I’m currently enjoying a recently released work by Kathleen Reid-Smith, a military historian who specializes in covert operation in World War Two southeast Asia. In her work, Operation Cleeves, SOE’s Forgotten Wartime Tragedy in Thailand. While I always appreciate a well-researched read, I appreciate them even more when I have been in the same area, although decades later. In the photo below I am laying beach demolition charges with Thai and US Navy SEALS during a training exercise in southern Thailand in 1988.