I've Just Had the Most Wonderful Experience

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I just had the most wonderful experience. It began when I visited the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/) to see if my former websites, Memories of Hawaii Five-O and Remembering Jack Lord were still there. Memories of Hawaii Five-0 is not, but Remembering Jack Lord is

(https://web.archive.org/web/20250709010239/https://www.rememberingjacklord.com/). 

I looked through a few pages (only the main pages are available; the sub-pages are not) and read through part of Jack’s Biography.

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And, then, when I went to my files to see if I still had them (I do), I came across a letter that a fan wrote, complimenting the site and all that I gave to it. It made me feel so good, like the sixteen years I spent on those sites all had been worthwhile. Sometimes, we need to be reminded, don’t you think?

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The interesting thing about Jack’s website is that he gave me more than I gave him. Namely, he taught me things I never would have had the opportunity – or even the calling – to learn about. For example, when I began, I had heard the name Merchant Marine, but I knew nothing about them or that they were drafted into World War II or that they had to fight for more than forty years to be recognized as one of the armed forces in order to draw benefits. President Reagan granted them that status in 1988, although it seems to have faded away since then. Sad, isn’t it, when the merchant mariners served aboard unarmed or scarcely armed ships but were torpedoed as surely as the military ships were. Jack’s ship was torpedoed and sank in seven minutes. Only three lifeboats were deployed in time to save lives, and they drifted at sea for sixteen hours before the mariners were rescued off the coast of Italy.

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Interestingly, he taught me about Cadillacs, which he dearly loved. He owned eight of them and drove the last one for thirty years, from the fall of 1968, when he moved to Hawaii, until his death in 1998. It was a white Sedan DeVille. For the website, I went back and identified Cadillacs that appeared on Hawaii Five-O, from the 1959 Series 75 limousine to the late-1970s Seville. It was an interesting study as I googled umpteen times to the nth degree to identify which year’s models they were. Silly me, but I enjoyed it!

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Most of all, he taught me about Hawaii, its beauty, its history, and its culture. I’ve managed to learn a few Hawaiian words and have learned about some of the neighborhoods in Honolulu. In fact, a character in a book I’ve written and need to have published is set on Wilhelmina Rise. If you ever make the Diamond Head climb, look to the north, and you will see the Rise going straight up the hillside, toward the Koolau Mountains. That’s where Stephen lives. He’s a retired Navy commander, who writes adventure stories based on his own adventures while growing up on the Island.

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So, thank you, Jack, for teaching me so much and giving me the honor and the privilege of being webmaster of two wonderful sites that were fascinating to research and write about and to maintain as I came to know other fans from around the world. In its sixteen-year run, Remembering Jack Lord had visitors from 186 nations. By comparison, 193 nations currently belong to the United Nations. As McGarrett would say, “Can you believe it!?!”​

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