Blogger diet

I am on Friday now, The pie has disappeared, the ice cream is half gone, the turkey is same, I have one meal of mashed potato/stuffing left and never opened the wine, the Steelers lost. Did get to talk to my grandchildren, that littlest one is tickling.

As I watched football I loaded fifty enblock clips for the M1, a fine day. Thanks...

Shopping seems to top the stuffing of Thanksgiving/Christmas...

Cool, neat, sexy, hot, OMG! just look at what I can get on Black Friday (tell me that isn't racially motivated). All in time for Christmas. Remember the theme of Miracle on 34th Street is: that Santa Claus is real and so is the spirit of Christmas and Macy's is where one can find the good stuff, or they will send you to their competitors for better pricing. They hadn't heard of Pricematch Guarantee back in the day.

What is the point? As the holidays expand, as the commercial success that can be measured in dollars, viewers, glitter and follies.

Start with Thanksgiving - I don't have it so bad. I have it really great, I live on the bounty and eat to my bursting point - which will be in some little noticed artery in my head or heart. Thank the Lord. I don't have secret police writing my name on watch lists because I am a vet, have somekind of disability and haven't a job but like to shoot guns and read the Bible and go to church, they have computer programs that will sweep me into their database - we have advanced so far beyond J. Edgar's secret file folders. I am thankful I don't live in a state like New York or New Jersey where they have fools for governors and support laws in defiance of the Constitution the People gave them to follow. Of course I do live in Washington State, where there is a decided possibility that it made slide into California madness if we just take a few more refugees from taxation and housing prices, thinking more government is a solution - but then I trust the Lord, maybe it will make us smarter to have so many fools around.

Seriously, I have been blest, we all have been blest by being here and being allowed to be foolish and grow out of it, to be stupid and to learn better, to be young and to grow older and weaker. Having started the first chapter of  I Am Malala   and for many reasons I am thankful that her voice hasn't been stilled.

My wife has the dinner planned, I keep wondering why she bought so much - figuring that she doesn't forget the spread my mother told her was the proper way to feast the Thanksgiving (my mother loved the holidays for the occasion and the getting family together). I will remember to wish you all the best of the bounty this holiday, safe travel, fine foods and family and friends... okay, some great football between little acts of love. God bless us, everyone, and save the shopping - no better gift than your attention, concern and love for others. Start it all by realizing and thanking the Lord for His goodness. Amen

Precision, or the perfect shot...

I think I know what precision is... that is when you do everything in your power to make the bullet hit exactly where you told it to... Or you are building a home and the door fits and closes tightly - no cold wind, rain nor burglars may enter.

There is a life time of making one fit, to be part of a group, part of the culture, part of the norm and finding that one mate to spend one's life with - fitting perfectly, with precision...

To have order, to meet the schedule, to design a product for success, things must be exactly as... you do get the idea. The idea of government at some point is to make the world perfect, which is silly because until the human beings arrived it was perfect. God just didn't have anyone to admire it with Him. For those of you not comfortable acknowledging God I will move back to perfection by humans.

I went through the government public education system and earned or didn't earn but was awarded grades for my perfection or attempts at perfection or for my non-compliance with the teacher's idea of perfection. Then I went into the military and had to meet more time goals, standards and measurements and it really became a problem making all the pieces of my world work. Add the burden of leadership, a wonderful wife, a dog and a cat or two and suddenly it isn't all dress right dress.... which is military for being in perfect order, cause we said so. Life is never going to be precise, and love is a bit more irregular in life. You do understand that there will always be comfort in everything going according to the plan, the rules and the wants and desires of all those I love and myself. But... it will never be comfortable. Goldilocks found some too hot, some too cold and some just right. Luckily the best military planning has always been blocked by the efforts of the enemy, and first contact restarts the plan - react, adapt and overcome. That adaptation and knowing the commander's intent is how one wins.

So many times on my journey on the Appleseed Trail I have found less than perfection. Little irregularities add texture to the event, and every shooter has a life outside of the weekend rifle clinic. The shoot boss and the instructors even have lives outside the weekend. They all come together to promote safe marksmanship, reviewing the heritage of Lexington and Concord on April 19th, 1775. There is a Course of Instruction, there are objectives and standards, and then there are the shooters and the instructors, the weather, the warmth or lack of any,  Adapt and overcome, because making that precise shot, to hit the target perfectly is a constant struggle, to honor the heritage is to know that being awakened at one in the dark of almost morning does not mean by end of day you will still be hale and hearty, you might have gone to your maker.

Doctor Warren sent Revere and Dawes out to warn the sons of Liberty, Revere and Dawes didn't make it to Concord, young doctor Prescott did. He wasn't part of the plan. So when I am doing a shoot, and it isn't going exactly the way it should, we aren't grinding out AQTs, I have to know that answering a question, keeping everyone engaged and giving a tip to improve another's technique or use of the rifle they brought might be the start of something in posterity's future that will have made the difference.

It reminds me of the way, slowly, I changed what I took to the field in the military - this I find useful, this must go with me. So I will allow others to make determinations, what things they will take forward and use. I will just add some of my Shoot Boss stuff to my instructor needs, in case it will help a shoot and I have already ordered two timers for me - so if the watch doesn't work I will still be able to time events. Some stop watches have so many features and functions I will never have time to learn them - like a fully loaded AR, too much stuff, too complicating, and not that cost effective to making my shot.

So, instead of constant complaints and repairing of potholes, and other surface irregularities in my Appleseed trails and trials, I will consider it all texture to keep me awake and participating. Always hoping to catch the fire in another human for sharing the skills and our heritage to our posterity. Maybe my perfect shots will be made by those I met along the trials of Appleseed.

What is wrong with government is:

Yes, there is something wrong.

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Preamble to the Constitution of the USA

Some will say the government is too big, others will say it doesn't make everyone equal (which was not the point), others will have one gripe after another -- I have only two.

The people should select (elect) their representatives.

All people elected and hired by the people must remember that they are only servants of the folks. Only servants. Civil servants - not Czars nor Princes, not Lords. They really aren't smarter, of higher principals, above going back home to do some real work after their service is over. They are not special.

There will be some great people, and that is wonderful when they show up, they do make change happen for the better. Just as there are some low scum types of people, which is terrible when they show up, they do make change happen for the worse. And you can't decide perfectly which one just showed up - they seem to have a fog of folks around them doing lighting, make up, and laying down covering fire.

In the end the thing that is wrong with government is that it pretends to be god on earth, without allowing you the opportunity to be sinful and completely stupid. It, government, has set itself up as a false idol for worship, to petition and to milk blessings from... a most base metal, cheap chip board, and hollow without a heart. It certainly isn't God. A total violation of the Second and Third Commandments.

But then the government has decided it doesn't have to have morals, nor faith, nor serve a higher power. It has quietly declared that there is no scientific evidence of a Creator, a Heaven, nor a soul. Could be the reason the government can't find those things - it was only created by the people. They didn't give it a brain, a heart, or a soul. The expectation was that the servants would bring their best and work for the people.

Expectations of the people don't seem to match the results. Back to the drawing board.

So I got one of those very heavy knocks on my front door last evening, about eight...

Long dark here in the great NorthWest. I went and opened the door and talked to the guy standing there with a paper in his hand. Wrong address, and since I had played that game before I think he found my house with a GPS since the one he was looking for was about three up the street. Maybe they should Google the address and get the picture first next time.

As I closed and double locked the door, I considered how badly I had prepared to open the door. There was no gun in my hand, shotgun behind the door (no matter what the VP says I no longer have one), and I opened the door wide in stepped into it. Very un-tactical, very. So in the game of life, mostly nothing would have happened. The KGB would have been later, would have hollered if they had been American secret militarized police, or black if they had been trying to do 'knock out' game home invasion. So I had only sixty years of opening doors and finding strangers on the porch asking for my attention - all without evil intent. How does that happen? Is the news media wrong?

I moved one of the house guns before I went to bed. Funny, most days I will lose track of my keys at least once, but all the guns have a place.  I have my notice from CMP about my ammunition order and it starting to move in my direction. Yesterday was National Ammunition Day, so I am good. What ever happened to Kim? and his cause? I did like reading his stuff. Well, that is it for today.

Just very glad that all the government activity on my street was the Postal service, and the fire department on a medical emergency. The fire department never misses a bond issue, the sheriff never asks for one.

Really, you have to turn it off...

connections, need to stay connected? Not if you want to get anything accomplished. Bye, be back later.

Change happens... and we go right on...

I chickened out last evening, started on my way to Idaho and turned around after the traffic advisory about the Snow Storm Warming until seven in the morning. We had rain in the lower atltitude, big enough storms that they were having accidents and congestion during the commute, by the time I got to the mountains the warning lights were flashing and the radio said chains required after exit 34, so that was the exit I turned around at and went back home. I do like shooting, I like the range in Idaho, I had everything I needed, except the NEED to overcome my aversion to driving in unsafe and miserable weather. Skiing should be good this weekend. Not that I am going.

I did find I had three more cans of 30-06 ammunition than I had realized, and so with eight hundred more rounds on the way (when my turn comes up) I will have over two thousand rounds. My brother would be shaking his head wondering why anyone needs that many rounds. And I have all that lovely brass to reload during the dark of Winter (another thousand?). Finding the ammunition makes me wonder how many other part time shooters have more ammunition than they could possibly ever need, LOTS, and how many will be departing without having shot it with their buddies, friends, family and competition (that guy with the $4000 rifle and special ammunition).

I thought a lot about how I had once upon a time driven through snow and ice and spooky conditions in Colorado to pick up our son.  It was terrible driving conditions and the Colorado snow plows were flying over the ice to keep the roads clear. I was so much younger then, I am older than that now... truer words never sung... if it was needed I would have done my best, but I have the ability to shoot again another day. I probably will, too. Really looking forward to it. I have to shoot all that ammunition up before I return to dust. My wife wouldn't know what to do with it. I would leave it to my son, but he has tons of stuff and no room, without a whole range and storage facility it wouldn't be a good gift. 

A comment sent me back to my list of shooting with Appleseeds, and the immediate thought is how many have I helped and influenced over the years, which is the most pro-safe gun control effort than whatever Mayor Bloomberg has done. And I have been very happy, making more people smile and enjoy shooting than the Mayor has calmed any fears. And considering some of the very new to shooting people, many that have been frightened for a long time because of media untruths (reminding myself that this blog is media for one - me) that I and others in the Appleseed Project have helped overcome their fears - I would say we are winning. And if the  22lr isn't fully back on the shelves yet... winning by a big margin, which won't be investigated, nor reported - since the media doesn't understand the why.

King George and his governors thought that controlling the colonies with more restrictions, taxes and adjustments would bring those colonials back into line. Unfortunately, Americans don't really study English History during the same period in England, Scotland and Ireland. The quest for Liberty wasn't only in America, it was happening all over. Press gangs were something that fed the Royal Navy, but also fed the flames of change and fired the folks up.

So how is the Affordable Care Act doing? Getting off of the media noise - for sure the discussion is shifting to how to get the care to the people. Even people that wouldn't talk about it before seriously, know what needed to be done will have to be done - and maybe we should look for the solutions that work best and invest in them. The world is full of great ideas. My looking is making me think that the government can't allow a good idea to get away to grow.  It would have to be chained up and harvested for the politicians, never the little people. I think that the United States of America has lost its soul, if Lincoln could use those ideas of "a government of the people, by the people and for the people" you have to start looking at the politicians, the departments and agencies and asking them whom they serve. Lincoln knew it wasn't going to be a great idea to write 'a people of the government, by the government and for the government' still isn't a good idea. 

What was that from the Declaration? "..Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ..." Institutions do seem to take on a life of their own, assuming powers not granted.  Ah, well, a rebirth of Liberty is the cure, not more chains.

Rainy day stuff

So I can't get to the YMCA because of public works blocking public access, although they did mention a possible detour, I was thinking I should do a little bit more to make my RWVA duties solid. I had a demonstration rifle to finish. I had passed the drill rifle on to OnlyHitsCount and wanted my own, I had a couple of toy ones I could have used, but decided to invest in a broken (NOT SAFE to shoot) that was around. A couple of sling swivel points, a GI web sling and some Tech sights or other adjustable ones.

Although I will teach Natural Point of Aim without a laser pointer, it does demonstrate very quickly how effective NPOA can be back on target and checked on next target before squeezing the trigger. So I went looking for a green laser pointer, no joy. Cost was out of my fixed income. I had a red laser pointer and figured out how to secure it with cheap rubber bands, and turn it on - with cheaper rubber bands. AAA batteries and I am set to demonstrate.

And not wanting to show up for an Appleseed unprepared with untested props I had to make sure I could adjust the sling, do a standing position and be on target. I don't spend lots of money on things, so I have to invest development time and testing, I am not the Federal Government. When I show up to help, I am just an old man with limited potential - you will have to imagine that I was effective, and I thank you for that.

So are you going to compete in the election or Olympics in 2014?

Me neither. But I will watch for the effort and the results. In the Winter Olympics I expect great performances, some of which may have extra chemical and hormonal boost - not because the competitors need it, but because they don't know they don't need it. They will seek advantage, programmed into our DNA, isn't it?

In the election the Media will declare the TEA Party is evil, divisive and not to be trusted. The two primary parties will continue to increase their power and influence by promising better tomorrows, until they get to the government, where the reality of how insignificance sinks in and they decide there needs to be another law, and good times must be regulated and taxed. They will also seek advantage, unfair advantage. If they had a real good idea, a known truth, it would be picked up by the people. But they don't and have to hide what they do, and lie about the effects.

Once upon a time I advised some young folks to make up a plan, to have goals and to prepare to meet those goals. Being an expert procrastinator (if I would just get around to finding my certification and writing that book) I have trouble with the Honey-do lists in my own home, but I still advise go get a plan and set a goal.

I have a Known Distance clinic to attend this weekend, the weather look COLD, but that is Idaho and close to Canada what would I expect. And then the following weekend I have a full Appleseed to help instruct in Ariel, Washington. So today, I happily signed up for my first Revolutionary War Veterans event of 2014, an Instructor Boot Camp in Battle Ground, Washington. I also put it on my 2014 calendar as my first Appleseed event of the new year. Only 364 other days to fill.

Leisure Living Estates...

Leisure living estates... so much promise in the name. I liked it when I first lived there. But I had been thinking as I worked a bit on my yard yesterday - that what was truly hurting the American economy is leisure, time off, unproductive activity. Sitting in the rocker or recliner and gazing at the television or cable feed or whatever feed your mind to keep it empty... of real content.

Now, advertisers want your attention, but you really don't have any left do you? Real working folks have something to concentrate on, to build, to fix, to find, to pay attention to... and then most of the rest don't have anything they can't turn on... I never listened to music as I jogged, excess weight and it would get in the way of thinking as I jogged. Of course, my mind would wander and my concentration on going faster fled quicker than my feet would ever catch up. Still it was all Earl, and I like background music, and bird song and wind whipping through the trees and thunder and lightening (over there not over here).


I think I know the suffering that too much time upon the hands, too much empty in the mind can bring about.

Isn't that why the boys will poke sticks into ant hills? Even fire ants? Wanting to know what could happen? And the government guys, aren't they similar? Poking sticks at the little folks, trying to stir up something? Had some fun watching the Kennedy Assassination stories on FOX last night. The truth is never going to be known, it was buried with Jimmy Hoffa. And you don't know where that is either. Aren't you glad you have so much to fill your life you don't do leisure?

Cool Hand Luke, finished tossing gravel on the oiled road and had to wait on the trucks to come pick them up... now that was leisure. Worked hard for it.

To be poor, isn't everyone deprived of something of value?

Mostly, money is the first thing to enter one's mind - I don't have enough money - for food, shelter, for stuff I must have to survive. But many without money aren't poor. I was reading a blog post about abstinence, the not having sexual relations with other human creatures I guess... most of my life is without having sexual relations with other human creatures, my mother expected too much from me, and having human sexual reproductive activities with humans of the opposite sex was really frowned upon by her.

I never felt poor because I wasn't following the Playboy Philosophy of Mister Hefner. Certainly did like looking at the charming young ladies in his magazine, and the cartoons, and the jokes. Don't remember reading any of the writing and I was a reader, reading more books in a week than some boys read in a year.

Being poor, feeling poor, never did - although I was sure there should be more money for Earl to catch up with the Jones boy - I realized later that my parents had done very well with four greedy little grubbers to clothe, shelter and feed. And it wasn't until I was throwing my own money away that I truly appreciated how rich that life had been.

I guess if I were to be asked, not that anyone cared, I counted my riches in the family, the dinner table and card table conversations, the number of magazines and books circulating in the home, always being read. I was rich in that there was only one television and one full bathroom and when I was a senior I got my own room. (decorated for a girl?). I was rich in friends that would tease me and people that liked some of me, hoping the rest would settle down and turn out okay. It was always difficult enough to live up to my own dreams and expectations - doing it for others was nearly impossible.

There was, and probably still are hundreds of sexual education teachers that tell young people that you aren't normal without sexual activity. That abstinence doesn't work, that... well, I can teach killing as well as that sexual education teacher can teach sex, but I also know that you really aren't morally prepared for the responsibility of killing another human being in high school - although, like sex, it does happen.

If when you are a child, you learn good manners, good language, sharing and helping, if you learn right from wrong then you will be closer to being prepared for starting a human life (which is what all sexual activity is designed to do) or ending a human life (which is what all military combat is about). But you would have to see beyond the video games, the movies and television drama to find the real people all around you - and you will notice you aren't going to have sexual relations with most of them, nor even try to kill anyone of them for the good of some government guy. And that is a much better normal than I or that Sex Education teacher can illustrate.

Marry once and forever, and when sex dies, let it lie. Don't ever kill anyone, no ugly to try to not remember. Gee, I feel so rich in never having to have to have a hundred screaming fans watch me pretend to have sex in some love relationship - oh, yeah. Tom Cruise has it tougher than that forgotten soldier in Afghanistan - I guess being a short actor was tough on Clark Gable, too. I am so rich to have never been so deprived as to be an actor without a justification for my words, work or lack of height. Can't be poor all the time.

Thank you for your service...

Getting close to Veteran's Day, or Armistice Day (which I always thought veterans of that war really appreciated). Time to get specials for being there when the really smart powerful people didn't want to go, go get those specials.

I like the veterans I knew, they are all giants in my life. Lots of them from the Bible, many from mythology, bunches and bunches from History of everyone everywhere. While studying the Greek and Roman military I constantly noticed that the veterans were the backbone of the formations, were always the carbon in the steel, that make it tough and able to hold an edge... I was sure that Horatio at the bridge was my kind of guy, and Horatio Hornblower must have been a real sailor... yeah, those are people I think of as veterans.

I was lucky, didn't have to wait for Veteran's Day parades or sales to reach out and find a vet, I had the very best kind - a quiet humble man I knew as Dad. His parting comment as I left for my own military service "You aren't going to like it." . Having permitted (like I could change anything) my own son's enlistment and his service - I hope all the veterans know the love of all those they served, protected and have left behind while they did their duty. I hope all veterans know the day when they can just be quietly thankful for having survived and gotten on with the real joy of living, being in love and creating and growing a better world that they knew was out there on the other side of war. Oh, how I pray that the day comes when they step out into the light for they have had all the darkness they couldn't sleep through, and they shouldn't drag it into their dreams or allow it to weigh them down.

Yeah, I can't know what any veteran went through, but do know 'they didn't like it'. Sure they had the days, hours, minutes and seconds of pride in surviving something terrible, and the shame of not being able to save everyone, people they had come to love... but they are scar bearing, tarnished, dinged, worn and tattered.

Give them your thanks, say lots of prayers for them and their healing, and always know that only love will make it better.

So, I am going to shoot known distance...

Do much of my shooting very safely (no rounds, dry fire) or very close (25 yards or 25 meters), and all for marksmanship and instructing others in rifle marksmanship. But I am going to Idaho to a two day clinic for Known Distance and the range will go farther than I will engage. They may encourage me to take a 500 yard shot or two.

Researching I have been looking to find the Course of Instruction, so I would see how many rounds I will need. My M1 Garand is the primary rifle for this exercise, although I will take the Model 70 with optics to learn a bit about using the optics at the distances.

And not having a real sense of what is going to happen, I will make up a known distance course for myself to test my .22LR and the M1 skills and potential this Saturday, supposed to be cloudy and cool. Verify the zero on each rifle, move the target stand to 100 yards, place four inch square on white background, Shoot twice, once with each rifle five rounds, notice where the rounds hit, paste and then adjust aiming point or come ups for .22LR. Shoot again, 5 rounds, check and put four 100 yard targets up (reduced size), shoot four phases of KD AQT on those targets with .22LR. Check, which I always mean take a picture for later, post full size target on backer. Shoot 10 rounds standing in 2 minutes on it. Take picture, paste holes if any...

Move target backer to 200 yards, put eight inch black square on backer. Shoot with .22LR and M1, note results. Post full size target, shoot two and eight with M1, shoot ten rounds spotting with .22LR. Take pictures, move target backer to 300 yard line (will have to move Caravan down to target line for speed). Post 12 inch black square on backer, shoot with M1, check target. Post full size target shoot stage three with 2 and 8. Take pictures and pull backer and clean up firing point, recover brass.

Either YMCA is going to be very early or very late on Saturday, had my rest day yesterday.

I have been told that I limp...

I immediately put that remark beside the one 'looking sexy' - it depended on the voice, the moment and message. But it was followed with was it a war wound... nope, I never got wounded, that anyone could really see, by war - I love cover, really love cover. Skinny kids hide well in the depressions of little note.

Having been laughing at my fellow Men's Bible Study men, as they limp, sit and groan -- I have noticed that those that really keep working and moving, are still moving well. Those engaged in thinking, loving and smiling are even doing better than well. So I need to start back on the To Do List hanging on my wall.

Go with God
Husband my wife

and then the other measurements still unmet... I can look at them daily, doing them is another matter.

I don't have a lot of time left, or remaining here on earth and this time, time is almost up... Should I put annoying little pop-ups on my computer to drive me out to become better? Wasting more time?

Don't be negative, teach no wrong, live only right, spend time in love with love and for love... God is watching, all the time and time keeps moving on.

Part of that motivation is to get a new suit, my funeral suit, when I get light enough for six ladies to carry...
title IX adjustment. I don't want to bother my military, I need no more honors than having served and having been well remembered, surprisingly often. While putting on my Sunday best today, I looked in the mirror and said the waist would have to be at the waist and belted there, the coat would have to be hanging from the shoulders, and then I realized I want a waistcoat (vest) to be under the jacket - which would make it a real coat, then I would have to get an overcoat for the cold weather.... Winter is Coming. Where is a great tailor when one needs one? Ah well, seems like Summer of next year, or as the election season starts, right after Christmas of this year - and not something that a truly humble man would ever concern those that love him.

So I did see Ender's Game on Friday evening, enjoyed it very much, having read the book and the follow on books leading to Ender's Shadow. Great adaptation, and I really liked being reminded of why we send young people, without fears and experience up against enemies and fears of the old fools.

So, since running is off the table for now (as a training tool), I will have to aspire to walking along the road, and being offered rides by those many kind people - which I will thank and ask God to bless them.

Is time travel an important part of Science Fiction?

With faster than light, or even getting closer it has always been part of - is it an important part? There is a effort to get some science fiction writers, a new generation of them.

Military Sci-Fi Book Needs Writers, Guns, and Money

So I look at it, having read most of the great ones, and think Ender's Game becomes many other titles, Forever War touches on it, and my favorite Starship Troopers never touches it. Reminding me to go see Ender's Game today. There will never be Time Travel there will always be Time Travelers.

I am a time traveler, I study History, I have lived History and will soon just become History.

Ever wonder about the Patriots of 1775 in Lexington and Concord on April 19th? How did they become the Patriots of Tom Brady in  2013? Take that fifty some man team back into the early dawn of Lexington and place them beside Captain Parker and his muster, would it have slowed the Light Infantry companies marching onto the green, chanting Huzzah, huzzah? I always wondered when Hoo-ah got into the modern military lexicon.

Personal Short story - all real time travel:

I think you were my drill sergeant.

Answer: I have no idea if you were in one of my platoons, I was Drill Sergeant for the 1st Platoon of A Btry, 2nd Battalion. I looked at the picture books I have copies of and never found your name. But still it is possible.

You were my Sergeant!  It is really quite amazing to be able to converse with you.

We had you for the first part of our training, and then suddenly one day you were gone.  Spent several days without an assigned Drill, and then got a SFC  named H or He.  I don’t remember much about him, except that he was a bit lazy, and couldn’t sing or even march troops.  We were used to you, and we had some pride in our D&C abilities so a couple of us were allowed to take over those duties.  One of my proudest days there was the day I got to move the whole Battery a couple of miles or so, and there were quite a few spectators whose lives we were interrupting because the cattle cars didn’t show up to pick us up.  

There was an incident at the record fire range with him and one of the trainees.  Some kid from one of the other platoons allegedly cooked off a 5.56 round...they said towards him...  I know my weapon disappeared from my hands to the hands of a Drill, and we were left standing for quite some time in the culvert Firing Points facing “down range only”.  The only other thing I remember about that incident is we were put in the back room of the Orderly Room Building for several hours after we got back to Garrison...  I do not remember if that was before you left, or after.

Answer: I disappeared to work in the S3 at Battalion Headquarters, since I was having trouble being less than I thought I should be.

That whole incident was after I left, I never heard about it.  While I was there we had no trainee Drill Sergeant problems, all the problems were with officer control of training and Drill Sergeants which you would not have known about. Nothing to do with firearms, just the standards of training.

That range incident was for a couple of days pretty “front burner” amongst the trainees.  Then it was addressed in a Battery formation rather succinctly...as in “you all will shut your mouths unless asked to speak about it!”.  We did just exactly that!

I was never convinced the shot was fired back towards the range control.  From where I was, and where the trainee was, it would have had to pass pretty close to my six.  I always thought I would have heard it...but who knows.  I know the kid was a screw up, and he was a bit “off center”.  He had words with the 2LT XO earlier in the week.  I was the Training Platoon Leader, and it was witnessed by one of my guys who was assigned a Female Barracks Roving Patrol one night.  I had to tell the CSM about it, and it was not one of my favorite days.

I will write more as I remember, but know that in a part today, I am who I am due to you!  I have an evening fire at the range tonight that I have to Range Master for...we are going to open up the 1Km lane tonight...it will be all .308 and .338 stuff. 

End of Story, kind of... but there we were and now here we are. Still with troops in Asia, my father was there in 1945, Easter April Fools day, yep. This video from YouTube SPITFIRE 944 is a great story about a great story and time travelers.