Great Falls Montana 1978 (IIRC)

Following a wild ride through Montana by a drunken Indian in a really beat up Olds 98 I found myself deposited in Great Falls in the middle of the street.

There was an army buddy in living there  that owed me big time because much of his TA-50 field gear had been stolen and I had managed to make up the shortages for him and save him a BIG chunk of change. He probably would have been discharged penniless had I not helped him out.

I had a standing invite to see him and there I stood completely wasted on the cheap wine the Indian had fed me along the way.

I managed to get out his number and dropped a coin in the phone booth and called him. He answered.

"Hello, it's Piccolo and I'm pretty wasted. Please pick me up. I'm across the street from this bit ink thing at the corner of Telephone and Telephone" and then hung up.

He was there in five minutes.

The corner of Telephone and Telephone.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

I had to delete today's post for somehow breaking community guidelines.

It was a story about taking a train from Bridgeport, CT.

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Another memory.

Back in the army something got screwed up when we ordered something (I forgot what) and were delivered a deck plate for an 8 inch howitzer. At the same time the mess hall got another mistaken order for 300 pounds of pancake flour.

The battery commander asked rhetorically "What the hell are we going to do with a deck plate from an 8 inch SP howitzer?"

The battalion commander was there and gave me a withering look when I suggested we have the mechanics burn the paint off of it and wire wheel it so we can put it on cinder blocks build a fire under it and get the mess hall's pancake flour and invite the entire Divarty to a pancake breakfast.

I got off the hook (kinda) when a wide eyed not too bright private said, "That's a good idea!"

The battery commander (one of my supporters) said, "Sir, at least he's thinking. Most don't."

That ended that but when the BnCO left the BC looked at me, shook his head and said "You a$$hole."

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It is said democracies generally last about 250 years.

That sounds about right.

I see this one collapsing over the next few years and it's the fault of the very people that live here for not paying attention.

In 10 or 15 years you won't recognize the country anymore.

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An awful lot of people in this country have what I call splinter syndrome.

They get a splinter that aches and know it's going to hurt to have it pulled out. 

So they leave it and silently ache until it festers to the point where something has to be done and it's going to cost time, money and pain.

I learned my splinter lesson as a boy when one of my scout leaders pulled a huge splinter out of my ass on a camporee.

It was sore but I had enough sense to get it checked. My scout leader yanked it in a second and for that second it hurt like hell and immediately afterwards there was no pain.

It was well worth it. 

On the other hand there are an awful lot of people that put things off until it reaches a crisis and only then do they take action.

Incidentally when the splinter came out I bled like a stuck pig. The scout leader just put his thumb on the would and pushed for a few minutes. The bleeding stopped and he covered the wound with a folded was of Kleenex, taped it on as best he could with Band Aids and sent me on my way.

(He also told me to ditch the skids when I got home so my mother would not find out.)

The truth is that it's better to face things immediately than hope they will go away. 

Everyone seems to know this but a Godawful lot of people don't put it into practice.

This is why I believe Iran should have been taken out decades ago.

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Unfortunately

A couple of days ago I called it.

We're headed on a downward spiral fast.

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election day.

unless you are Asian. Then it is erection day.

I voted and now I am going to stay the hell away from the media until tomorrow morning.

I am too damned old to stay up all night and fret.

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I'm calling it now.

Dems get both houses.

Filibuster gets nuked

SCOTUS gets packed

Gun control up the wazoo

Borders reopened.

Trump impeached weekly. eventually Republicans may/may not get paid off to vote him out.

Muslim invasion increases

'Rich' get taxed to death, some leave the country taking their wealth with them.

God only knows what happens to the economy.

Troops get pulled from Iran who continues with their nuclear program eventually getting the bomb. Israel gets nuked, later on when they get cocky the US gets nuked.

Trump gets blamed because he stirred up Iran when the truth is he would have kept Iran from obtaining nukes in the first place.

Election safeties to insure fairness vanish.

The hits just keep on coming.

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Now the left is screaming about Pete Hegseth opening a chaplain program.

It used to be that if a soldier had a calling to be a chaplain he had to get out of the service, go to the proper divinity school and fight like a tomcat to get back in the service again.

Pete just made it so if someone had a calling they could go through divinity school while in uniform. This is nothing new in one respect. it's similar to the green/blue to gold programs where an enlisted man can get a degree and be commissioned on the service's nickel.

The left is screeching about it like chaplains are something new that Pete's trying to introduce and some try and scream that it is unconstitional.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. The army has had chaplains since we even became a country. At Valley Forge there were at least 8 chaplains ministering to the troops. 

Although the Colonies (later the states) were predominately Christian, in 1862 Rabbi Jacob Frankel became the first Jewish chaplain. Other religions over the years have supplied the services with chaplains. 

While we're at it, nine chaplains have been awarded the Medal of Honor. 

Another thing about chaplains. Back in the day I was a smart ass and told a chaplain's assistant that he was supposed to use holy water in the chaplain's jeep battery. He quietly left.

Five minutes later I found myself pinned to the wall and receiving a lecture from an angry officer that had a cross on his collar. None of the onlookers looked too impressed until someone noticed my feet were about a foot or so off the ground. Later the chaplain and I became friends. He was a damned good rifle shot, too!

None of this is really new. 

The usual deadbeat atheists chimed in condemning religion  and stating the usual that the Constitution prohibits it. It doesn't. The Constitution grants people freedom OF religion and not freedom FROM religion.

Army MOS 56M is religious Affairs Specialist, an enlisted MOS. For this in that MOS that are so inclined some of these people could put in for the program and become commissioned chaplains. Not a bad deal for someone inclined to go that route. Pete just made it easier.

I suppose that sometime sooner or later Pete is going to be accused of giving young people guns and endangering them. Stay tuned for that one.

   

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Halloween was no big thing.

Maybe 40 kids and I gave away about a liter's worth of hot buttered rum. 

Some of the costumes were pretty good as usual. The little girl across the street showed up as a traffic cone.

Sort of a meh halloween.

Now I have a half-liter of rum sitting on the shelf.

Oh, well.

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