Make Your Own Kind of Music (play the link)

Nobody can tell ya
There’s only one song worth singing
They may try and sell ya
‘Cause it hangs them up
To see someone like you
But you gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along

 

NATO

 

The Nuclear Family

Not the ideal situation.

 

A-12 Oxcart

A-12 full scale model prepared for radar cross section measurements (upside down), circa 1959.

 

Grumman J4F-1 Widgeon.

This version was built for the USCG. 3-seats, 25 built. G-44 was originally designed for the civil market. The type first flew in 1940.

 

Meals Ready-to-Eat (also called meals rejected by Ethiopians, etc)

I received an e-mail asking about MRE’s.  No, I don’t eat them here in the mountains. Tonight, I’m having tostadas and a Diet Dr. Pepper.

MRE’s are fine in the field, but you need to drink a lot of water or they bind you up.  I have some of the high end backpacker food from REI in my 4x4s and prefer that to the high calorie military rations.

Back when I was in harness, we used to grab a case of 12, cut them all open, take the entree and the dessert and tape together the good stuff – one meal. The MRE takes up space and weight and most of it is garbage. Fine if you’re riding in a tank or something, but doesn’t work if you are going to leg it.

It’s important to maintain noise, light, heat and scent discipline. Never leave a wrapper or a crumb of food behind, eating at lay-up sites, lay points only. Never eat while moving or at a security halt while somebody vanishes your back trail. Poop in a bag, wipe with a baby wipe, pack it with you. Never leave your scat for the enemy. Tracking third world military elements through their scat is a common tactic that works. It gives you raw numbers, how long ago they passed (pun intended) that way, etc.

I prefer Payday bars for quick energy, even when traveling overseas as a wretched tourista, these days. I’ll pack a dozen in the suitcase incase food becomes scarce. Granola bars are good too, but I need water to get them down.

 

Sometimes – yeah

 

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

In Warsaw, Poland, Nazi forces attempting to clear out the city’s Jewish ghetto are met by gunfire from Jewish resistance fighters, and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.

Shortly after the German occupation of Poland began, the Nazis forced the city’s Jewish citizens into a “ghetto” surrounded by barbwire and armed SS guards. The Warsaw ghetto occupied an area of less than two square miles but soon held almost 500,000 Jews in deplorable conditions. Disease and starvation killed thousands every month, and beginning in July 1942, 6,000 Jews per day were transferred to the Treblinka concentration camp.

Although the Nazis assured the remaining Jews that their relatives and friends were being sent to work camps, word soon reached the ghetto that deportation to the camp meant extermination. An underground resistance group was established in the ghetto—the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB)—and limited arms were acquired at great cost.

On January 18, 1943, when the Nazis entered the ghetto to prepare a group for transfer, a ZOB unit ambushed them. Fighting lasted for several days, and a number of Germans soldiers were killed before they withdrew. On April 19, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler announced that the ghetto was to be emptied of its residents in honor of Hitler’s birthday the following day, and more than 1,000 S.S. soldiers entered the confines with tanks and heavy artillery.

Although many of the ghetto’s remaining 60,000 Jewish dwellers attempted to hide themselves in secret bunkers, more than 1,000 ZOB members met the Germans with gunfire and homemade bombs. Suffering moderate casualties, the Germans initially withdrew but soon returned, and on April 24 launched an all-out attack against the Warsaw Jews.

Thousands were slaughtered as the Germans systematically progressed down the ghettos, blowing up the buildings one by one. The ZOB took to the sewers to continue the fight, but on May 8 their command bunker fell to the Germans and their resistant leaders died by suicide. By May 16, the ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, and mass deportation of the last Warsaw Jews to Treblinka began. During the uprising, some 300 German soldiers were killed, and thousands of Warsaw Jews were massacred. Virtually all those who survived the Uprising to reach Treblinka were dead by the end of the war

The name each Canadian Province uses to refer to their Provincial Parliament

Final Thought of the Day

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

30 COMMENTS

  1. My uncle got the Silver Star in the Pacific for capturing a large group of the enemy, having tracked them and then literally catching them with their pants down while they were squatting.

  2. Rule 1- Never squat with yer spurs on. (always funny, but true)
    Rule 2- Pack it out…when in enemy territory, leave no trace of ones passing so to speak (now filed away in the mental database)

    How many today would have the fortitude to do what the ZOB did?

    MRE’s- “…Ethiopians” never heard that..about lost the coffee laughing, but then I’d have to order a new keyboard or ‘gasp’ go into Wallyworld maskless and cause a ruckus. I have a bin of them left, need to go through and pull out the good parts just in case the Lefty Apocalypse gets more rabid. A few tubs of Patriot meals and some Mountain House in a bugout pack round out the prepper closet.

      • Curbside is your friend. Today tried the local HD…needed a couple 2x’s and some fittings, thought browsing might be a change of pace. Nope…still requiring masks. Said “screw you” and drove off. Don’t need the idiocy of the Branchless Covidian’s, it can wait.

        • We have other lumber/hardware options. I avoid HD these days for that reason, and because all the hardware comes from China. Some other outlets disclose what (junk) is Chinese and what is not.

        • I just mumble “HIPPA something something” and continue onwards. Don’t care. My being able to not have an asthma or panic attack (yes, Beans doth have some issues…) overrules their doom-porn LARPing.

          I’ll wear one when I’m out with my wife because, well, married yada yada. But I’ve just about convinced her to shed the mask also.

          What are they going to do? Call the Cops? And then what? You saying the magic words “HIPPA” counteracts their saying “Local rules and regulations.”

          Sorry, dude, FED rules specifically state they override any state or local rules.

          Gotta use the rules they have against them as much as possible.

          And, yes, I’ve chased groups of local leftist youths or aisle blockers away by coughing ‘uncontrollably’ without covering my mouth. Works every time.

          • Mutter “plague” and “danger” as you cough. I have found that adding those words adds speed to their flight. It’s a lot like lepers clacking sticks together to warn of their approach.

          • It was mobbed and I had fresh food in the cold bags, figured it wasn’t worth the hassle. I can go to Cheyenne, their not afraid in Wyo8mng.

  3. I never knew that about Canada – I thought they all called their Provincial Parliaments “Those Wankers”…

    -Kle.

    • Canada is an interesting blend of customs. The Chinese in Vancouver who run the place, the Francophones, the English in the middle and the Acadians on the Eastern Islands. I used to REALLY like Canada. There was a time that I thought I might like to move there. That’s all changed and the place is very woke. I still have many friends at RCMP and CSIS, mostly retired now.

      • Your RCMP and CSIS contacts have been replaced by politically reliable state security members who will follow their imperial masters’ every order.

        Sad, a once relatively free nation gone to dog-squeeze in less than 20 years.

        Of course, the same can almost be said for us. No, it can be said for us.

        • We’re there. The Feds have become the “secret police” and have been focused on political crimes rather than statutory crimes. More and more, that’s becoming the case, sadly.

  4. Too old to have experienced MREs. I was in the C-ration era. We had days when we ate C-Rations only until we got a Mess Sergeant who broke them down and mixed them into day to meals. As someone who will nearly anything (except liver) I never minded them plus they came with four cigarettes.

    • They’re not bad, WSF. The newer ones have a really decent omelet that slips into a heating pouch. No coffin nails anymore. Make due with the gum.

  5. +1 on Payday bars. The oil in the peanuts keeps you going for awhile. When we moved here, I drove the 22 ft Ryder truck, and kept a few in the cab. Only bad part was I found out that my molar with the old filling was cracked. The caramel stuck and pulled off part of the top of the tooth–at 65 mph down the highway. That was fun.

    • Can’t do peanut anything anymore. Wife is deathly allergic and I dare not risk it.

      Which means my beloved Baby Ruths are no more for me.

      Sigh.

      The things we do for love…

      • I’m not allergic to anything and take that for granted. I’ve heard that peanut allergies are horrible – 1 small peanut, and it’s off to the hospital with an emergency.

        • She can get a reaction from contact transfer of the dust off a peanut.

          Her mother, the feckless useless idiot, used to not understand or care that Mrs. Andrew (The Bean’s Wife) was deathly allergic. Stupid Tw…it.

          So, no peanuts in the house, no munching peanuts when away, no peanut oil. Darned. Have to eat almonds and cashews… (And for a good nut butter, mix almond and cashew butters, creates a good texture and almost tastes like peanut butter.)

  6. MREs – the version I heard was Meals Rejected by Everyone. As to the effects on digestion, when my son’s unit came back in from the field they all made a trip to a burger chain with burgers that create near-diarrhea.
    I’m another fan of Paydays.

    • Once you’ve been some place like China, where they don’t use salt, (Soy sauce is as far as they go) and you come back to Western food, the saltiness in it triggers the old gag reflex. I used to bring salt packets but even at that, the difference is astonishing.

  7. One of my sons worked as a wildfire fighter here in Alaska. His description of the MREs they were given in initial attack phase of a fire was “butt plug”. The teams worked on getting some real food once a camp was established!

    • You need to drink a LOT of water or you’re going to have problems. In the field or in combat, packing water (very heavy) can be problematic so a lot of guys just don’t eat. They drink water to keep from dying, but the food can be difficult.

      The MRE’s are fine for Big Army that moves slow with a massive logistics train and abundant water. Not so good for specops. The exception was the omelet, that didn’t bind you. You still had to deal with packing it out after being processed, but that’s just life.

      • I always figured the micro hot sauce, besides giving some flavor, was to help that out…so to speak.

        • The Tabasco is a must keep. I don’t think that it unbinds the glue. It just makes it hurt more upon exit. I know guys who shipped big bottles. Intestines of Iron.

  8. I have an acquaintance (Marine, at the Barracks in Lebanon and it shows) who calls MREs ‘IMAT’ food. As in ‘It Makes A Turd.’

    Then again, some of the things he eats are, um, not normal for round eyes, like Balut. He can handle them, he just doesn’t like them. But when you’re hungry…

    • I’d have to be insanely hungry to eat Balut. Sorry to Filipino readers, but it’s disgusting.

  9. We had these canned “ration packs.” Heavy and some dating back to the ’50s, but not bad for all that. I’m sure it’s all powdered now, which is fine if you have water. But what am I saying? No need for that kind of thing when you don’t have an army. Good luck, UK.

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