Weather is a relative thing. Ask a Southern Californian about snow and you very well might get a blank look. Ask a UPer about snow and the look will vary from nostalgic to horrified. Here in the Swirling Epicenter, we get snow every year. Not Michigan snow, but definitely more than San Diego snow. In the seventeen years since I moved here, the most I've seen at one time was in October of 1997 when the weatherman's prediction of 1-2 inches turned into three feet with drifts upwards of six feet. ...

Like thousands of soldiers, I found out I was going to war again by watching the CNN news on AFN. When Cheney and Powell gave their news conference and outlined another shipment of troops into DESERT SHIELD, they listed the units that would be pulled out of Germany. When Third COSCOM was mentioned, MamaCharlie said, "That's you, isn't it?" I pointed out that they would list the units from those commands, like they had done just a month or so ago. We waited for a few minutes. My unit was one of ...

Tova's story of her son's problem at school has triggered a flood of memories of those days when our tribe was school-bound. I have mentioned this story in a comment before, but here is the story as best as I recall it...Toothache may want to step in and make editorial comments. We were in Missouri, a state that allows coporal punishment in its grade schools. They have some fairly restrictive rules about who and when the paddle can be administered, but parental notification is not one of t...

I may have mentioned before that I used to be in the Army. I had a head- start in military life because I was raised in the Navy, a "Sea Bag Baby", and learned a lot of things growing up that served me well as a young soldier. My dad, the Chief, taught me to spit-shine shoes and roll my socks and underwear and things like that. I was standing Saturday morning inspections in my room by the age of seven and passing them by the age of ten. When I started basic training I was as shocked that my pla...

There are many types of ammunition used in the military. What the rest of the world would call a full metal jacket, or a jacketed bullet, one that has a thin coating of a semi-soft metal such as copper over the lead, the military calls "Ball" ammunition. Put a thin coating of a phospherous type chemical over the metal coating and it will burn when fired becoming a "Tracer". Some ammunition has a super-hard, super-sharp pointed bullet that is designed to cut through metal, thus becomes "Armor-Pi...

Oooops!!  Accidental double post!  Haven't done that in a while.  Sorry.  

The Picture   When the Chief died, my sister and I sat in his little office in the back of the house and went through his papers and things. We found a drawer with some Olin Mills proofs of him in his uniform, taken about fifteen years after he retired from the Navy. We both had large copies of the one he selected for distribution to us kids, but we smiled at some of the other poses and looks. One in particular brought laughter from both of us as we recognized "The Look"....

I live in the shadow of a very famous mountain. It causes us to have sunset about 45 minutes earlier than most. About a thousand feet below the top of the mountain is a cave full of super-secret stuff. In this cave they monitor things going on all over the world (it's where they keep the Stargate!). Access to this cave is restricted to people who have some pretty high-power clearances. During the Cold War, mine was not such a desirable neighborhood, seeing as how, if a shooting war star...

The traffic coming out of Denver wasn't too bad;  MamaCharlie's appointment at University Hospital was at a time that allowed us to bracket the rush hours.  So we were moving along nicely, about 65 in a 65, not too crowded, but still not a relaxing drive by any stretch of the imagination.  It still required full attention.  The phone rang and when I answered it, there was a lot of noise in my ear that wasn't a voice.  Then the familiar voice said, "Hi!  It's me!". ...

  Winter, 1964, snow falling like goose feathers, just drifting down and landing with a wet "plop". We marched up to the "fuel dump" where we parked our fuel tankers and stopped to warm up in the platoon sergeant's "hooch". The air was biting cold, the snow was heavy and wet, and all the vehicles were reluctant to get a start on the day. As clearly as I remember the shivering cold and wet, what I remember best are the sounds of those early winter mornings. The snow acting like a muffle...

1) One of my high school buddies, Mike, got a German Shepherd puppy. He named the dog "Shadow". His mom had three cats who wore that puppy out with constant ambush attacks, always chasing, jumping on, and chewing on the pup. Shadow always seemed to have scratches all over his ears and face. When I came home from overseas, Shadow had grown to his full size, and a pretty impressive size it was, too. One day while I was sitting and chatting with Mike and his mom, there came a screaming from t...

http://bigfatdaddy.joeuser.com/article/301135/Somebody_to_Love In answer to MamaCharlie's challenge to tell you how I got to Arizona Hall that April night...I walked...from the Pontiac dealer on Miracle mile, a good 7-8 miles away. But I already covered that in an article almost two years ago, linked above. That will save some time. For me. But the real question, in keeping with her theme of how the stars all aligned to make it possible for us to meet, is how did I get to be in Arizona at...

I watched part of a program on the History Channel that Tom Brokaw did on the year of 1968. I've seen it before; I may have even written about it here already. It fascinates me on two levels; one because I spent the whole year of 1968 in Mannheim, Germany and two because I am amazed at the way that things in history get "spun" by those who write it. It seems that a lot of the things covered in the program were historically accurate but told in a way that didn't quite jibe with how I remembered ...

I love trucks. Not pick-ups, particularly, but real trucks. I have watched trucks do amazing things...I have made trucks do some amazing things. I have been cocky about it on occasion. Like the afternoon at TA-190 at Leonard Wood when Manny and I were sitting in the shack while the other NCOs were running the students around in circles. I was telling Manny about how the driver training program in the Army had changed since I first went through it. I mentioned, for example, that fording (crossi...

Today is Elvis' birthday. If he had lived to this point, he would have turned 75 today. Whether you agree or not, the fact is that no one in music history has ever had the effect that this one guy had on the music we listen to. You point out the Beatles and Michael Jackson, Led Zepplin, Wings (who had more success than the Beatles, just weren't noticed for it) and dozens of others who have sold records, put on fabulous shows, the Stones were recently named band of the decade for all the money ...