So What Do You Do?
The technical expert was correct. According to the book, which he knew in detail, the work could not be done. However, this was not the answer I needed to hear. Soldiers and sailors were dying because we did not have air superiority and we needed to build this installation regardless of what the book said.
Roderick Macdonald
He was handsome and trim, in a Cary Grant meets Alistair Cooke sort of way. His eyes, escorted by deep wrinkles, hid behind a pair of sunglasses. The white hair and tanned face said he’d experience more than his fair share of been there’s and done that’s. He introduced himself simply as “Roddy,” yet I must not have heard him correctly. No way a man blessed with this much presence has a first name that ends in a “y.”
“So what do you do?” I asked him. We were seated across from each other at the end of the long table, savoring glasses of Napa Valley’s finest and enjoying the nightly bartering taking place between the warm afternoon air and the onset of dusk. “I’m retired,” he said with a thick British accent. “I was a corporate citizen for a couple decades, and prior to that I served twenty five years with the British army.”
I did the math in my head, which was pretty good considering I was well into my second glass. “So does that mean you served during the Falklands War?” I asked. The handsome stranger smiled, arched an eyebrow and took a slow sip from his glass of wine. “I did, indeed.”
“In 1982 I was commanding 59 Independent Commando Squadron Royal Engineers as a young (34-year old) major in the Royal Engineers. We had just sailed 8,000 miles from the UK and audaciously landed a force of 3,000 Royal Marine and Army Commandos and Parachute troops on the Falkland Islands. The Falkland Islands, close to the Antarctic continent and the coastline of Argentina, had been invaded by 11,000 Argentine troops covered by combat patrols flying from Argentina. They had plenty of time to establish strong defensive positions.
“This occurred in the midst of an Antarctic winter where temperatures regularly dropped well below zero and wind, snow and rain blew in excess of 30 mph. There was no shelter because there are no trees. In order to regain air superiority from the Argentines, it was essential that a landing and refueling strip was built on the island, and this was one of my tasks.
“Design started quickly but ran into trouble when we discovered that most of the equipment for the task was sitting at the bottom of the South Atlantic Ocean.
“Roderick Macdonald ended his distinguished military career as a Brigadier General. In 1982 he was mentioned in dispatches for bravery in combat and in 1983 was made a member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for leading commando forces in the Falklands War. He also completed two operational tours in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s and served in Belize and the Middle East.”
Being ever so gracious, the man I knew as “Roddy” leaned forward and asked me, “So what do you do?”
I told him I played the piano at the local whorehouse.