I got crosswise with a dear lady because I poked a little fun at the Air Force in my last article. No offense was intended and to illustrate the nature of the relationship between the services...I offer this: I was walking down the street with Skip, a Marine major who was from my home town...in fact we remembered seeing each other around in our high school days even though we went to different schools in different parts of town. Anyway, as we strolled deep in meaningful conversation, a y...
It was the middle seventies at Fort Ord, CA. It was before we started wearing our shirts outside our pants and nothing was allowed to be on the belt...no cell phone holsters, no multi-tool packs and especially no knives. The first two were not hard to obey since neither had been invented yet...but the knives were another story. Everyone wanted a Buck (or cheap imitation) folding, lock blade knife. They were sharp and cool and too heavy to carry in your pants. The carry pouch was serious ...
She came to Patch off a messy divorce, a little wounded and looking for a way to regain some status and confidence. She was a Marine captain and took her new post as the assistant Protocol Officer at EUCOM. In spite of her ambition, she came across as uncertain, hesitant, and more than a little meek. A couple of the resident Marine officers came by and filled her head full of Marine stuff and tried to get her fired up and ...Marine-ish. Which led to the day of the CINC's update. USEUCOM ...
An M109 is a self propelled Howitzer that is almost as big as a tank. In fact, many folks unfamiliar with military equipment would call it a tank...it travels on tracks (kind of like a bulldozer) , has a turret and a big gun barrel sticking out of it...sure...it looks like a tank. Except that the sides are flat, the armor is thinner, and it isn't a tank...it is a howitzer that can move around without being towed. In our cavalry squadron in Bad Kissingen, we had a howitzer battery attached...
It was a rare moment when we all had some slack time together. Doug was the company clerk, Van the mail clerk, Country worked in supply and I honestly don't remember where Tommy worked, but our schedules were all scattered. It was in the late evening, we were all layiing around getting ready to turn the lights out when Tommy said, "I sure would like a bowl of popcorn." It was like the old thing about "don't think about an elephant". In short order we were all lamenting the fact that t...
It is silly, I know, but I can't help myself. When that commercial for Arby's comes on and the Chimps start the "Riverdance" style dance, I have to stop what I am doing and watch it. I just love it. I have no idea how they do it but it is very real looking...right down to the expressions on their chimp faces. Over the years, there have been some great ads on TV. I used to love the beer commercials in the 70's using pro football players. My favorite was Bubba Smith touting the "easy ...
Let me first state that Rush Limbaugh is a lot of things to a lot of people. Mostly, he is a bombastic gas bag who happens to have an acute understanding of his opponents thinking. The worst thing a listener can hear is him saying, "You know how much I hate to talk about myself...but..." because that means the next hour will be full of some crap about himself...usually with the moral that he is smarter than the rest. Interspersed in there somewhere might be something genuinely interesting,...
We barely got out of New Jersey before exhaustion overtook us. The Motel in Wilmington, Delaware was pretty open minded about dogs, but Golf was not leaving the back seat. The next morning he came out to relieve himself but immediately dashed back to the back seat floor. It was a nice drive, across the top of Maryland, through DC, down across the top of Virginia. It was just getting dusky when we reached Tennessee. We stopped at a really nice border rest stop with tourist information and...
Coming Home from Germany in 1970 was challenging for MamaCharlie and me. The Hyborean Wanderer was just over a year old so he barely noticed. We flew out of Rhein-Main and stopped in Iceland, which is where we realized that MamaCharlie's purse, chock full of passports, traveler's checks and orders and ID and everything else, was still at Rhein-Main. We paid a $25.00 entry fee into the USA and settled into the BOQ at Fort Dix while we waited to get the purse sent to us...a kind soul had fou...
It was a cool evening in Lampasas, Texas. We were coming home from the Dairy Queen, a dinner out. East bound on the main drag through town, we fell in behind an old pick up with an old upright piano in the back. It prompted me to think about a couple years earlier in Mannheim when some friends needed a piano moved from the fourth floor of one stairwell apartment to the third floor of another stairwell...it was an adventure but that is another story. That is what I was thinking about as we...
I heard the call around the end of the afternoon. "Charlie Three Three is burning!" the excited voice was yelling on the radio. Almost at once we got a call to go to a grid coordinate and assist the "operation" there. The LT and I dashed to our jeep and, grabbing LT Marcus on the way, stormed out to the spot. It wasn't far from the assembly area we were set up in. It took less than 10 minutes from receiving the call to arriving at the road block. The road was blocked because on the nex...
The trip from Missouri to Baumholder was a long and tiresome one. But for the first time in our career, my family got to travel overseas together. Usually I would go ahead and the family would follow a few months later, we always got to go back to the States together, though. This time we were going as a senior NCO and there are a few perks. Anyway, by the time we got to Frankfurt, we were plenty worn out. We had to sit around in a waiting area for hours until the bus for Baumholder dep...
The other day I was sitting in a port-potty at a gravel pit. A water truck came by and sprayed the road for dust control. The spray hit the little house I was in and the initial spray hitting the plastic wall of the potty sounded alot like bullets hitting it. Which aided in my endeavor. But it reminded me that in the world of men, helpless in a porta-potty just means "TARGET". It also reminded me of this: Many years ago I was driving a dump truck to a parking lot in a new apartment c...
Last month I posted and article about teenagers' appearance. I was venting a little about the way they dress and act. I had to run an errand and while I was gone I was thinking about what I had written and realized that one or two of my grandchildren and some of my children might take offense at some of the things I had said. On the way home I decided to delete the article, since I really didn't want to hurt anyone, least of all my family. By the time I got home, only about a half hour la...
Just a note to the world to let you know that the Hypoborean Wanderer (whatever that is) is finishing up his mid term home leave and tomorrow is heading back to Iraq. We have shared a thought or two about where he is going and why. It is hard on his family (as it is on them all) to have him home for such a short visit then watch him go again. I will miss him some more and worry about him some more and wish I could be there...I KNOW I could do a better job of protecting him than his supervi...