepped back an inch or two from fate, redirecting his and Stashik's future by simply staying overnight in Katowice and returning to Warsaw the next day. Instead, the American returned to the apartment of Stashik and his wife and got completely drunk.

By Bob Dorn, Feb. 9, 1984 Read full article

Roger tore the incriminating evidence into tiny bits and flushed it down the toilet.

Slug Signorino

The love smugglers

Hannah stayed in a friend’s house in Rosarito. Roger had a job in San Diego, and he would cross into Mexico each evening to be with his fiancee. They lacked the courage to pursue option number three, which was to join the massing aliens on the border and attempt a midnight crossing. A Norwegian blonde and a fair-skinned American would stand out among the Mexicans and might be a prime target for thieves.

By Rex Bailey, June 19, 1986 Read full article

John Workman

Mystery of the Gypsy Song

By then the Gypsy Song was supposed to have arrived in Acapulco, the first scheduled stop during the five-week voyage to San Diego. The call never came, but this first disappointment was easy to dismiss. Perhaps Ron and John had been in Acapulco only a few hours, and they tried to call but no one was home.

By Stephen Meyer, Aug. 21, 1986 Read full article