Brooklyn

Belonging: Fort Hamilton High School Army JROTC /  by David Korchin

In 2001, just after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, I spent a few days with the student cadets of Tiger Battalion, the JROTC corps at Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The Battalion started in 1993 under Lieutenant Colonel Lee C. Anderson, and was the first Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in the New York Public School System. I wanted to know what they were feeling; here was a group of young people, not yet graduated—or even decided on a direction outside of the formative influence of senior, mentoring soldiers—who might soon become involved in a widening war on terror.

The images here are show young people in transition, as all adolescents are, I suppose. What has happened with them? Where have they landed, what have they learned? I've reached out to the Battalion coordinator, to try to get in touch with some of those student subjects from so long ago.

Dialing Around with David Goren /  by David Korchin

Recently I had the rare pleasure of spending a couple of hours with storied audio engineer, producer and ham-friendly radiophile David Goren—with the even rarer experience of watching him at work, tuning in the dozens of pirate FM stations that dot the dial across the New York City boroughs. David’s home is stacked pretty much to the gills with radio sets from many eras, and his antenna and recording setups rival some three-letter agencies. He sets timers throughout the day so that his automated system catches broadcasts across the world's shortwave bands; the man's a determined listener.

Goren's career is marked by stints with NPR's New York News Bureau, as writer and co-producer with Jazz at Lincoln Center, at Monitor and Pacifica Radio, and many other outlets. He continues to bring real art to the act of listening to the radio. For an appreciation, check out his Shortwaveolgy creations over at SoundCloud.