Inglorious Basterds

Today my wife and I saw "Inglorious Basterds" by Taretino.

It ROCKED!

This is certainly NOT a war film, or even mildly historically accurate. But it was vastly entertaining. It went from being funny to "ewwww, that is a bit graphic", to a mix of both.

And it was absolute proof of a something I have noticed. That item is this: no one cares if you do bad things to Nazis.

No lie, they showed a Nazi being beaten to death by a guy with a bat and the audience was laughing at the one liner. I was, and so was my wife. Of course the idea behind the unit was that they were going to be as bad as the Nazis (and they were and then some), but no one had any issues with US Troops doing this to Nazis.

Nazis are the one group that absolutely NO ONE will defend at all. The absolute bad guy, the perfect villan, the one undeniable product of WWII in that you have someone that no one can ever possibly root for. And everyone is tickled pink if you are doing something to them that would repulse you if it was someone else and make the ACLU call the President.

Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that Nazis are thought of this way. They should be. But so should Communists, Maoists and Stalinists. AQ and Hamas too. They are not, and that is a pity. I really don't like how the term Nazi gets tossed around so much and how many on the left use it paint those on the right (especially since the Nazis were actually socialists, irony can be thick in history). Call someone on the left a Nazi and you will get a strong reaction to be sure. My biggest issue isn't the labling, its the fact that this label runs the risk of loosing the sting of due to over use. Nazi might join the legion of other words that no longer pack the punch that they once did due to over use. Remember when "damn" was something you never heard on TV?

The Nazis were as close to pure evil walking the earth as has even been (and they had some good company who got off light). I really hope that the term never looses its punch and that no one ever has a qualm about laughing when watching a Nazi getting beaten to death.

Happy Birthday!!!!!

I am a day late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

to the CANNON!

Erm, maybe.

On August 26th, in 1346 AD at a location know as Crecy (Yes Russ, right up your alley this one is), the Genonese crossbowmen had the very distinct honor to be the first soldiers in history to be taken under cannon fire.

Maybe.

There are two other possible uses of cannon prior to this (one in approximately 1250 AD by Muslims against Mongols, and in 1339 by the French against Edward), but neither was well documented and cannot be verified. Edwards the IIIs army had records and even some pictoral records of the cannons.

So Happy Birthday to the CANNON my fellow Redlegs and other lesser creatures...

Speech

I just got back from speaking to the Oklahoma Chapter of the "Friends of Ukraine" in OKC. They paid for my lunch (Porogi, similar to cheese raviolli) and I gave a short 20 minute speech on my trip to Ukraine and my impressions as a "true" American.

The speech went well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The lunch was great too.

The best part was this guy I met. I can't pronounce his name (never mind spelling it), but he had some awesome stories of his own. This gentleman was from around east-central Ukraine. I told him what I did and he really lit up. He told me repeatedly how much he loved US soldiers and the US. After we talked more I found out why.

This gentleman was liberated from a concentration camp/factory in the Hartz Mountains by US soldiers in 1945.

When he was about 13 or so, the Germans invaded the USSR. They had driven to his area of Ukraine with a couple of SS Panzer Divisions. The Red Army had been smashed up pretty bad and was trying everything to stop the Germans. The Soviet Commissars rounded up every male 14 and older and marched them to the front to fight. No training, equipment (other than rifles and ammo) or support. The man said that he lost one brother in this fight. The other brother survived and retreated with the Red Army. He heard after the war that his brother had been wounded 11 times during the war and the last time they sent him back in before he had healed and he was killed. Since this gentleman was not old enough he stayed in the village and ended up behind German lines. He told me how the next village over was wiped out as a reprisal for a Insurgent attack on some SS. They rounded up 180 people, herded them into a church and burned it down with everyone inside. THey took him and all the other boys and impressed them into a forced labor battalion. They were the ones who dug the tunnels were the ME262s were built. Another crew they were barracked next too dug and ran the V2 tunnels and another one was working on the German Atomic Bomb program (not much was really done other than dig some work areas, the Germans were way to far behind in development to do much more). US troops liberated him and about 15000 prisoners (his count).

Talking with him made my whole day worthwhile. Its nice to hear nice things about US troops and to hear someone make the point that US troops have never herded people into churches and burned them down, or impressed young boys as slave labor to dig tunnels for weapons projects, or gathered a bunch of civilians together, tossed them rifles and said "Charge those Tanks" (although our militia troops have ended up doing about that good, difference there is that all the militia volunteered). This guy had some great history to share and I am really glad he did.

Hearing stories like this make me glad to live in the US and prouder to be defending it.

Whole Foods, Greenpeace and Health Care

If you haven't heard about all of this you need to get online more. First off, Whole Foods CEO wrote an article suggesting his take (as a private person) on how we could do better on Health Care. He had some good points I thought (Tort Reform anyone?), but it was the response he got that makes him my hero and gives me a reason to shop at Whole Foods (other than my wife who likes them).

The far left "progressive" crowd went completely bat#$%% over his commentary and article. Lots of them stated that they would NEVER shop at Whole Foods again (wow, an added bonus for me). Daily Kos posters have pretty much called for his public execution. I absolutely love this. I am wondering what is making them madder; the fact that a CEO of a major corporation is weighting in against the President, or that they are now realizing that for all the "progressive" food and ecology and world love that they are associating with Whole Foods its still a major capitalist corporation run by a guy who makes tons of money off of them and doesn't care if they shop there or not.

And if this guy hadn't been running it, it wouldn't have worked out to start with.

The GreenPeace item is the article in the BBC Today in which the retiring head of GreenPeace admitted that the famous "All the Arctic Ice will be melted by 2030 unless we do something NOW" statement was a flat out lie. He said that they knew the data was wrong but went with it because the cause was just and the "US economic growth had to be curtailed". Nice. So if my cause is just I can lie? Wow, what a concept. It appears that lots of our current political establishment has taken that lesson to heart and then some.

Which leads to Health Care. Not much to say on this except that being in the military I am currently on the closest thing to a Socialist Health Care System the US has. And it sucks compared to the alternative. Tamara has kept her own health care as long as she could because its nice to be able to make a same day appointment instead of having to wait 5 to 8 days (that is the rough turnaround time at our Post). I'll agree we can improve our current system and that we have some serious issues with it. But this current monster they are pushing? Oh hell no.

Not only is it 1000+ pages of legalise, but its going to run run by an organization that can't run a used car sale or even read the entire bill before pushing it.

Guys, how about some research or something? Or keeping that promise to post all the bills for the public to read before signing? Bueller?

Wife Celebrating

My lovely wife is off to Chicago for a week to visit her parents and to celebrate Ukrainan Independence Day. This is the day when the Ukrainians celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union and gaining their freedom.

This was also the day that EVERY statue of Lenin was ripped out of the ground rather violently and with malice of forthought.

Anyone who ever thought Communism was a good idea is invited to swing by the Ukrainian section of Chicago this weekend and get some "feedback" on that.

And I highly recommend you leave the Che Geuvera T shirt at home...

Progress

I was working on my personal set of tactical gear this week. I have what the army gives me, I have what I have been given or acquired over the years (the army paperwork will gradually give you stuff over time) and I have what I have personally purchased for my own use. Usually ammo pouches for gear or ammo (I do use this stuff for hunting and camping), but I also purchased a lot of stuff when I shipped over to Iraq as the stuff they gave us didn't quite work for me (I needed some regular pouches for a small set of binos, language phrase books and some other stuff). And of course it didn't help that the Army has gone through 3 different camo sets since this war started and we can't mix and match.

So I have a bunch of gear. One item I was finishing out was my personal first aid kit. I had what the army has given me and I have some stuff I have picked up. But I had also just purchased something called an IFAK. IFAK: Individual First Aid Kit. These are the new first aid kits that have come out due to the war.

I have to admit, nothing pushes progress in certain areas like war. This kit is a great example. WHen I first joined, your first aid kit was a sealed field dressing in a small pouch. Anything else you provided on your own. Now you could do a lot with this thing, tourniques, pressure bandages, regular bandages, seal sucking chest wounds. But still, all you had was a large bandage and that was it.

When I deployed we got this plus a new quick release tournique which was all the rage. So an improvement, but still not exactly amazing. But after much research the army realized two things.

One: every soldier coming out of basic training is Combat LifeSaver Qualified (think of this as one step below a medic, 40 hour course taught by medics).

Two: these same soldiers can actually use all kinds of first aid gear.

So why not give it to them? Result: IFAK.

This thing is really advanced. It has pressure bandages, quick release tourniques, some of those QuikClot bandages, a lung depressurizer (for lung shots), a special air passage kit for CPR and for clearing breathing passages (you can also do a quick and dirty trac with it). This kit is designed to treat the 6 most common and life-threatening wounds on the battlefield with the most advanced first aid gear in existance. It is designed to allow anyone with a modicum of first aid training (such as a combat lifesaver) to be able to the simple things that can keep people alive until a medic can get there.

I have to wonder about why it took the army so long to get to this point. I remember when I was a Platoon Leader, the requirement was one combat life-saver per platoon (in MLRS which is a small unit, usually it was one per squad). Now it is EVERYONE. The 10th Mountain was the first unit to do this right as they entered Afghanistan in 2002 and everyone took notice with the results. But still you would think that this would be common sense.

But progress is progress. I wonder if they will keep it up once the war is over with. IFAKs are pretty expensive ($80 plus), and in peace time you know what happens. But for now its good progress.

Fishy

Short post.

Did anyone else have a "WTF?!?!" moment when you heard the news release about the White House asking for people to send them an email about "fishy" healthcare info?

I did.

This is what we get from a government that is so inept that it can't run a Used Car sale...

Yoiks and AWAY!

I have been debating posting this as I don't want to be talking ill of an officer in another unit, but I can't hold out any longer.

This is an example of someone who helps to give new Lieutenants their reputation and reaffirms the old adage that you shouldn't try to show off how cool you are.

For anyone who ever watched the cartoons on Saturday morning and saw the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner show, you will recognize the title line from Robin Hood Daffy. This was the line Daffy shouted as he leap from a tree on a vine and promptly smashed into another tree. When I heard this story, the cartoon popped into my head and I could not get it out.

We have a training event in the first week that is a rappel tower. Nothing you really ever do in the military (unless you are in the Air Assault), but its a good gut check and helps motivate new soldiers. You have to do rope bridges, jump into a cushion from a height and rappel down a tower.

When you rappel you should have the following: a set of gloves, a belay man (runs a safety rope) and someone above you to make sure you don't get tangled. You can rappel several ways including a method called "Austrailian" which you are facing your front straight down the tower and you basically run down the side of the building (commandos use this a lot). When done correctly it looks very cool.

Of course this story involves it NOT being done correctly.

We had a LT who wanted to show off to the new soldiers. So he decided to do Australian down the tower. Well, there was no other cadre available to help so he had no belay man. He also discovered that they had not brought all the gear out yet so he only had ONE GLOVE. But no problems there. Last issue was that the rope was wet from some rain. Anyone who has done this should be whincing by now.

Well, the LT lowers himself into position and does his first bound. He tries to pull the rope to his waste (which will usually stop your slide down the rope), and discovers that the wet rope is sliding through his ungloved hand and won't stop. He has no belay man to use the safety rope to stop him so he has to hold on or he goes freefall three stories into a sandpit. He is able to slow himself enough to fastrope face first into the ground.

Minus most of the skin on his right hand.

Ow.

His failure to save cost him all cool points, a trip to the hospital with 3rd degree burns, and a honorable mention in the Darwin Awards since he lived.

This was quite literally a "Yoiks and AWAY" moment. He jumped off and just went straight down for the "CRUMP" and dustcloud out of a Wiley Coyote cartoon. IN front of 200 new privates and the cadre that showed up right as he was starting.