Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
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Focus: "chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack" - if teh smurf rolls out, Glenn Greenwald will be hiding under a mattress in his basement eating spaghettios out of a can while listening to AM radio and wondering where the hell the Army is, and no one's going to be talking about posse comitatus. Nam sayin'?Of course, that's exactly the problem. Because we all know that's *exactly* what President Bush has planned to prevent either the election, or should Senator Obama win, the inaguration. The Truthers told me so - and, of course, Kos diarists and DU posters.
Just as, should Senator Obama win, when time comes for him to leave office, it will be him doing it and I'll be reading it from the Usual Suspects on the Right. -the Armorer
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Always available to help a brother out...
-the ArmorerThe OC, Major John Cochrane, warned the SSM to be good and not to play tricks on his young Troop Leaders. However, he never said anything about the new Administration Officer (AO), Lieutenant (Lt) Mike Kaye.
Using his devious mind, the SSM concocted a scenario where a soldier, a very large soldier, had to be extracted due to a mishap. He informed the AO that he needed a heavy-support stretcher and to get one from the medics. Not knowing what a heavy-support stretcher was, the AO ran off in search of this elusive creature. As the SSM had previously warned off the rest of the camp, the AO frantically ran from one section of the camp to another looking for this stretcher, no one able to help him. Finally, his adventure ended with the maintainers who gave him a tank shock commonly known as a heavy support apparatus. Still not catching on, the AO ran to the medics at the UMS with the shock. They proceeded to stretch out the shock and attached it to both ends of a stretcher with white mine tape. The AO grabbed it and hurried back to the SSM who was waiting with a few key individuals and a camera, where the joke was finally realised.
It was kind of surprising that no mention of this incident was every made to the other officers by the AO. I guess he believed that this will be kept within the Sqn and no mention will be made. But, thanks to the World Wide Web, we are broadcasting this out to the Regimental Family so that everyone will know, because we just can’t keep this to ourselves.
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There are two Castle birthdays today. One is for Denizen Argent. Frankly, I don't know what to get an Ozzie for his birthday, so I settled for this putative Ozzie Birthday Cake...
The second is actually *at* the Castle, as Wendy, from Girl On The Right, is our house guest. I know what she wants... and we'll see if we can't get it via that whole employment thing.
Happy Birthday, the both of you! -the Armorer
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute. Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is. The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.
Happy Birthday Down Under, Argent!!
And Happy Birthday to you too, Wendy.
Hope you're both having a great time doing whatever you want to do to celebrate!
Argent & Wendy -- Happy Birthday to you both!!!
Ah. "Grab me a spool of Gun Line. I think I saw one on #4..."
Torrential, blinding Mojave desert flash flood driving rain storm , somewhere north and east of the Delta Corridor, MCAGCC Twentynine Palms. KNOCK KNOCK on the back of the FDC box we built on our five ton. Open the door, revealing two drowned Privates, USMC.
"*flashBOOM* Is SSgt O* in there?"
There is a shell tray containing one 155mm HE projectile, with lifting ring in the fuze well, on the ground between the soaked troops. About a hundred pounds burden with the tray, give or take.
"Sgt. T* sends respects to SSgt O*, and would you please register this?"
"What?"
"Sgt T* says respects to SSgt O*, and would you please register this? We may need to shoot it later, and this one isn't registered."
Rain picks up. Birds are canoeing by.
"Okay. Hand it up here". Tray comes up on to the tailgate. SSgt "O" takes an orange grease pencil, signs the round with a flourish. "Cpl J, training moment for you. Sign right here." I sign.
"Okay, gents. I think it's okay, but you better head over to the XO pit and ask him what he thinks. Remind him that Regiment wants XO's to use only WHITE pencil, okay? Good. CARRY ON!"
*flasssshzizzleCRACKBOOM*
"Thank you, SSgt!" Privates snatch the registered round off the tailgate and splash off through the murk in the direction they hope the XO pit lies.
"Arbuckle, dig me out a white grease pencil. I know for a fact XO is out; he asked me for one yesterday."
*BOOM*....
RG