I see that the SCOTUS kerfuffle and the right-wing's bizarre melt-down (does the Left *ever* get this hissy in it's intramurals?) has driven the war from the media. Add to that the OPSEC restrictions on the deployed milblogs making them less compelling, and I see the milbloggers are sinking slowly in the Ecosystem, as Miers, et.al, sucks up the linkage. Greyhawk bucks the trend.
I've not taken a stand on Miers. I'm slowly, painfully learning that my sense of politics, etc goes beyond 'tin ear'. Besides that, I can't compete with the stuff that Cassie puts out, so what-the-heck, at the moment, why bother? I'll watch and wait for the hearings.
Flip side, I don't feel near as compelled any more, either. Hence the return to more root-like stuff from the past, and even if the linkage is drying up, the visits aren't, so we're not driving everyone away, even if we can't get Dusty to stick his nose in anywhere, lately.
So - as I noted before, the List of Arms at Argghhh! has been essentially frozen due to budget considerations... but we can still squeeze out a shekel or two for the 'other stuff' I like.
Arriving yesterday - a French M15 Adrian helmet. The French were the first to put steel pots on their soldier's heads, and many US troops wore them (mostly the black troops we had serving with the French) instead of the Brody-style pie-plate helmet from WWI we're generally used to seeing. Both those photo links are from this excellent website of WWI photos. I've got several flavors of Adrian brain-buckets, but not an early version, with the riveted skirt and plaited leather chin strap. One of the interesting things the French did after the war was provide veterans with a brass plate that could be riveted to the helmet on the visor that said, in french, "Soldier of the Great War, 1914-1918." I finally got one, on eBay in an auction where the normal collectors were absent so it was affordable. This particular veteran was, I'd guess, Catholic. The Crucifix is not standard equipment. The flaming bomb is the symbol of the Infantry.
Two other things are interesting about this helmet - the corrugated aluminum ring that is part of the sweat band, between the band the and helmet shell, and the fact that this is a tiny helmet. I have a huge melon, so all helmets, even the custom-made kevlar I was issued, look small on this head... but this one must be the absolute smallest sized one. I'd post a pic of it sitting on top of my head, but I'd get sued by someone who busted a gut laughing...
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