In the Marines, it’s Military Occupational Speciality 0311. In the Army, it’s MOS 11 Bravo. Doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s still the infantry. And, though the ancient Greeks used men of all ages in the phalanx, theirs was a different kind of war. Nowadays, it is, as W. Thomas Smith Jr. says, young man’s work.
Via OpFor.
Teflon Don has vivid dreams, including one of his platoon at the mall, and a dead friend making and selling coffee, just like he wanted to.
Comments Off on “At least I know he’s happy somewhere.”
Posted in Troops
Tagged platoon at the mall, Teflon Don
Recruitment ads, combat video, training exercises. It’s all there, on the BlackFive YouTube network.
There’s not much I find to like about Hollyweird, that typically anti-American collection of nutcases who produce among the tritest and worst movies in the world–including, lately, one ridiculous, lying political rant after another–usually starring people you wouldn’t want to waste time with, unless–like them–you’re a Scientologist. But there are exceptions. One is the venerable actor Paul Newman, 82, whose Light Italian (con limone!) salad dressing I’ve been enjoying for a while now. He’s a WW2 Navy vet who donates his Newman’s Own food products’ after-tax profits to various charities. One of them is Fisher House which puts up families of wounded soldiers and Marines while they are being treated. Try his products. They’re good, and they genuinely support the troops. No, I’m not getting paid to say so.
Comments Off on Newman’s Own supports our troops
Tagged Fisher House, Light Italian salad dressing, Newman's Own, support our troops
The Army’s report on the June death of Sgt. Lawrence Sprader, Jr., in a Fort Hood training accident faults the trainers. So reports AP which apparently had to force the release via FOIA.
Comments Off on Lawrence Sprader’s death: superiors contributed
Tagged Army report, Fort Hood training death, Jr., Sgt. Lawrence Sprader, trainers faulted
"Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam," was vanity-pressed by Real War Stories.com three years ago but, partly for that reason, and also because heroism books about Vietnam aren’t generally approved by the New York-based publishing industry, it went unreviewed. Comes now fulsome praise for it in a lengthy look at such books in the Aug. 24 issue of Atlantic.com. I haven’t read it yet, but I have ordered one. It’s available here for $15.95 plus shipping. Also, sort of, at Amazon which has it priced, used, at $127. Must be a typo. Sight unseen I will recommend it to my rare readers, especially combat veterans of any war. The author, J. Stryker Meyer (whose nickname was/is Tilt), is an old acquaintence I worked with in the late 1970s at a daily in New Jersey. He’s now married, has five kids (including one serving in Iraq) and is still an ink-stained wretch, for the North County Times, near San Diego, where, last fall, he outed a local pol claiming to have been in Special Forces. JSM, a MACV-SOG veteran, was always a good writer, and the review says he still is, calling his combat writing "pure grain alcohol." His is one of a bunch of recent books about Vietnam popular with Iraq and Afghan veterans. Try it. We can compare notes when we finish.
Thanks to the Seablogger for the pointer to the Atlantic.com article.
Comments Off on Across the fence
Posted in Library, Troops, Viet Nam
Tagged "Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam", John Stryker Meyer, MACV-SOG
With the big media, and their sycophantic imitators, it’s all about the narrative, the "quagmire" or "the surge isn’t working." For a few, it’s lately become rather astoundingly flipped to "the surge is working." There’s still scant middle ground in their reporting from Iraq. Not so with independent journalists like Michael Totten. With them there’s always room for bewilderment. Especially when it comes to Mookie Sadr, the Shia puppet of Iran, leader of Iraq’s branch of Hezbollah, whom we still refuse to arrest, deport, kill, etc. Instead, surge or no surge, the vicious little neo-Saddam killer goes on and on.
UPDATE: Uncle Jimbo at BlackFive says Mookie’s recent declaration of a hudna is a stall. Of course it is. He says letting Mookie live was one of the biggest mistakes of the Iraq campaign. Right again.
Comments Off on Mookie still in the saddle, part 2
Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops
Tagged Blackfive, Iraq's Hezbollah, Mookie Sadr
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 