5 July 2015 Hike with Mike finale

1

The months from March to July have been heavily weighted toward the hope of acquiring a new neurologist to help me manage Parkinson's. The contract neurologist at moutain home quit providing consultant services and the VA's back up (hiring outside physicians and paying for vets to be see) kicked in. Highly unsatisfactory. I arrived at the appropriate office, already a month behind schedule and needing new scripts for my meds. What I got for VA's money was a referral to a university clinic 5 hours distant that would not see me until next January. I tried to tell him that I could not schedule the appointment – VA has to approve that expense. He told me to come see him after I was seen in the Vanderbilt clinic.

I wasted no time in contacting my primary care doc. I am not about to let some LMD throw me into a university clinic that would take a year to repeat a diagnosis and then lose my records in their system. I hope I've opened a shit storm over this. If not, I fully intend to. VA has its own movement disorder consortium and I can telemed that clinic. We'll see what happens.

Tremendous fatigue has set in, paire with sleep ditsturbance. Makes it hard to anything some days and difficult on many others

My daily hikes with my down stream neighbor, Mike, have ended. We set out as usual about 0900 last wednesday, 8 july. 0.3 miles down the road he simply fell over backwards, no pulse, no respirations, no motion, no words. I was about 3 steps in front of him when I eard the noise his head made when it hit the pavement. Complicating the scene, it was at a sharp curve in the road and the side we were on was overgrown with weeds so that remaining where he fell would have put us both under the wheels of the first vehicle coming our way.

I managed to flag a car, get the driver to drive to a point with cell service and call 911. The she flagged traffic. I did the first response things, airway, pre-cordial thump. Nothing worked. He was dead when he fell over. EMS arrive in about 10-14 minutes and lined and shocked him before tranporting him 28 miles to Johnson City. He was pronounced there. I had one contact number for his business partner. Called that number and intiated the cascade. Memorial service Saturday

Rather a bummer of a week.

24 March 2015 Rich sound

The latest iteration of hearing aids is now in. The part of the case inside the ear canal is gold plated. This is in hope that I will be able to wear them without the plastic case will not irritate my ears.

Of course, the technicians who clean and tepair audiology aids immediately dubbed me “gold ear.” Can't blame them for the nickname. I'd have hung something similar on someone else if they met the criteria. Have to admit that this is a great opening for creating a new “James Bond” film title &/or villain for said movie.

Have at it friends.

21 March 2015 67 and still kicking

I've received quite a few messages wishing me a happy birthday. In an effort to thank everyone, I'm taking this route and posting this note.

To family members, thanks for all the support. It's nice to have you in my world.

Further, to all my FB friends, fishing friends, and those who flesh out surprisngly diverse intersecting groups of people who I share opinions or disagreements with, thank you each. There is room to fish with friends on our stretch of Cassi Creek.

To my Compendium friends, I cherish the longevity of this group and look forward to keeping on truckin' down the road with you. This has been one of the longest associations of people in my existance. Truly an amazing group of friends and compatriots. I may be markedly slowed by Parkinson's, but the music makes a major difference in my desire to keep listening.

I find that I need more time to read various posts, articles, etc. now. The time it takes to respond is also lengthened. I'm not ignoring or avoiding the world beyond my computer, just requiring longer to compose and proof every thing I write.

Discovered this past week that the claim for VA benefits I filed via the local TN veteran's service agency was improperly filed and somehow vanished into thin air. So Monday will begin a new claim process based upon the increasing severity of my particular brand of Parkinson's. It seems that the consultant who contracted with VA for neurology services did not document the progression of my symptoms, leaving that to a progression of residents, none of whom ever saw me more than once as they rotated through the neurology service. The contract consultant has left VA and I must now begin again with another physcian who practices in Kingsport. This is going to involve arguing with VA about mileage compensation.

That's all the outgoing traffic for today. Thanks, stay well, keep dancing!

22 December 2014 Norma Jean Baty RN

          Following a 14 year battle against follicular cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma, she succumbed this morning to a malignancy that has no cure.  She’s already written her own obituary,  I can’t top that and won’t try. 

          Her nursing career stretched 50 years, beginning during WWII.  She completed over 10,000 hours as a hospital volunteer after retiring from nursing. 

         

          We’ll miss her.  

11 November 2014 And the guns fell silent; if only for a brief moment

          There’s always supposed to be a formal time and date to cease hostilities between opposing forces.  There’s always supposed to be a treat or formalized agreement signed by dignitaries who know that the life span of that document will be somewhat less than the time required for all signers to travel home. 

          There are always changes in borders defining which combatants now control which bits of terrain, unless one combatant happens to be Israel.  Of course, many of the problems in today’s middle eastern wars stem from the final actions of the allies as WWI ended and the old empires were carved up and handed around as bonuses to the  Allies who defeated the Central Powers.

          WWI ended with the loss of millions of soldiers as the methods of slaughter were improved by industrial design.  The battle field became more lethal than anyone could have imagined but the use of maneuver units remained based upon methods dating back to the earliest recorded conflicts. 

          WWII followed on quickly as the technology of mass murder evolved into methods of killing that were truly apocalyptic in efficiency and hellish in nature.  As always, WWII ended with the declaration that future wars would now be impossible, as no people or nation wished to bring about so much death and horror into the world. 

          We rapidly discovered that such hopes had no foundation in reality.  We’ve failed to enjoy a decade that was not marked by wars in some manner. 

          There’s no reason to believe that the future will be any less brutal.  We’re ramping up to recycle the war in Iraq. 

          There have always been the thin red line, the long gray line, historic combat units tracing their histories back to some war, some land seizure, some national insult, religious intolerance, or any other event that one can imagine. 

          I’ve played my part in this eternal game.  I’m among the luckier participants.  I left the game with all the moving parts intact.  The injuries I received were less visible and less audible. 

          Today, Veteran’s day, remembrance day, what ever name you know it by, once again honors the fallen and advances that slight hope that the next time we hear the guns fall silent, they will truly remain silent.

7 November 2014 Though it isn’t really war, we’re sending 1500 more

The news today is infuriating.  We are now committing another 1500 of our men and women in uniform to the false hope and unreachable goal of building an Iraqi army that won’t desert of turncoat on the field of battle. 

          We’ve spent billions on this task during the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq.  We’re no planning to spend 5 billions more as the Obama gang tries to prop up a tottering façade of a nation and its armed forces.  With the GOP slated to take over Congress, we’ll spend the  dollars to continue our role in sucking petro bucks out of Iraq and into the offshore accounts of the energy barons of the 1%.  Those are the dollars that were supposed to pay for the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq.  Remember?  Those are the same bucks that vanished by the shrink wrapped pallet every time another smoke screen obscured vision and a neo-con bag of bull shit filled the fans of Fox News.

“Though it isn’t really war, we’re sending 50,000 more to help save VietNam from Vietnames.”  Tom Paxton. 

Only a short effort to update Paxton’s lyric -  “Thoug h it isn’t really war we’re sending 1500 more to try to save  Iran from Iraqis.}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTyqoV1d2Ys

          Today is the anniversary 97^th of the Great October Revolution.  Fittingly, it is also the birthday of Lev Davidovitch Bronstein (later Leon Trotsky – father of the Red Army.)  Where is he now that we really need him?

17 October 2014 Congress demands Ebola action

          We now know of three cases of Ebola that were diagnosed in thes Unites States.  One was a visitor from Africa.  The other two are nurses who worked with th primary patient.  300, 000,000 Americans are now panicking about a disease that they will most likely never acquire. 

          Congress, guardians of the people, so they say, has been stumbling all over itself to make it appear that they are doing something to provide for the health and well being of Americans.  They held a high profile, televise conference yesterday whit each member asking essentially the same questions that they failed to listen to as the various agency doctors tried to answer.  It was apparent that the elected, exalted members had no ghost of an idea about virology, epidemiology, logistics as related to delivering health care, or a host of other things that determine whether or not we can properly diagnose and treat a virulent hemorrhagic fever caused by a virus that has a very high mortality rate. 

          Over the last decade, Congress has refused to adequately fund CDC, NIH, and other research treatment facilities and program.  They spent much time insisting that we should have a single medical person overseeing and guiding the various effots to handle a potential Ebola outbreak similar in nature to the Spanish influenza that followed WWI and killed millions.  However, Congress still continues to block the appointment of  very highly qualified candidate for Surgeon General because he made an anti-gun comment. 

          Yesterday, some of the GOP insisted that Obama should use the National guard to contain and control ebola patients and ebola quarantined citizens in some sort of isolation camp.  Sound like black helicopter? 

          The various hospitals are more or less prepared but the corporate nature of most of our hospitals will result in inadequate and dangerous work safety for health care workers when the MBA goons start buying cheaper, inadequate personal protective gear for employees to use. 

          Then, of course, the  rumors are bound to emerge.  After all, we’ve already seen countless claims that Obama is a Kenyan socialist determined to destroy America and hand it over to Islamic fundamentalists.  Is it, then, so difficult to believe that he might secretly bring in Islamic terror babies infected with ebola at birth so that Sharia law can replace our existing laws?  After all, Ebola is an African virus.

15 October 2014 blackmail photo

          I’ve been looking for this photograph for a long time.  I recalled its existence but not as many of the details as I thought.   A visit with my mother and sister, Suzanne, led to an afternoon spent prowling through old photo albums.  This little gem popped out, and I jumped on it, secured it, and now intend to use it for my own nefarious purposes. 

          Every family seems to generate blackmail photos.  I spent a fair amount of energy avoiding all photography events.  On the other hand, my mother has quite a large collection of photos taken during her high school days and during her nurses training at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis MO where she was a member of the Army Cadet Nurse Corps during WWII.  Generational gaps narrow down quite a bit when the younger folks get to see the older ones when the older ones were younger. 

          While I didn’t discover any blackmail photos, I got to see her as she was when she was young, single, and in the pipeline for service in a combat theater.  That’s somewhat of a unique view, one that we early Boomers should try to establish for all the families who had members in similar situations.  There’s really not an equal opportunity for Gen X and Millenials as there is no large national effort such as WWII that involves the entire populace in a common effort.  Korea and VietNam differ due to the smaller numbers of men and women who wound up in those wars while the nation largely ignored the troops unless directly related. 

          I promised some of my Compendiot friends that I would post this photo if I ever located it.  So, here I was about 1972 along with older daughter Caitlin. 

2 October 2014 Xin Loi Dau Tieng

The mail today included a notice that the Army has rejected my attempt to have my records corrected to reflect wounds received in August 1969 while serving with the 1^st Infantry Division in Dau Tieng VietNam.  This effort was refused despite the description of the event by a former soldier in the same unit.

           When I first asked for the record mod in  2002 I had no knowledge that anyone else could partially corroborate my claim.  This summer I stumbled across a book written by my former comrade in arms.  He wrote about the event in a book published in 2011.  I was able to contact him and he agreed to provide what support he could in reopening the claim. 

          Since then, I’ve also made contact with the unit’s former XO.  He remembers me but was not present on site that day.  He and I talked by phone and he provided a lot of information to fill in blanks and illuminate situations. 

          I intend to meet with the author sometime before year’s end. 

          While my medical records indicate shrapnel injuries, visible on X-ray, there is no documentation that I acquired the shrapnel in-country. 

          I’ve no further reason to pursue the matter any further.  

13 September 2014 Uncle Sam needs your help again

          “Come on all you big, strong, men; Uncle Sam needs your help again…

So go the opening words of The FISH Song by “Country Joe and the Fish.” 

          The song linking the nature of foreign war with the San Francisco music scene of the middle 1960’s is indelibly stamped into the gray matter of much of the Boomer generation.  The song was penned by Joe McDonald, a veteran of the U.S. Navy.  I had committed it to memory before becoming one of those “helping Uncle Sam.”  I can still pull up the lyrics and the melody with no hesitation. 

          Of course, I can also easily recall the increasing numbers of troops poured into S. VietNam, and to the air war over N. VietNam.  I, and thousands of others who had reason to be concerned, watched the presence of U.S. troops in S. VietNam begin with advisors on the ground to help the S. Vietnamese build an army that might actually stand a chance of fighting the Viet Minh ( later Viet Cong) and the PAVN forces that reached southward of the 17^th parallel.  The loss of advisors led to security forces to protect the advisors.  It then became necessary to defend aircraft on the ground and the troops that had to service the aircraft.  In just a short period the number of U.S. troops had climbed to over 100,000 in country.  By the time I vacationed there, the total sacrificial boots on the ground exceeded 500,000 pairs.  Over 3,000,000 men and women serving in uniform for the U.S. took part in the ground and air wars that lasted ( for the U.S.) from 1954 – 1973. 

          Despite the millions of tons of explosives, napalm, and white phosphorous dropped from the skies over VietNam and neighboring nations, there was nothing to cause anyone other than LeMay and his disciples to imagine that a ground war could be won by air strikes.  It didn’t work in Europe during WWII.  It didn’t work in VietNam.  War always comes down to the level of the infantry unit. 

          Now we are seeing the same arguments put forward to justify a return to Iraq and surrounds.  Despite more tons of ordnance delivered by manned and unmanned airframes, ground is still captured and held by the queen of battle.  If we allow ourselves to be sold another excursion to Iraq with side trips to Syria, we’re only proving once again that our political leaders have no awareness of U.S. military history; or that of any other nation.   However, ideology is not something that any number of troops can eliminate.  We need to take another hard look at the cost of our military involvement in the Middle East, at which companies and which countries benefit from U.S. troops bleeding and dying, and what sort of effort can be expected and demanded by surrounding nations. 

          At least, in the VietNam, we were smart enough not to step into the same swamp twice.  It appears that we are going to make that encore mistake now. 

"Give me an "F"!

11 September 2014 question of the day where were you

At home in Palmetto FL.

Watching buildings fall, people die, and the porosity of our borders exposed to a populace that had been allowed to believe in the inviolable safety of life in the U.S. as compared to other western nations.

           At the same time we were watching the rapid development of TS Gabrielle as it bore down on us. What normally would have been an around the clock news event in 2001 was mostly ignored by the media that was repeatedly following every pronouncement to extinction. The usual flight out of the storm's path that would have jammed the airlines as the wealthy left their waterfront homes did not take place due to the national ground stop.

9 September 2014 obsolete music media

Music, specifically genres of music, cycle in and out of popularity.  The mechanism to store and replay music have their own histories. 

          The earliest storage media I have seen/heard, was the cylinders that brought voice to Edison’s phonograph.  They had very limited capacity and were prone to damage. 

          Next, in my awareness at least, were the wax 78 RPM discs, widely recalled as “platters,” “discs,” and records.  These also had limited storage capacity.  They would shatter if dropped or otherwise allowed to contact hard surfaces.  They would deform if they were allowed to become to warm.  They reinforced the 3.0 minute playback format and gave rise to the term “disc jockey.”  We have about 15 “78’s”

          Spin-offs from the 78 RPM format gave us the 45 RPM single and the 33 & 1/3 RPM album.  These two products were made of a vinyl compound, less likely to shatter but still prone to heat damage.  We still have about 200 of these “33’s” in the house.  We programmed a two hour live broadcast using only “33’s” for WMNF radio in Tampa some year back.  We currently have a turntable that can play all of our old wax and vinyl records

          Reel-to-reel magnetic tape, residing on large reels attracted some tech weenies.  Mag tape is limited in durability, easily damaged by heat, dust, and other insults.  Storage requires a narrow temperature range and low humidity.  Tape aficionados quickly learned how to splice tapes.  The tapes became larger in width, allowing more channels per tape.  Thousands of VietNam veterans bought large reel-to-reel systems at PACEX, only to discover that the heat and humidity of VietNam, allied with the dust of the dry season, could eat tapes and decks in a very short time.  Many of these systems were handed down to troops rotating in. 

          About this time, cassette storage began to worm it’s way into the storage market.  Automobile audio offerings were the 4 and 8 track cassettes.  There is no viable market for these leftovers.  They may still be seen at the random flea market booth and at some estate auctions.  Prone to heat damage, irreparable if broken, We have none.

          The 8 tracks were replaced by the 2 track cassette recording capable of holding up to 90 minutes of music/cassette.  These were easy to produce cheap to buy at the lower ends of quality, and were favorites of concert tapers who used them by the thousands. Somewhat easily spliced if broken, heat sensitive, the automobile dashboard soon became a home away from home for commercial record label offerings as well as what came to be called bootlegs.  We have quite a few of these in the house.  Audio quality could be very high for analog storage.  It could also be dirty and next to unlistenable.  There was a great variance in soundboard feeds and audience tape quality. We have two tape decks that will work if cleaned and tied into an amplifier and receiver.  Neither vehicle will play these.

          The CD, CD-r. DVD storage formats appeared next.  Cheap to manufacture,  heat sensitive, originally thought to be a cleaner form of digital storage and replay compared to analog sources, the CD’s were later discovered to degrade with time.  Again, we have many around the house.  The recently traded Pathfinder contained both a cassette deck and a multi-disc CD player.  The Tucson has a single CD player, as does the Xterra. 

          This brings us to the point of flash drives, small devices holding immense amounts of data.  The audiophiles prefer a lossless digital storage system such as “FLAC.”  Most younger people, non-boomers, prefer an MP3 format.  It allows more data compression – greater numbers of stored items per unit.  They may not be able to discern the difference in a lossless and lossey playback.  Certainly, their lifelong exposure to high volume life has degraded their hearing; most of them have yet to discover this as they continue to boost the volume pots on all sources of audio input. 

          The Xterra has a USB connection that allows me to feed audio into the dashboard player. This replaces the 10 cd’s I had stacked and permanently resident in the Pathfinder.

           Currently, I have about 40 GB resident on two flash drives to use in those instances when the local FM public station is not proving my preferred content.  The player is satellite capable but the buy in and maintenance fees are more than I care to assume right now.  The process now requires ripping CD’s and cross-decking them to the USB for the Xterra.  I don’t want to pay to stream of download music that I already own in a usable format.  Nor do I care to have the music I prefer lost in some “service” that will form a new string of popular singles and albums such as is currently marketed to younger generations.  I’ve earned my right to be cantankerous and complain about “modern music.”

         

          

6 September 2014 Try to remember

Or try not to remember

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jV-fnarDho

          The formative years of my youth included quite a lot of music.  I listened to the jazz musicians – big bands, small groups, and the random soloist.  The musical theater spun its own list of songs that received popular radio play time and were often covered by various vocalists.  These were often saccharine in nature, mawkish beyond repair.  “Try To Remember” fits that category all too well.  Unfortunately, it is also one of those songs that sticks to your brain like napalm.  Long after it has been heard, the echoes keep rolling around inside your brain like the smell of hellfire on tree lines. 

          That’s sort of a capsule encompassing the music and culture of my younger years.  The later years of the folk revival generated many “folk” groups putting a smooth outer surface on older songs, linking in some nostalgia, and touring from college to university to small club venues, carrying their polished, largely apolitical harmonious offerings to people who still preferred acoustic music powering songs that could be shared among party attendees putting away one last scotch and soda before traveling homeward. 

          The bland nature of those songs was in direct conflict with the political and cultural events of the period.  The folk music stuck around until Dylan introduced his electrified material, The Beatles cut Sergeant Pepper, and the generational demand to be heard shared airtime with the spread of FM stations in the bigger markets. 

          Think of 1965-66, there’s still a lot of folk influence to hear in the antiwar lyrics of the day.  But the touring groups still have their niche available.  By the end of 1976, there’s no folk music to hear beyond the late night public radio shows that are becoming something of “old soldiers’ homes” for a generation’s folk musicians.

          The culture has changed markedly as has the music.  “Sympathy for the Devil?”  Nothing better describes the nature of the VietNam War.  Add in “Fortunate Son” and “Morning Dew,” and the history is easily recounted. 

          But despite the change in my listening habits and the absence of the bland and mawkish from the radio and the streamed networks, every time September rolls around, the smell of distant napalm and the barely audible sound of “Try to remember” crawls into my consciousness.  I can’t predict how long it will stay, repeating, looping, demonstrating the longevity of mediocre music and the pervasiveness of random memories.  I’ll try to suppress the song.  But that’s much more easily said than accomplished. 

          So, it’s early September, the leaves are already beginning to change and to fall.  The days are getting shorter, the nights longer, and behind “Try to Remember,” I can already hear some syrupy voice ushering in the next season with “Oh it’s a long long time.” 

          Enjoy it or not, these earworms keep gnawing their way into memory.  What surfaces in your mind that you can’t eject or erase?

2 September 2014 The executioner’s face is always well hidden

A second American  journalist has been brutally murdered by ISIS.  There is a third captive  journalist already in the queue. 

          The U.Ss media and that of other Western nations have chosen to not air the entire video due to the graphic and grisly nature of the murder.  Wat we Americans are allowed to see is a fragment of the ISIS video that shows a docile victim, wearing an orange jumpsuit ala Guantanamo, kneeling in the dirt while the supposed executioner waves a knife around and promises more “executions” of Americans and other Westerners.  This seems to be the same murderer who beheaded the journalist Foley last month. 

          This hostage taking  and subsequent murder of the hostage by Islamic terrorists has to be stopped.  This murder of U.S, and Western allies must not be allowed to determine the course of politics in the Middle East.  Islamic fundamentalist must not be allowed to rampage, pillage, and rape their way to a statehood that would drag the regional culture back to the 8^th century. 

          To begin, the ISIS killings are not “executions” but murders.  Executions are carried out by nations with legal systems that are acting in accordance with constitutions and legal frameworks.   ISIS is not a nation, the Koran is not a constitutional document.  Thus, the act of killing hostages is murder and should be treated and discussed as such by our media and our government. 

          I have no compunctions concerning the hunting down and execution of ISIS killers by our government or those of other Western nations.  

          In this age of resurgent anti-Semitism brought about in part by the repetitive bloody sacrifices of Gazan and other Arabs by their fundamentalist Islamic leaders and funding of the continual wars against Israel, the U.S., and other western nations, it becomes important that the pro-arab political correctness that exists widely across the U.S. be reversed and that the true brutality of ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the other gangs of thugs and brigands sponsored ultimately by Iran be honestly depicted as the murderous cowards that they are.

          What our media shows us is a much watered down glimpse of murders of unarmed, helpless  hostages using a particularly brutal and painful means.  The murderer and any other gang members in sight have their faces covered tp prevent them being identified by physical or electronic means.  This is consistent with many of the propaganda video emanating in the middle east.  Most, if not all the participants have their faces covered.  They apparently lack the courage to be known when committing rapes, robberies, murders, kidnappings, and other crimes that would cause them to be arrested and tried  in a country with a functional government.

          Dylan provided the title line today.  He also provided the tag.  When the West has grown tired of fundamentalist Islamic depradations, it will finally inite in action against them.  ISIS and others need to know, “it’s a hard rain gonna fall!”

28 August 2014 The women are smarter

          It is interesting to connect with men I served with in VietNam.  The  bits and pieces of our every day existence , which we assume would match fairly closely, seem to have been less well matched than we think we recall.  Even within a company sized unit the discrepancies are much more evident to me today than they were then. 

          The EM, once assigned, tended to remain with  the same subunit.  The Officers were shuffled around more frequently.  They needed both staff and field assignments to further their career goals.  I can recall that I served under three company commanders.  Yet I can only put a name and face to one of them. 

          As a medic, I had far less negative or confrontational with African -American troops than  others did.  The major confrontations occurred between the senior NCO’s – men with WWII, Korean, and Vietnam experience – and the young African Americans who were draftees and too often unqualified for any of the military occupations specialist training slots, other than 11Bravo – Infantry.  They wound up in line companies for the larger part of their tours.  They might wrangle a short period just before DEROS to fill guard posts, push LIP day laborers, help with camp sanitation, etc. 

          My job was to take care of everyone in the company, not just those who shared my lack of melanin.  In doing that I had to be able to triage on the fly and reassess the situation as necessary.  I also had to listen to what people were telling me on the surface and deeper down.  People who were sent to enlist in order to avoid being sentenced to jail did not view their participation in the South East Asia War Games as necessary to advance their futures in the “world.”  They made it clear to the Senior NCO’s that they had not respect for their authority and no intention of doing anything not necessary to their own eventual DEROS and ETS.  Inside the wire, racial relations were iffy among younger troops.  Outside the wire, the hostilities were usually in abeyance.  Cooperating with the leadership group tended to make one more secure in their chances of a safe trip home.  More later

26 August 2014 Stir the memory pool and see what remains

          From 1968-69 only a few names made the journey back with me.  I spent much of my tour avoiding friendships and even casual acquaintance. 

          This month has been unusual.  Two names have floated to the pool’s surface and I’ve been able to make contact with them in one manner or another.  It’s been a very interesting period of reconnection.  One of the names belongs to a Sgt who worked in the S-3 shop, doing 12 hour days.  The other, to a Lt. holding multiple responsibilities that kept him sleepless. 

          Though we three were all assigned to the same company, our duties kept us largely separated.  The nature of the company was that it had more officers than most companies in an infantry company.  The brigade commander and his staff expected to be served by the non-staff EM and officers.  The company HQ personnel were responsible for the needs of the entire company as well carrying out the  security, communications, logistics, motor pool, health care, and other tasks that keep a military unit operational. 

          The Sgt. and I got along well.  The Lt. and I got along well.  The Sgt. and the Lt. don’t recall each other.  Although we lived within meters of each other, we were, at any given time to be at three different parts of our AO, depending upon what the Brigade was doing under direction from Division.  Neither the Sgt or I recall many names not related to our duties.  The Lt., by nature of his duties, probably had more contact with the EM and NCO’s than either the Sgt or I. 

          It will be interesting to see what these contacts lead to.  

24 August 2014 Safe all weapons before entering

          In 1969 I was nearly done in by a M134 minigun mounted on the back of an M37 ¾ ton truck.

 http://olive-drab.com/images/id_m37_xb4_david_rollins.jpg

The gun malfunctioned and expended 40 or so 7.62 mm rounds in my direction inflicting multiple shrapnel wounds on me.  There was no one at the truck when the gun found it necessary to execute a solo performance.  I am interested in finding other incidents of spontaneously firing M134 miniguns.  

From this image, it is apparent that physically rotating the barrels will cause unintended firing.  I have to wonder if severe repetitive  vibration could cause the same malfunction.  At the time I was wounded our 8 inch howitzers were executing a fire mission from Dau Tieng RVN. According to the operators manual, the M110's typical rate of fire was 3 rounds per two minutes when operated at maximum speed, and 1 round per 2 minutes with sustained fire.

          The concussion generated by firing these howitzers was incredible.  Buildings, bones, and teeth were rattling from the overpressure. 

         

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b229/DDonSS3/AH-1%20Ft%20Campbell/100_0221.jpg

http://www.tactical-life.com/magazines/tactical-weapons/unleash-the-dragon/

            “In the M134D the internal clutch ass­embly feeds ammunition into the feeder/delinker only while the gun is being fired. Upon releasing the firing circuit, the gun continues to rotate briefly, thus expending and ejecting all ammunition remaining in the chambers. This ensures that no ammunition remains in the chambers, thereby mitigating the risk of a cook-off in a hot gun or an accidental discharge during servicing. Dillon’s innovative design also negates the need to remove five separate components, in order to ensure that the gun is clear of ammunition (as was required with the old M134 system). They achieved this with a two-piece safety sector/top cover allowing easy access to the internal components, as well as physically interrupting the mechanical firing mechanism. By simply removing these two inter-connected components, the gun is then rendered completely safe and can be easily inspected.”

If anyone knows of similar minigun incidents, please let me know

22 August 2014 No mud little manure lots of heat

          Yesterday’s excursion to the fair is behind us. 

          We found a very close parking space but had to pay an addition 2 dollars above the public parking.  We wound up in the parking lot of a Masonic lodge that appeared to have been, formerly, a church of some brand. 

          We wandered through some of the commercial and 4-H exhibits.  All the baked goods were secured behind glass doors in display cases along the walls.  I did wind up being offered a sample sugarcoated pecan.  One of my least favorite nuts, but I smiled and ate it.  The TN Wild life resource agency has a great permanent exhibit there.  The display path enters a cave high in the TN mountains. When exiting, the topography and biosphere is what is found bordering the Mississippi river. 

          We’d planned on an early dinner, finding sustenance either at the philanthropic organization booths or from the midway venders.  By the time we got to the far end of the fairground, we were hot and dripping sweat, tired of standing on concrete, and not able to justify paying for greasy food that neither of us wanted or needed. 

          The fairgrounds were much cleaner than I expected.  There was no mud, very little manure except in the animal barns, and the midway was just warming up, so that the combination of velocity, g-forces, caffeine and grease had yet to have affected many riders. 

          There was no rain yesterday.

Today, woke up to 70°F temperature at 0630.  Dog days are back.  The morning hike with Mike was like walking into a steam bath.  I did find sufficient energy do all the mowing.  Trimming remains for tomorrow.

21 August 2014 Mud, manure, and grease

The Appalachian Fair, Washington County TN’s end of summer celebration of children returning to schools that are too hot to inhabit is in full swing this week.  The return to school dates are a hold-over from the days when children were required to help with planting, harvesting, haying, and the other tasks that kept farmers busy.  This anachronistic practice is now slaved, not only to agriculture, but also to high school and college football programs.  With local schools trying to match college semester and break calendars, the school years are now impacted by how many days football teams are allowed to practice before fall semesters begin. 

          IN most parts or the U.S. county fairs take place in late July and early August, with winners in the various competitions progressing to state fairs for further judging. 

          This scheduling usually results in such fairs taking place in sweltering heat and humidity.  The local weather will determine whether dust or mud is the determinant ground condition.  Even in devastating drought conditions bringing ankle-deep dust, there will be isolated areas of mud that result from animal care chores.  Mixed with both mud and dust, the amount of manure created by the livestock exhibits is sufficient to guarantee that it will be tracked all over the fair grounds to ensure that every attendee will carry some home on their shoes, even if they did not view the animal barns. 

          The midway with its neon, loudspeakers, and mechanical amusements carries its own aroma.  Mixed with the barnyard miasma is the airborne grease that boils off from countless deep fryers that provide the unhealthy breaded products that pass for midway food.  So factor in the smells of dropped or discarded food, spilled soda, and the vomitus found beneath the carnival rides.  Suddenly the animal barns don’t smell as bad.

          We are bound for the fair this afternoon.  We’ll take advantage of “Seniors” day to half our admission price.  We’ll wander the grounds, view the beasts, look for something less noxious than the norm to provide some sort of dinner, and avoid walking near or beneath the rides. 

          There is a large slate of local and more widely known performers.  We don’t recognize any of the listed performers and won’t be paying to attend outdoor music events.  We’ll skip the monster truck races (cancelled last night due to thunderstorms), the monster truck and tractor pulls, and the demolition derbies.  When one considers that this is a race week at Bristol, every trip onto the public roads is too likely to result in demolition. 

          The forecast for this afternoon calls for highs in the upper 80’s and a 50% chance of thunderstorms.  The uniform of the day calls for shoes that can be washed if necessary upon return.

19 August 2014 Which wire do I cut

          The Xterra goes back to the shop tomorrow.  The monitor for  the reverse cameral has to be fixed so that it is either on intentionally or non-active.  I do not want the bright blue screen it displays telling me that there is no video feed.  Driving at night with that either in my face or reflecting off the windshield  is frankly dangerous. 

          I received no information from the seller about returns, repairs, problems with installation or any other matter.  What I did discover was that Amazon regards them as a third-party seller.  In order to get a replacement unit I must send the entire unit to Amazon so that they can return it to China.  Since I paid more than the unit is worth to have it installed, I have no desire to pay to have it un-installed so that I can pay return shipping.  I received e-mail from the seller thanking me for my purchase, offering yet more worthless connection tips, and telling me that all problems can be resolved in a friendly manner. 

          They have provided me no way to contact them.  Amazon has no way to contact them here or in China.  We are not amused. 

          Our mechanics think that they can insert a switch or relay to provide a fix.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.