Word: crafting
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During the late '60s, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. commanded the "brown-water navy," the fleet of small craft that patrolled the rivers and canals of South Viet Nam. He did such a good job that in 1970 he was appointed chief of operations for the entire U.S. Navy. Zumwalt was the right man in the wrong place at a bad time. An unpopular war was turning odious. The air was full of politics and protest; belowdecks there were racial tensions and poor morale. The admiral swept in with a mandate to give the most traditional of military services...
...left wing of the Piper clipped the descending airliner's left side at the tail. The jet's stabilizer sheared off the Piper's top, decapitating Kramer and his two passengers. There was no answer to the crucial question: Why had no one in either plane spotted the other craft in time...
Simon is articulate about his craft. Many songwriters dodge interpretive discussions, but Simon will dig in, talking about a tune with the fluid confidence of a seminar master. Indeed, he has taught a few songwriting classes, and can cut loose about "pressure to keep music either raw and unsophisticated or to keep it young. On the one hand, that might make rock vital, but on the other, one reason my generation has stopped listening to music is that it doesn't have anything to do with their lives. In the '60s, it was what was happening in your life...
...megaphones, asking passengers to be very quiet amd not to panic." Then, with scores of people crouching in the middle of the plane, the terrorists shouted out an ominous countdown: "One . . . two . . . three!" On the count of three they began firing machine guns from the forward part of the craft and exploding hand grenades at the rear. Some of the passengers broke open the emergency doors, which automatically inflated escape chutes. During this moment of horror, says Goldstein, "I literally threw my wife out the door, and a few other people, before I jumped myself...
...shooting spree before Pakistani commandos storm the craft...