The Flukes that Matter

History as a series of accidents.

Brian Klaas provided one of the more interesting books of 2024 in Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters. I am thoroughly enjoying this read, savoring even. One unfortunate blurb on the back cover mentions the book lies in the “perspective-altering tradition of Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point…” I say unfortunate because while I appreciate Gladwell’s storytelling, my advice to anyone reading his work pause to tear out the later chapters that begin to offer advice or behavior change.

The subtitle of Fluke, offering that “everything we do matters,” may strike some as odd. I dithered over which socks to put on this morning, I doubt this will result in a Pacific cyclone next week. (Ed note: delete this observation if I turn an ankle or fall down stairs later today.) But he’s more right than wrong here.

The compelling tale leading off the book takes you to a vacationing American couple who enjoyed and fell in love with the historic city of Kyoto, Japan. The husband of this couple went on to become the U.S. Secretary of War, engaged in target selection for the new atomic bomb in 1945. Kyoto was an obvious choice of high military value, but stands today unscathed entirely because it entranced a certain couple on vacation years before. You’ll see this briefly referenced in the movie “Oppenheimer.”

My career was a series of flukes, the first of which occurred in 1982. I stopped off to visit the Navy recruiter I’d been talking with regarding a Navy career as a yeoman¹. However, he was late coming back from lunch and the Air Force recruiter “helpfully” reached out and started a conversation. “You’re going to be a yeoman? Why not consider a Service where you’re guaranteed the job we find for you after Basic?” I left his office that day with delayed enlistment paperwork for a Defensive Command and Control Communications Countermeasures Specialist (DC3CM) assignment. That led to a security clearance in 1983 that lasted - with one break - until 2025. A Navy Petty Officer’s lunchtime dessert perturbed my career trajectory and changed my life.

In 1943, Australian Lieutenant Arthur “Reg” Evans was positioned as a Coastalwatcher on Kolombangara Island.

The Coastwatchers were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands to observe enemy movements and rescue stranded Allied personnel. Hidden behind enemy lines, the Coastwatchers played a vital intelligence-gathering role: warning of Japanese air strikes, reporting on shipping and troop movements, and saving countless lives.

“A Coastwatcher’s work was not to fight or destroy,” Evans wrote.

“His job was to look and listen and gather information: to sit hiding like a spider, right in the web of the enemy, but unseen and unheard. His duty was to communicate intelligence to headquarters and leave the rest to them. We became the eyes and ears of the Pacific.”

From his post, he witnessed a Japanese destroyer collide with a small patrol boat (older readers already know the designation found on the side of this boat). While there were two fatalities, the survivors made it to Kasolo Island, exhausted and alone. Evans worked to arrange a rescue operation for the survivors, and they were repatriated to the U.S. where one of them went on to become the 35th President of the United States.

I could go on here, say by honoring Stanislav Petrov who saved humanity on a hunch, but I’ll spare you given the holiday season. Here’s to 2026, let’s hope for a year of happy accidents for us all!

1. Clerical work. https://www.navy.com/careers-benefits/careers/business-logistics-administration/yeoman