The Whatziss Gizmo, continued.

You guys really have pretty much gotten it. This pic will prolly cement it for you.

Huh. Mebbe *this* will help.

Some tidying up of loose ends.

In case of Moonbats, break glass, and grab the Armorer's Cluebat! (Down, Denizennes, sheesh!) 32 inches Moonbat-thumping reach - with a nice, cannon-like touch to the, ahem, barrel of the piece.

Alrighty then, moving on. Remember this "Whatziss?"

Go below the fold, to the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry, and you can see it in context.

A Firearms Whatziss!

Why not? You guys have been working hard on all the obscure stuff.

Not that this isn't obscure, in it's way.

The usual questions: Who used it, what is the whole item (not just the closeup portion), etc.

It's on the net, in several places, too - not a complete cypher.

Update: Okay, John S, the gun dealer who *sold* me the rifle, gets it correct.

Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield, No 1 Mk V. An experimental rifle that led to the No. 4 Mk1 of WWII fame.

Fuller view of the receiver here.

This is the rifle that usually holds the rifle-mounted barbed wire cutter. Which it *never* did in service I might add - I just have more stuff to stick on my No. 1's than I have rifles...

Jim B's crack about Australia is actually on the mark - many of these rifles *did* find their way to Australia - this one did. It sits in a No 1 Mk III stock (incorrect for the rifle, technically - the Mk V had an extra reinforcing band and one-piece upper handguard) marked to the New South Wales police.

Whatziss help.

You guys have *actually* hit all the component elements of the answer. You just have to figure out which ones from the clues.

I will acknowledge I inadvertently misled you with the scale referent. The artifact in question is at least 60 years younger than the grenade.

Here's another pic to help you on your journey.

Update:

Frank got it - Riot Control round, in this case a French "baton round" that fired a hollow rubber ball from a 37mm launcher - similar to this gun.

What's interesting about this one is that it's a 12 gauge blank inserted into a larger caliber plastic case, vice the aluminum cased more classic design of this Brit baton round in the Castle holdings. Fairly low velocity and hits with a sharp sting. I've been hit, in training, with a baton round from 50 yards. Not fun. Certainly, getting hit at close range in the wrong place can cause (and has) fatalities or serious injury. There are rules of engagement covering these weapons as there are any others.

Whatziss...

Go ahead, give it yer best shot. You guys with the right kinds of jobs (i.e., daytime surfing ability) are getting pretty good at this stuff.

Okay - here's a little bit of help for scale. That's a german "egg" grenade.

MajMike hits the closest - but isn't there yet.

Continuing the Whatziss from yesterday...

You guys haven't figured it out yet, but the random darts you're throwing into the underbrush have, in fact, produced a few yelps.

1. WWI
2. German
3. While not body armor, it was worn by German troops.

In service it would have had this orientation on the soldier - if he was right-handed.

Or like this, on a left-handed soldier.

And would have been found in the kit of certain members of Stosstruppen units.

Whatziss for a Saturday.

This item is complete, less the straps that fit the slots.

For full credit: War, Nation, Purpose.

It's 9 inches across, measured diagonally.

Perhaps another view will help.

Whatziss for the smarty-pantsed crowd.

This isn't as unfair as it looks.

1. It's been mentioned on this site, in conjunction with these kinds of posts, within living memory, even of those of you who slay brain cells with alcohol with reckless abandon.

2. It's been pictured on this site, in other contexts.

3. It's about 1/3 the size it appears to be in the pic.

Go ahead, impress me.

Oh, here. A hint.

Update: Okay, Monteith got it. Striker spring for the Mills bomb (this one a No 5). Was hazarded as a guess on this post, is seen here with the striker, and has been viewed before (in context) in this pic.

Okay. That was an easy one. Let's continue the adventure. Tomorrow I'll put up something a little more challenging.

What the heck.

Bill having snarked me today, and his Whatziss having been figured out pretty quickly - let's try another one. Following Bill's rule of showing the whole thing, sorta.

But while this has been alluded to in posts in the archives, it has not been pictured.

So, Grognards - whatziss? Purpose, nomenclature, etc.

A hint! A hint!

For yesterday's Whatziss?

You guys are sniffing all around it - though many of you are *right* next to it - you are looking at it 3200 mils (180 degrees) off.

This hint is in keeping with that, in grammatical, if not rhetorical, terms.

I see Gwedd finally got it! Neffi knows his grenade butts, as he amply demonstrated.

This would have been clue #2 of the day, had it been needed.

But that's it - the ring puller used by Mills Bombers.

This one being a No 5.

Otay - For a lazy Sunday while I paint...

...what used to be Prodigal Son's Crib, but will soon be the Armorer's Retreat, you guys can puzzle out this thingy.

Yes, it's on the web.

Last century, prior to 1950. This is a battlefield recovery.

Think expansively. Rapidly.

It's hard to see - but that straight part to the left ends in a hook.

The Whatziss from yesterday.

I was trying to catch that wily old tanker, MajMike, but uncharacteristically for a tanker, he wasn't willing to just rush into a trap.

He has potential.

I was hoping he'd run with an expectation he'd set the day before (the best deception plans work by manipulating your opponent's expectations) about what I might be trying to do.

Y'know, that he'd guess it was this, or this, or this

Caltrops.

Then, I'd whisk away the picture mask and reveal it for what it really is.

A WWI British trench raiding tool. A locally fabricated trench maul.

Scale? You guys are *always* whining about scale. The white paper the maul is sitting on is a standard paper towel. There. Scale.

Continuing from yesterday...

...who wants to step up to the plate and figure out what this is? Or at least make funny guesses?

Ha! Bill only *claims* to have an easy Whatziss...

This one really is - and sets the tone for my theme this week (assuming my client doesn't flog me like a Brit sailor stealing grog by trying to get 6 weeks out of me in two weeks (we're going to have a one month break as this contract ends before the new one picks up where we leave off...)

So, to give yourself a break from Bill's conundrum - Whatziss?

There is a group among you (two, actually) who have a really unfair advantage.

And, as far as I know - this is the first picture of this type on the 'net...

Update. Wrong. Now there's two pictures. Y'all need some help. Bill's gonna slap himself when he finally sees the light. Unlike me, if we ever figure out what Bill's gizmo is...

Anudder update:

So, revealed! A Circle, Aiming, M1, of WWII vintage.

So, the Mistress of Argghhh! spanks the boys - and especially the two former artillerymen, Bill and Frank, who have *no* excuse. Bill especially. I *know* that Bill has 'Taken the azimuth of Fire Out of the Orienting Line' (TFOOL) and 'Subtracted the Azimuth of fire from the Declination constant' (SAD), taken the resultant number, applied it to the Upper (recording) motion, turned the Lower (non-recording motion) to either sight on the stake that marks the Orienting Line, or, in this case, 'floated the needle' to align the site on magnetic North, to then, using the Upper (recording) motion to sight on the panoramic telescope of base piece, while giving the command "Battery Adjust, this instrument, Refer!"

Frank might not have gotten that far, so we'll give him only a minor downcheck.

That's what a floating needle looks like through that little window as you are alinging your aiming circle (director, in Commonwealth usage) to magnetic north. The fact that the needle isn't level, nor aligned on the reticle is a function of how sensitive the needle is to my honking great big watchband.

Whatziss, Part the 3rd.

Need to catch up? Part One. Part II.

Okay. Now you have a little scale.

All are components of the same item. Though one of them in a counter-intuitive fashion.

Update: Enthusiasm for the answers aside, Geoff is wrong (though cleverly trying to double-think the double-thinker) and MajMike is correct, though incomplete.

You actually have all the data you need to figure out more thoroughly which one it is, now.

But I'm feeling magnanimous, so here's another clue.

Whatzis, Part II.

Okay, MajMike got close, but CAPT H nailed it on Whatzis, Part 1.

Driving band. Your inspiration was supposed to be Captain Minie, whose famous bullet used expansion of the base to engage the rifling. For those who are clever, you've already deduced *what* the thing might be in toto.

Now, in order to drag this out and have some cool posts on miltech, (at least *I* think so) we'll work our way through figuring out which one of whatever it is.

I provide this:

So, what izzit?

A new Whatzis?

While we wait on some more clues from Murray for his offering, I"ll give ya this one.

1. The scale is off, on purpose.

2. It is a quintessential Castle Artifact.

That'll get ya started. More clues standing by as needed.

I won't be surprised if this one gets figgered out pretty quick, actually.

New Whatziss? Challenge.

In the tradition started by Owen, another guest "Whatziss" this time provided by Murray, of Silent Running.

Mind you - I'm clueless on this. Murray is a former soldier of New Zealand, who now works on the worthy goal of eradicating Gnomelessness. He's also working on a new house plaque for Castle Argghhh! which we anticipate will be rather kewl. Ah, our ego knows no bounds!

Anyway - here's the object in question:

Another view.

The gridded background in the shots are 10mm squares, btw.

And the rather cryptic clue Murray provided...

What is it, why did it cost $15,000 to replace and what sort of "wings" did I earn doing it?

Militaria Challenge.

Owen Dyer, a mildly leftish anti-Iraq-War contrarian who collects kewl stuff himself, dropped in yesterday and griped that I hadn't done a "teaser" contest lately. His interest? He sponsored our last one!

So Owen, this one's for you:

Rules - email your answers to johnbethd-at-yah00.com I'm turning comments off so you grognards don't spoil it for everyone.

I want to know what it is, what weapon system used it, and what is unique about this particular bit of kit. The answers are on the 'net, if your google-skills are up to it.

Fort Leavenworth Militaria Show

Saturday, SWWBO and I were off to St. Joe to do a little shooting. On the way out, we stopped at the Fort to put the horses out and muck the stables (we're back into poop-scooping because of a labor dispute at the Federal Prison. We hire inmates as staff at the stable - a good deal for both sides. I don't have to scoop poop, they get to spend their days at the stables doing work that is a little smelly at times, but hardly onerous.). Anyway, on our way in we see signs to a militaria show being held at the former Officer's Club, now grandiosely titled the Frontier Conference Center.

Not having been to a pure militaria show in a long time, we decided (yes, guys, with SWWBO's urging even) to attend.

Great show! Saw people I hadn't seen for a while, like Neil, the source of many of the bayonets and not a few rifles in the Arsenal, Jim Gebhardt, former co-worker who has provided many of the reference books in the Library - he has a sideline of translating russian books. Jim is also a gadfly of local media, like I am. And lots of cool stuff to look at and interesting people to talk to. A lot of re-enactors, too - more on that later.

One problem with militaria shows is they are *always* pricey. Mostly because it's collectors doing the selling... being collectors and not dealers, they tend to over-value their stuff, probably overpaid for it, and don't really want to sell it, anyway (like me!). But their spouse wants some of that crap outta the house.... "Gee, Honeybunch Snookums, no one was buying today, I don't know *what* the problem was..." is the usual line when they get home, and the stuff they *bought* gets snuck in later, under cover of darkness.

SWWBO had her usual good eye, and pointed out a 1999-2000 edition of Jane's Armour and Artillery for $35. Good price? You bet - take a look at Amazon for the current edition, or the same one I got. eBay isn't much better - though it *is* better. Thanks, sweetie!

If anyone wants to earn the Armorer's gratitude, snag a relatively recent Jane's Infantry Weapons (oh, heck, old ones are good, too) and donate it to the Library of Argghhh!

But that wasn't the best part. Besides seeing all the kewl stuff and running into old and current friends - I ran into two young Lieutenants just back from Iraq.

They were dressed out in WWII kit (and these gents were all of 10 days back from the Sandbox) one as a 35th ID troop (on the left), the other as a 1st ID troop (in the center). Both are artillery Lieutenants in the Kansas Guard who served as advisors to the Iraqi Army. And they got to see some really cool kit that is just sitting around in warehouses over there. Not too mention go on patrol with their Iraqis, arming themselves with a STEN gun... too cool, the Armorer's head almost exploded from envy.

They found lots and lots of old WWII era Brit stuff, some WWII German, and lots of more modern stuff as well. I helped them identify much of their kit they weren't sure of, showed them how some of it (like the WWI Brit artillery plotters) worked, and mostly listened to their tales from Iraq.

These guys found 200 (yes, that's 200 out of the 11,500 total produced) PIATs. While they couldn't find a legal way to get any of them home (they could have had a good start on college money for their kids if they could have) they did bring home some parts... and most importantly for the Arsenal - they brought home original CANVAS! The Castle PIAT has been dressed in repro canvas... but is now *proudly* decked out in original canvas... and that with an OIF connection. As you know, that is exactly how the Armorer likes it - stuff with some history, rather than pristine, made, stored, and never used! It's also cool to have some more stuff in the Castle Collection that has dust from the Land Between The Rivers clinging to it.

Having spent all that time bloviating with the LTs, (I am not a journalist... I didn't get their names, much to my chagrin - but, hopefully, they'll visit the Castle and drop me a line) I decided to do more than talk the talk, but I would walk the walk, as well. I went home, got the PIAT and some of the more portable Vickers kit, and went back.

THAT attracted some attention - not just from the LTs, who were pleased to see some of their stuff appreciated and utilized, but the Brit Para re-enactors... well, let's just say no one had seen a PIAT in the flesh and the Castle PIAT got fondled. A lot.

And I made some new friends... and some of the Castle holdings may make a few road trips to regional re-enactment events. Especially the PIAT and Vickers.

And I think next year, I'm going to rent a table (hey, it supports the Fort Leavenworth Historical Society) and do a display myself. Because that was just fun last Saturday.

Thank you for your service, Lieutenants - not just to the Castle PIAT, but more importantly, to the state, the nation, and hopefully, the Iraqis. We'll close with a shot of the baby-faced Lieutenant, who managed to do what I specifically warned him not to do - get the propelling charge for the PIAT stuck in the bomb (which took the combined intellect of SWWBO and I to get back out! - Oh shut up, no 'intellect' snarks!)

More militaria stuff...

Yesterday's post having hit a chord with some, here's a follow-up...

Obviously, aside from eating, you have to drink. The Castle Collection has *several* items in it related to drinking... heavily, in some cases.

Since this is a photo-heavy post, I'm going to put the rest in the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry.

Flash Traffic (extended entry) Follows »

For example - drinking vessels...

What you see here on the left is a US Civil War era ginger beer bottle, recovered from a union campsite of the Atlanta Campaign. To the right front of that bottle is a German WWI enameled steel cup, recovered from a Verdun dugout. Behind that one, the dark tin cup is a US Indian Wars era soldiers drinking cup, provenance unknown, but probably just surplussed out of the warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant is stored, among all that other stuff. The brown enameled cup in the center is Brit WWII, but just a simple release from surplus stock. Behind that to the right is a Shultheiss beer bottle, German WWI, recovered from, I think, an Ypres dugout. Shultheiss is still brewing, btw. The small glass in front of that is a WWI German schnapps glass, from the same dugout as the enameled cup. This is another shot of that glass - which is as clean as it gets - it's etched and deformed (note it isn't round) from the time it spent buried, and possibly heat damage. The last, shiny cup on the right is Victorian-era British, also a surplus release from some forgotten storage site. Released in the 90's, mind you. 1990's.

Up until recently, the Big Piece in the Castle Assemblage of Artifacts was the Brit WWI rum jug, shown here.

The initials "SRD" stand for "Soldiers Rum Depot" or, as the soldiers preferred - "Seldom Reaches Destination" or "Suddenly Runs Dry." There has long been a tradition in Brit service of the rum ration, a "tot a day". Attached to the jug, as you would find them in the trenches, is a slightly anachronistic drinking cup - this one being Australian WWII and recovered from an outpost line machinegun position at Tobruk. In this pic you can see the "D-Broad Arrow-D" mark of Australian ownership. [Alan - if you can find the wicker wrap for one of these jugs and send it our way - we'd be even on Silly Hats (though I think the RCMP wouldn't care if you were to send cannon, tanks, or firearms this way...)]

But! The Artifact Holdings have expanded by an even bigger item - one that might perhaps explain some historical results... Many armies have used wine as a substitute for water (see the Romans, among others) as a way around using nasty local water supplies and for other perceived health benefits (aside from morale - though I'm given to understand that the Roman wine ration wasn't all that tasty, nor terribly alcoholic). The artifact also shows that "boxed" wine isn't an invention of 'Murican West Coast mass-vintners. Nope. Leave it to the French.

Say hello to the 1955-dated French Army "Vin" jug. Still serviceable, and which will be dispensing cheap wine at the Castle Blogmeet...

No shite, people.

Update: CAPT H provides the following Canadian cultural referents for SRD, which offer the very plausible explanation of SRD standing for Soldiers Rum, Demerara (Demerara being a type of rum made from Demerara sugar.)

« Secure this line!

by John on Dec 29, 2005

Wednesday Wandering

One of the more interesting aspects of being the Officer of the Guard is that you get to chat with the troops pulling duty in between their shifts. I operated on the assumption that everybody opens up, even to an officer, over a cup of coffee at o'geezitzdark in the morning--I was usually right. F'r instance, one Balkan February eve I was trading "What I do in Real Life" stories with a couple of fellow-sufferers after we'd gone into the Guard Shack to thaw out from the thirty-below-zero ambient atmosphere and got this gem....

"One of the jobs I interviewed for was a teaching position in the local grade school. The interview went well, but I had a few things I needed to get straight, so when the interviewer asked, 'Do you have any questions?' I answered, 'Let me see if I've got this right...

" 'You want me to go into a room full of kids and fill their every waking moment with a love of learning. I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits.

" 'You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons and raise their self esteem.

" 'You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook and how to apply for a job.

" 'You want me to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, make sure all students pass the state exams, including those who don't even show up with any regularity or complete any of their assignments.

" 'You want me to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physical handicap.

" 'You want me to communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, newsletter and report card.

" 'You want me to do all of that with a piece of chalk, a couple of books, a bulletin board and a big smile and do it on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps.

" 'You want me to do all that and you expect me not to pray?!?' "

Heh. H/t to "Shayla, the Double-Digit Midget."

Militaria, kewl stuff, 1 ea.

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...

The Militaria Bar of Argghhh!

Since the Castle Exchequer is busy funding universities and accelerated payoffs so that one day the Master and Mistress may actually, perhaps, stop doing the 7-6 drudge, additions to the Arsenal have been slight, as pretty much all the cheap firearms to be had already reside in the racks, and the remaining (plenty of 'em, to be sure) residents of the 'want list' are, well, not cheap.

This doesn't mean that the Armorer is totally bereft of new toys and gadgets. Rather, it means he's filling in the corners of the other bits and pieces of soldier-related stuff he likes to get.

Here is the Bar at Argghhh!

Its been featured before. It even drew an aghast email from a GFW! For the record, we took the GFW's warning to heart. The Bar is no longer in the kitchen. It's out in the living room, so the rifle is handy when I feel the need to shoot out the talking head on television. Of course, I don't do that very often anymore... see opening paragraph.

The bar is home to a Boer rifle captured during the eponymous war by New Zealand soldiers. The brass scope is a brit artillery sight from the same era. One the end of the bar, the rectangular thing on the overhead part is an Australian "Two-Up" game stick and coins. Hanging from the end there are two tin cups, one Brit, one German, similar to the ones these gents are sharing. We've got rum jugs, beer bottles, schnapps glasses (all legit, battlefield recoveries) and trench art.

This week, I got a new gizmo. More properly, two gizmos, nestled at the bottom of the ABCA bud vase there (which currently serves as a swizzle-stick holder) - the little bullet-looking things.

They're German-made, having "Bavaria" stamped on them. They were made for English-speakers - they have "Take a Shot" embossed on them. And they're cool, almost like a Babushka doll - one has 4 tiny shot glasses nested in it - the other is a lighter (needs a wick and flint, but it's otherwise in great shape).

I just knew you wanted to know. Oh, and SWWBO - they were cheep, too!

Update: Per BCR's request.

Now, you need to get the labs working on that matter-transference gizmo we've talked about!

This one is for SWWBO!

Both contain 4 shots of Especial, 2 shots Cointreau, 2 shots Grand Marnier, and by that time, a little mix. Prosit!

Since Boquisucio needs help..

...with his Rangefinder ID, here is the Castle's Barr and Stroud Rangefinder that is part of our Vickers kit. Also in the pic are a Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifle and a PIAT. The Gustav and PIAT are for use against people who drive tanks or hide in bunkers. People like that, well, they suck. Of course, the sorry jerks who gave the PIAT to the Brit soldier in WWII suck too. But that's a different story.

Next up is a sample of the Castle Argghhh! LRS, Looter Repellent System. Rabbit ears (German made, ex-Argentine) for target acquisition, sniper loop w/rifle for retail responses, Max the Maxim should a more robust response be needed.

The minefield sign doesn't hurt, either.

John Is Still Alive

And he still has my e-addy. I guess this means I'm *off* probation, cuz he sent the following my way:

In response to Damien Cave's essay in the New York Time, which asked the question "Where Are the War Heroes?", I've declared the week of August 7 through August 14 WAR HEROES WEEK on my blog. I will be featuring stories about the heroes of the War on Terror, some from my website AMERICAN HEROES, and some new stories.

Heroes like Paul Smith, Medal of Honor, do receive some publicity from the Old Media. But there are others, like Capt. Kellie McCoy whose only recognition may be in the press release issued by the military. I hope to change that, just a little, by featuring these men and women this week.

Chuck Simmins
You Big Mouth, You!

I like the way Chuck thinks...

Hmmm. Changing programs, checking guns, and surplus sales..

...when you rename a program, it's usually because it has garnered enough bad publicity that you are trying to drop the baggage. Which means, of course, as an analyst, you dig deeper to see what's being hidden.

Sounds like they do that elsewhwere, too.

I see that Gunner noticed, as well.

While we're doing this - let's link to Alphecca's Weekly Check on the Bias, too! (Worth it for the pics alone!)

Then there's this - calling all old farts! Remember those old Desk, Double Pedestal, Steel, that inhabited the Dayroom, CQ station, First Sergeant's and CO's offices?

Guess what! For Three Thousand Dollars - you can have a restored one! Yessireebob! Courtesy, Restoration Hardware! As observed in the email revealing this Decorator's Dream:

Remember the gray/cream colored steel "Desk, Double Pedestal" that furnished every Army Orderly Room? Restoration Hardware now refurbishes and sells them for $2000! And, you can get a recovered Army swivel chair for $1195!

$3300 for your den to look like a 1985 CQ dayroom. There's something ironically funny going on here. The DRMO staff are all driving Porsches.

Hee! I know better - my ratty unrefinished desk cost me $30 when I bought it at Fort Sill 10 years ago...

Yessir! I already got me a Tanker Desk! And better yet, it still has the markings on it from the old Pershing Missile PM office!

If you want one of your very own, just click here!

Taps...

...and our ranks diminish by yet one more.

Pax tibi, Westy.

H/T Bloodspite.

Jeff Quinton has more.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.

Another good justification for capital punishment

Oh, crap...

I've heard of only one thing worse than this. The even-more-heinous act was middle-of-the-night phone calls to Air Force wives whose husbands were flying in Vietnam, callers masquerading as USAF casualty notification officers telling them their husbands had been killed over Hanoi. That happened to our next-door neighbor. Even though she knew this was a harassment tactic by the anti-war crowd (probably parents of today's average Daily Kos denizen), she was momentarily panicked...and who can blame her?

Now, most of the ladies knew that this wasn't how the process worked and it sounds like today's family members are savvy enough to not fall for this sort of thing, but what kind of mind dreams this shite up?

HT to BLACKFIVE

Off the dime.

SGT B. of The Gun Line had been pretty quiet recently, so the other night I visited his site to see what he’d been up to, and to see what his collection of commenters had to say about his piping. While browsing the comments, I came across a familiar name: Huntress.

Huntress was the callsign of the AWACS bird patrolling off the East Coast. I’d worked a couple of joint ops with the Eye-in-the-Sky crews during the eighties and nineties, and, wondering if Huntress might be a new milblog started by an old associate, I stopped by.

Whoops. Entirely too pastel for a milblog, even an Air Force one. Blogger chick, I thought, then started to read the post I’d bumped into.

I was dead wrong. Not a blogger chick, a Lady.

And the Lady was hurt--she’d just lost a friend.

Stream of consciousness. Sadness, anger, grief. Outright misery. And a kick in the butt that finally got me to do this…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I’d like you, my new friends, to take a short walk with me to meet some of my old friends. They’re waiting for us at Fiddler’s Green. This way. I’ll talk as we go, okay?

Now, for the benefit of you denizens and visitors who aren’t quite sure what--or where--Fiddler’s Green is, I’ll give you a quick briefing. Fiddler’s Green is a waypoint, a rest halt for us military types who have stepped out of the Dance and started a longer journey.

It’s a place where we can kick back and have a last beer or two before continuing to our final assignment--The Proprietor set it up as kind of a decompression chamber for us uniformed types after we’ve passed through the various hells…

And, since Fiddler’s Green serves only beer, and we’re only visiting, The Proprietor has allowed me to drag the ‘rita-matic along for the Ladies.

Oooop--forgot to mention that General Order #1 is different here: No Tears. Mouring time is over--this is a party, not a weep-fest.

Heh. We’re there already. Toldja it was a short walk.

See those low tables under the trees? The kids wearing those two patches? Well, mostly kids…and a couple of older guys who only got here ‘bout a month ago…

Please click on Extended Entry to continue...

Come Saturday Morning...

Hmmmmm--lessee what we’ve got in the box o’ ‘trons…

[*rummage*] [*rummage*] [*snap-crackle-pop*]

Hmmmpf. Did a TINS already. Haven’t done a Boz in a while…

[*peers back downweek*] Heh. Got a li’l religion, there…yeah, why not?

[*rummage*] [*blows dust off ‘trons*]

Perfect.

I’ve always gotten along well with our various chaplains over the last thirty-plus-years, although I have a suspicion that one or two thought I’d been inflicted on them as a test of their faith…

MAJ Ray ___, our chaplain in Boz, and I got along great--we were both Calvin and Hobbes fans and he was the only guy I’d ever met who could drink more coffee than I can and not go into terminal twitches.

His coffee mug was an extension of his left hand. It held enough coffee to keep Rhode Island awake for a week.

Ray was in the habit of dropping in to check the Flight Status board to see who was already up and who was scheduled to launch later, so he could personalize the Insurance Prayers, then he’d chat for a bit and bug me about hopping on the Butmir [the military airfield serving Sarajevo] Shuttle. If I was busy, he’d leave his mug on the counter to indicate he’d be back and then pop next door to see what the grunts were up to. One Friday morning, he dropped in, listened to me chatting with the Ops NCOIC in Taszar, put his coffee mug on the counter and wandered off.

Next morning, one of the ‘Hawk drivers came in for his briefing and remarked, “What’d ya do, win a trophy?”

Chappy Ray’s mug. Still on the counter.

[*light bulb*] Trophy.

[*light bulb*] The CG had just presented the Commander’s Cup to one of the flag football teams.

[*light bulb*] Heh. The Chaplain’s Cup.

I opened up my dot-mil, plugged in some addresses and composed the following:

-----Original Message-----
From: Tuttle, William CW4
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 10:59 AM
To: DL-COMANCHE/CONNOR
Cc:
Subject: Chaplain's Cup Award

ALCON

The prestigious "Camp Comanche Chaplain's Cup" (an award regarded in some circles as being on a more exalted plane than the Commander's Cup) was presented to the TF Pegasus Flight Operations Section in a simple ceremony conducted yesterday morning. The Cup, according to tradition, was constructed at some time during the preceding millenium by a highly-trained artisan of the Aladdin Corporation in Nashville, Tennessee, who (some say miraculously) used only a single piece of extruded polymeric material in its creation--it did not evolve, contrary to popular belief.

The Cup, which is capable of containing the contents of an entire urn of DFAC coffee (regular or strong), is a simple clerical black in overall appearance, with a central motif which, also according to tradition, is an accurate rendition of the pattern of the cloak issued to St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of soldiers deployed to chilly climates. The Cup possesses the extraordinary capability of recognizing the temperature of whatever substance is placed within its central receptacle and of sustaining the appropriate level of molecular activity to maintain that exact temperature for an indeterminate, albeit considerable, length of time--how an apparently inanimate object possesses the ability to accomplish such a feat remains a mystery to this day.

The Cup was presented to Flight Ops personnel in recognition of:
· their fortitude in enduring random bursts of static and miscellaneous side-lobe interference caused by demonic possession of certain FM radio frequencies and
· having a collective patience of saintly caliber in dealing with questions such as, "Is there a flight going to Butmir tomorrow and am I on it?", "Is that local time or Zulu?" and "Is there a helipad behind the PX at Eagle?"

The Cup, with its tastefully-understated Post-It Note inscription, will remain on display in Flight Ops until such time as another TF Pegasus section can surpass the exceptionally high standards achieved by Flight Ops or the Chaplain remembers where he left it.

[*click*] Send.

Responses ranged from
“Never, ever overload my Inbox with anything like this ever again. Ever.”
(Our Maintenance Officer)

to

“See me. ASAP.”
(The Flight Surgeon)

to

Mr. Tuttle,

I will be over later this afternoon. Thanks for the laugh.

Ray

Knowing full well that all of MND-North would be on tenterhooks wondering about the fate of the Chaplain’s Cup, I toggled Reply All and typed:

Yea, brethren, upon this date there did appear unto the OIC of the Flight Operations a minion of the Lord, and in his appearance, the minion was like unto that of the Chaplain; like that of the Chaplain was the appearance of the minion of the Lord.

And the minion appeared before the OIC and spake thusly unto him, saying, "Hi, Chief--wherefore resteth the Cup which was given into thy charge?" And the OIC replied to the minion of the Lord, "Behold! Here it is before thee; the Cup resteth before thee upon this slab of polished wood which hath been hewn from the oak-tree."

And the minion of the Lord spake again unto the OIC, saying, "This is indeed the Cup; hast thou then introduced any abominations therein?" And the OIC replied to the minion of the Lord, saying, "Full well thou knowest, o minion, that I am of an age which is an age beyond the ages of the thirtysomethings, and so may not abide such things as is the drink of the thirtysomethings; decaf and café latté are as naught within my sight. Verily, I say unto thee that here before thee upon this slab of polished wood which hath been hewn from the oak-tree, the Cup resteth pristine, as it was when first it appeared unto me."

And the minion of the Lord spake yet a third time. And the third time he spake, he spake thusly, saying, "Thanks, Chief. The Cup is now required of thee, that it may resume providing sustenance and comfort unto me." And the minion of the Lord took up the Cup into his right hand; with his right hand he took up the Cup. And, as the minion of the Lord took up the Cup into his right hand, he withdrew from the sight of the OIC.

And, as the minion of the Lord withdrew from the sight of the OIC, the minion of the Lord spake yet a fourth time, saying, "By the way, got anything going to Butmir tomorrow?"

[*click*] Send

And after the MRE?

Did things change? What lessons did the Staff learn? Well, about a week before we were to scheduled leave (but didn't--long story), the following e-mail appeared.

For Those Who Know, you're right. 'Way, 'way late...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: BRS Eagle ISSO SUPV
> Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 10:32 AM
> To: DL-COMANCHE/CONNOR; DL-McGOVERN/MORGAN; DL-TUZLA
> Subject: Bunker SOP
>
>
> Attached you will find a presentation detailing bunker procedures. Please
> ensure all personnel in your organization has this information. Remember
> that you are not assigned to a bunker, in the event of an attack you go to
> the nearest bunker. There are chem lights inside the bunkers near the
> entrances, if you are the first person to arrive at the bunker, break open
> the chem lights and read the instructions in the bunker.
>

> [E-Signature Deleted by BillT]
> [Name Deleted by BillT]
> SFC, USA
> Force Protection NCO
> XXX-XXXX
> xxxxxxxxxx@email-xxxxxxx.army.mil
>
> <>

So, what did those souls curious enough to meander over to the bunkers and scope out the instructions find?

No chemlights, but the following instructions were posted:

"Ako ste upoznati ili imate bilo kakve informacije o mogucim prijetnjama SFOR osoblja ili objekata kontaktirajte SFOR predstavnika na broj 035-814-245. Predstavnik koji govori engleski jezik ce biti na raspolaganju 24 sata svaki dan. Predstavnik moze pozvati prevodioca ako je potreban, ali vi morate priloziti ime, broj telefona i vrijeme ponovnog kontakta. Hvala vam na vasoj saradnji."

English translation? Heh.

[click on Extended Entry]

Recipe for an MRE*

*as in “Military Readiness Exercise”—not as in “Mummified Ration Enclosed”

Before the troops go anywhere, the Army spares no expense in acclimatizing and familiarizing them to the weather and terrain in which they will be operating. The "final exam" for deployment, designed to test the mettle of the men and the skills of the staff is the Military Readiness Exercise. F'r example:

Troops assigned to the Middle East for scheduled summer deployment are trained at Fort Dix, NJ, in the dead of winter; troops going to spend the winter in the Bosnian central plateau went to Fort Polk, LA, in July.

Heh.

1. Place eight 100’X40’ circus tents (festively striped in yellow/green or white/green) in the center of a 2,000-acre bowl named COMANCHE. Add three Task Forces totaling 1,300 people (1,275 male and 25 female), a Mobile Field Kitchen and stir. Marinate in a hurricane for five days and residual six-hour thunderstorms for an additional two weeks.

2. Sprinkle in hot-and-cold running flies, mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, black widow and brown recluse spiders, scorpions, snakes and three-inch cockroaches that bite. Fold in rainbow-hued mold spores and a zillion frogs that will only eat butterflies. Shake constantly to insure that the spiders have unimpeded access to duffel bags and cots.

3. Remove flavor and caffeine from coffee concentrate and place them aside for later use. Maybe.

4. Add mud that sticks like Superglue and twenty Porta-Pots. Remove the toilet paper from half of the twelve Porta-Pots designated “Male” in order to encourage paper conservation. Place the now-excess toilet paper in the remaining eight designated “Female Only” in order to encourage basic personal hygiene. Instruct contractor to clean “Female Only” facilities twice daily and “Male” facilities only on odd-numbered days. Add eight field showers and designate half of them “Female Only.”

5. Separate Division Headquarters into two distinct halves and sever all direct links to any remaining chain of command. Remove all headquarters staff personnel to another location named EAGLE (a mile away if you take the shortcut through the swamp or five miles away if you follow the road) and house them in air-conditioned barracks with four contract mess halls, three launderettes, two PX MiniMarts, one Cajun snack bar and seventy assorted vending machines; remove all COMANCHE vehicles (with the exception of several M-1A1 tanks in desperate need of a lube-job) and send them to EAGLE. Padlock the steering wheels and bury the keys.

6. Insure all Headquarters staff personnel e-mail vague instructions “for immediate implementation” to COMANCHE counterparts and then depart for a two-hour lunch. Instruct commo personnel to disconnect TacLAN the instant any incoming COMANCHE e-mail is detected.

7. Sift a Recycle Nazi into COMANCHE who insists that all trash be separated into one of six different recycling categories; insure he studiously ignores the fact that all collected trash winds up in the same 65 cubic-yard open-top dumpster, where it is compacted by its own weight into a cohesive, albeit gooey, mass. Spray dumpster with Viagro for Houseflies™ and park it midway between the Porta-Pots and the Mobile Field Kitchen to provide the flies a rest area in their commute between the two. Leave the dumpster there for three weeks. Uncovered.

8. Advance all scheduled events by between 5 and 24 hours; tell no one until 5 minutes after the new event-time, then issue conflicting orders for immediate implementation to each separate Task Force and depart for a two-hour lunch. Chill the non-potable water in the field showers to 50°F and warm the potable water in the ‘buff to 115°F.

9. Grate everyone’s nerves.

10. Place 50% of all COMANCHE Task Force personnel on the Night Shift and remove mufflers from all generators within 100 meters of the tents; this will insure that, between the noise at night and the heat during the day, nobody will get any sleep worth mentioning.

11. Hold 0900-1100 Task Force briefings and 1500-1700 Task Force AARs at Division Headquarters every day; complain loudly that half the occupants of EAGLE have the sniffles because the air-conditioners are permanently set at 65°F.

12. Insure no one in either section of the Division staff answers any COMANCHE-generated e-mail between 0700 to 0900, 1100 to 1300 and 1700 to 0700.

13. Bake at 98°F and baste at 97% humidity. Garnish with twelve genuine Bosnians, who walk around explaining to anyone still conscious, "Bosnia is *not* like this. This place makes Sniper Alley look like nude beach." Issue brand-new black berets to 70% of authorized personnel for mass "Happy Birthday Army" photo op. Insure that 60% of berets are PX Kiddie Korner rejects (too small), 39% are the size of DeLorenzo “Grandissimo” bar pies, and the remainder are issued to people who are unalterably convinced that the beret is supposed to be worn with the flash centered 6” above the highest point on the left ear. Have all personnel fall in on the runway just as the UAV begins its final approach.

14. Serve on soggy cardboard trays decorated with multicolored mold spores. Separate leftovers into six different recycling categories, place them in the open 65 cubic-yard dumpster and mix well. Add the caffeine removed from the coffee concentrate in para 3 in order to keep the flies completely wired.

A Differential Theory...

[ed: this has been around, morphing bit by bit, for a looong time. And it's passed over the internet in waves, too. But it will be new to many of you non-military types, and it's always funny to us people who wear/wore tie-dyed clothing!]

...Concerning US Armed Forces Encountering a Snake in the Area of Operations

Sarge B. is waxing philosophical on the essential differences between the services with regards to the myriad uses of Sergeant. However, there are more fundamental differences in the services, particularly with regards to close encounters of the reptilian kind...

Infantry: Snake smells them, leaves area.

Airborne: Inadvertently squashes snake with 80-pound rucksack during PLF.

Armor: Runs over snake, laughs and looks for more snakes.

Field Artillery: Kills snake with massive Time-On-Target, utilizing three Forward-Deployed Artillery Brigades with DivArty in Direct Support. Also destroys recently-restored 8th Century monastery as unavoidable collateral damage. Mission is declared a success and all participants, to include cooks, mechanics and clerks, are awarded Silver Stars. [Only Good Cooks get Silver Stars, the rest get Bronze. ed]

Combat LifeSaver: Wounds snake in initial encounter, then works feverishly to save snake's life. Story headlines front page of the Sunday “Stars and Stripes.”

Supply: Posts notice to the effect that all anti-snake equipment is on backorder.

Cook: Snake sneaks into chow hall and dies of food poisoning. [see Bronze Star, above. ed]

If your Service, Branch, or Military Specialty has not yet been outraged, Click Extended Entry/Flash Traffic and it will be...

How to get on the "Insider" list at the Castle.

When you travel, and visit cool museums, or just see tanks, guns, and airplanes on display someplace, send the Armorer pictures. Individual or CD, for the 'Virtual Museum" tours the Armorer is constructing. The Armorer can deal with prints, too - (though Wal-Mart and other places will digitize 'em for yaz!). Like Jack at Random Fate, or SangerM and others have done - now we add...

Randy K. - currently gallivanting through the UK, who sent these teasers from the Imperial War Museum (a museum housed, appropriately enough, in the famously-named former Bedlam Mental Hospital...

The 15-inch Guns out front:

Hi-res.

Hi-res.

Data plate.

A bit smaller, more intimate, a wakizashi blade:

Hi-res.

Data plate.

Thanks, Randy!

Don't try this at home...

This is a little something I sent to Blogfather earlier today, reacting to his comments on the Summers Show Trial--you know, the one where the Harvard president has his entrails removed and displayed as a trophy, Hannibal Lecter-like, by the PC crowd.

Anyway, here's the post. presented in its entirety. This may be a suicidal act, I dunno; depends on how SWWBO, AFSister, and other fellow travelers react...

Jonah,

I thought your female scientist's post, well, sad.

She's right...with diversity, no matter how hard they try, the legacy population can't help but think, "OK, why was he/she hired, for competence or correctness?" When an incident similar to the Summers kerfuffle occurs, the innocents are usually well within the frag pattern of the PC bomb that detonates in the public consciousness.

That said, the hazards can be quite a bit more significant outside academe. There have been female pilots whose grade books were pencil whipped just to get them out of training and into the field. They are now dead, killed in training accidents that damn near everyone saw coming. People will deny that vehemently, but it's true. And before you wave the BS flag over what you may view as an overgeneralization, I will be the first to admit that most female flyers are equal to their male peers...but had some of the dead ones been males, we would have never let them get as far as they did. Social engineering has a price that's never paid by the engineers. So far, society is willing to pay it.

Instapilot

Bad Days.

Yesterday, SWWBO and I both had Bad Days. Bad Days in ways that are completely typical for the respective individuals.

You can read about SWWBO's here. Hey, she posted it! It's not like I'm talking out of school or something.

Anyway - she calls last night to chastise me for not answering my email. (That's related to her Bad Day) We get off the phone, and I go back to what I was doing, which was maintenance.

To shorten a short story further, I bayoneted myself yesterday. Yep. At least Dad got to shoot the guy who bayoneted him. That just would have made things more annoying in my case.

Dang. That hurts.

Bled like a stuck pig, too. Now I know, on several levels, what that means.

Anyway, there I was getting ready to clean up a Czech Vz24 Mauser. The thing's long enough without the attached bayonet, so off comes the John-sticker. Part of maintenance is bayonet maintenance, so I try to pull off the scabbard to check the blade. This is a nice, Predzuce 44 bayonet with a VERY SHARP TIP. And it's always had a sticky scabbard - which I may now look into more closely.

Anyway, sitting there, rifle all properly cleared and resting on the table, I'm trying to get the scabbard off (yes, bayonet-geeks, the blade was inserted properly - this is a spring problem) - while at the same time not wanting to suddenly have the blade clear, with my hands suddenly flying left and right - to knock down the rifles stacked there waiting their turn for the Armorer's attention.

Which means I'm putting a good effort into pulling apart - while at the same time holding together... which sets me up for my magical moment.

The scabbard gremlin - sensing victory - lets go, hoping for a game of 'pick-up-sticks-with-rifles' when I foil his evil plan. The counter-tension I've got going works, and nary a rifle is disturbed. The bayonet however...

It goes.

Not far. Only about, oh, an 8th of an inch too far, plunging the point into the knuckle of my right index finger. Who'da thunk that particular body part was so well supplied with blood? *I* certainly didn't!

This morning, it's a little, tiny dink. Hurts like hell though, since apparently it wasn't my Herculean effort at stopping the bayonet that worked... it was the bone inside the damn knuckle.

Sigh.

Still - I'd rather bayonet myself than have to admit that I sent some sappy love note to someone else's spouse... especially after having busted MY spouse for not responding to it... hee hee hee.

And, a Bad Day bayoneting yourself while cleaning your collection is better than being a liberal twisty-pants all wrought up over the fact that someone, somewhere, *didn't* have an abortion yesterday...

Regarding Jeremiah...

See "Heh," below - about "pussified" soldiers, and another post last week, I don't even remember that one - but it's the one where I confessed I collected dolls?

Yep. I do. Of men in skirts, too.

And for those of you are are trying to read what's in that very tiny sliver of the Library At The Arsenal - here, try this one, it's easier to read.

I like G-Scale trains, too - especially the narrow gauge working trains in 1:20.3.

Nope, good luck trying to figure out most of the titles on that wall of the Library. This doesn't even touch on the heart of the Library - the History and Sci-Fi/Fantasy section, which is contained in the Annex off from the Arsenal, in the Donjon.

Answer to the Trivia Quiz

Well, most of you got the unit right...the unit he SUPPORTS, not the unit he's assigned to. The latter would be: Det 1, 4th Air Support Operations Group, Camp Ederle, Italy.

Yup. He's an Airman...an Enlisted Tactical Air Controller with the 173rd.

The big-@ss ruck is something we've been nugging away at reducing for a number of years. Needless to say, we've got a ways to go. Good news is, the 70+ pounds of different radios and batteries is being reduced to a more manageable size with the PRC-117F (mulit-band, programmable, lighter, etc.) Putting one on the Secretary of the Air Force (at that time...), just after we got back from Albania supporting TF HAWK, when he stopped by Mannheim (HQ for the 4th ASOS, the squadron that sets up and runs the ASOC at Corps) did a lot to get the point across...his official escort becoming the USAF Chief of Staff two years later didn't hurt either.)

Instapilot

Three guesses as to what this guy does for a living...

Instapilot

Dreams...

The Castle does not yet have the resources, in both time and funding, for a display of this sophistication.

WWI German equipment at the National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Georgia.

But it *is* nice to know that Great Minds think along similar lines.

The "Germanic Wall" in the Arsenal at Castle Argghhh!, which includes Austrian and Swiss long iron. (Like I said, space is at a premium, so disregard the Brit sniper rifle and the Bren gun on the AA tripod...)

Hi-res version is here.

To keep ya occupied while we return...

All right, for those of you swimming in the moat (no peeing, it upsets Bill and the other Moat Monsters) just a reminder.

Keep an eye out for these:

I like useful militaria. This is a Confederate Navy 'torpedo' (that's what they called mines, back in the day). The one in this picture is located in the Civil War Navy Museum in Columbus, Georgia.

The moat is liberally seeded with them. No diving or boating.

Welcome to the Ice Storm.

Feather-merchants that we are who work at Fort Leavenworth - the impending (now all around) ice storm closed the Fort at noon yesterday, to reopen at noon today - and it's now closed all day because of the ice, and ain't nothing we're doing there worth dying for or denting the empennage of the transport.

It was the Castle's turn to lose power. We've dodged that bullet in all the previous winter/wind storms, but our number was up. Working from home is tough, too, when the power is out - and when it comes on, the cable is still down (broadband access at the Castle) and you don't remember the number for the alternate dial up... obviously, we're back now, it only took about 3 hours - much better than the tens of thousands in Kansas City still without.

Anyway, while SWWBO and I were waiting for the power to come back and the sun to come up, we played Scrabble in the kitchen - by the light of the Brit Airfield Lantern in the Castle's collection - which also provided some heat as our temps went (and are still going, outside) south. Who said militaria can't be useful? Think what I coulda done with a flamethrower!

Yeah, yeah - SWWBO won. She always does at Scrabble because we don't play with a time limit on turns, so she sees the tricksy ones. If we played speed-Scrabble I might have a chance!

Gratuitous Militaria Pic

Working on some gun stuff, don't despair!

One of the "honey-do's" (happy Mike?) from last week was moving the dry bar from the kitchen into the living room. You remember the bar - it's the one with the New Zealand-capture Boer Mauser on it - that caused one of my few moonbat explosions.

I lied! I did put up a gun pic!

Anyway, one of the things we've been doing is demilitarizing the living room (pulling out the cannon balls and such) but obviously, we haven't completely disarmed. We took the opportunity to put some of the more interesting bits of militaria out there - on the bar. It's very Anglosphere, with some German and French to add a touch of flavor. Brit rum jug with Aussie drinking cup (from Tobruk! - the cup, not the jug), the Boer Mauser, brit gun sight (the telescope thing) two lamps made from 2inch mortar rounds, Brit and US trench lanterns, things like that.

In addition, we have a candy dish/peanut dish that is a bit of French trench art - a WWI 75mm shell casing with an Artillery cap badge on the front, and "Verdun 1918" on the back.

The one bit of that stuff I like the best though is a WWII era bud vase (we're using it for swizzle sticks) that I call my "ABCA" vase. ABCA meaning the America-Britain-Canada-Australia alliance formed in WWII and still in force today.

Why do I refer to it like that? Simple. It's comprised of a Canadian-made 2pdr shell casing, with US-made .50cal rounds, Brit MkVII .303 rounds, and an Australian cap badge. It came from Australia, and it kind of encapsulates the effort required to prosecute WWII. It's also a nice conversation piece, should we start entertaining the ISO's (International Student Officers) around here.

I'm taking the week off.

Sadly for you, not from blogging, but from work... which of course means that the "Honey-Do" jar will figure in my week, as SWWBO is not taking the week off, just today, and I must pay for my effrontery!

Shortly, I will take a short break for my monthly turn at "Meals on Wheels" as doing my bit for one of my Rotary Club's service projects. I do the Meals bit monthly as a penance for my absolute refusal to ring bells for the Salvation Army. I have an irrational dislike for the bell ringing and simply will not participate. This should not be construed as putting me in with the retailers who no longer allow the Salvation Army to ring bells in front of their establishments... it simply means that I simply dislike the whole concept as a bunch of annoying humbuggery and won't do it. My father, by contrast, happily does it with his club. And, since the local charity on whose board I sit coordinates closely with the Salvation Army to not duplicate services, I can say that my relationship with the Army is just fine.

Gad, that certainly ran away from where I was going...

I was am gonna do a bit on Snipers. Well, indirectly. I'm really doing a bit on how snipers suck. They get in the way of doing your job - like peering over the parapet in order to get an idea of what the other guy is up to so you can kill him before he kills you - except that he gets these guys who can shoot really well, and then puts a scope on the damn rifle, and lets him hide behind a steel shield and shoot at you! Like, really! What's that about? Hasn't the damn bad guy learned his job is to either die, run away, or surrender? Not resist?

Anyway, there you are, a young sub-altern in a trench needing to keep an eye on the other fellow, in a sniper-infested section of the battlefield. And you aren't some rich dandy who is a member of a fashionable regiment with independent means. You're just a guy who was a school teacher during the week and a Territorial (Brit equivalent to the National Guard) on weekends. But, you work for an Army that serves a notoriously penurious government. Heck, this government at times even required Regular soldiers to pay for the ammunition they consumed in combat... needless to say, you aren't going to score any fancy stereoscopic 'rabbit ear' periscopes like those fellows on the other side have.

Nope. You'll reach into your nearly empty pocket and buy something cool yourself, or settle for what they give you.

If you're settling, you're getting something like this: A #9 Mark II Trench Periscope.

Simple gizmo, just like the ones you (or at least I) remember from cereal boxes in the 60's. A simple tube with two mirrors, tall enough that your head wasn't sticking over the parapet when you were peering through it.

It was designed with the intent that you could use it with binoculars, by putting one optic on the shelf and peering through it. It was well thought out, I think.

It hinges in the middle to make it easier to store and carry. There were sliding doors to protect the mirrors from mud and dust, and it has doors behind the mirrors to make replacement easy, as well.

It was still a fragile bit of kit. Sometime down the line, I'll show the American equivalent, and some of the other periscopes that were in use in the World Wars.

We're off!

To see the family in Missouri today and tomorrow. I might check in, I might not, it depends. So - if I don't, all y'all have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas, however you choose to celebrate it!

SWWBO, putting the finishing touches on the tree at the Castle!*

The Arsenal does possess a few artifacts relative to the season.

Implements of conviviality: Rum jug, cups, beer bottles, glasses. All WWI and II veterans.

Hymnals. From a while back, when it was okay to say, "Merry Christmas!"

Most importantly,

A "Sweetheart Bible," with steel cover plate (to protect the heart, when worn in the breast pocket of combat clothing).

Containing the New Testament.

And dedicated by Iola, to Joe, for Christmas 1944 - Joe was a soldier in the 101st Airborne, who spent Christmas fighting the Germans at Bastogne.

Just as this year, we have soldiers standing guard, doing dangerous things, in dangerous places, trying to help some people rise above the tyranny that ruled them for so many years.

*For you nit-pickers out there - the tree-topper no longer leans drunkenly, either.

Gratuitious Gun Pic

I had a photo-essay planned for today, but some technical problems (like an unmountable boot sector) are getting in the way. So, while I deal with that, here's a shot of some of the pistols, artillery sights, periscopes, and other optics in the collection of the Arsenal at Castle Argghhh!

Hi-res here.

Some of you need some help...

...with the "Identify this tank" challenge. There has been one successful ID thus far.

Here's a clue:

And here's another.