Happy Easter to all!
2013
Happy New Year to all– from URR to BillC, from DaveO to Maj W, and all points in between! We appreciate our very loyal readership, and are continually gratified (but not surprised) at the level of commentary we receive on a regular basis. We resolve to hold up our end of the bargain. 2013 will, I do believe, be a very lively year. Ah, yes, and happy birthday to John C. Garand, born this day in 1888!
Family Matters
I’ll be off shortly to see to some serious family matters, and might not be able to post much til Sunday. Please stand easy, but mill about smartly. I will say this, to toss out a topic for comment: thanks to the great John R. Murphy of FPF Training, I am in possession of a Smith & Wesson M&P 45, riding in an IWB holster. (I was about to get rid of that pair of jeans which were a bit too big, now I’m glad I didn’t!) Has a totally different feel to it from the 1911. But I like [...]
Giving Thanks
Give thanks, today, for all that we have and all that we have been given. Dark clouds lie on every horizon, and in many ways our position seems untenable. But we have much to be thankful for. Believe in Liberty, and work for its restoration. – George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. – Speaking of Liberty, on this day was born one Eugene M. Stoner (Cpl, USMC). That’s something to be thankful for! – And a look back at Thanksgiving, 1950. One more reason to be thankful– tomorrow begins the authorized season of Christmas music!
A Note on Comments
We enjoy a rollicking back-and-forth here, but every now and then we get one that oversteps the tacit rules. GB61 had just such a comment on 26 July. That one got deleted, GB61, and you can probably figure out why. Feel free to voice strong opinions but stay away from gratuitous remarks about another commenter’s family.
How to Cull the Herd!
The Army leadership seems to have a problem; they don’t know how to do the drawdown. They want to do it like they have before; that is screw over the mid grade officers; except they have been instructed to preserve the experience of their mid-grade officers. It seems to me it is time to take a page from George Marshall’s playbook from World War II. It is time to cull the heard. How you say, let me offer the following suggestion: 1. Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels hold a retention board, to be considered you must have twenty years. For both [...]
A Capability Worth Having
This is making the rounds, and it’s worth watching. Having seen a det of six Harriers operate off that same ship for six months, I can tell you it is a potent capability to have. I am not at all wedded to the F-35B, but need something that can do what this thing does.
Christmas 2011
A very Merry Christmas (and belated Happy Hanukkah to Op-Forians of the ancient faith) to all, especially the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines overseas. May next Christmas see them all home safe and sound, wreathed with the laurels of victory.
We Didn’t Know He Was “IL”
So long, scumbag. I do hope that somewhere, somehow he embraced Our Lord and Savior before he expired, but I expect that might be a forlorn hope. Otherwise, I hope I don’t speak “IL” of the dead when I say that he won’t be missed much. The question in his wake is the extent to which his progeny will be more or less murderous, despotic, unstable and weird.
“1/5 Fought Hard and Got Dirty”
Watch this, then maybe watch it again. Then think to yourself, between the U.S. Congress, 535 strong, and one Marine battalion (with attachments not too different in size), which one showed a greater willingness to tackle difficult head-on? Which made greater sacrifices? Which showed greater fidelity to the Constitution? What say you? * Or any other battalion, for that matter.
