I got my ass chewed out years ago.

Ever seen a Hollywood Joe Swashbuckler pull a hand grenade pin with his teeth ala Sergeant Rock?

If he did that in real life he would most likely yank a couple of his teeth out and be standing there with grenade with the pin still in it.

A grenade pin is nothing more than a cotter pin with a ring in it. The ends of the pin are bent over to keep the pin from falling out and causing pain and suffering to the owner.

Before you even get ready to pull the pin one should flatten out the bent over ends of the cotter pin to make it pullable.

Grenades are an accident prone tricky weapon and there are 1,000,001 different ways they can endanger the user. They're dangerous and are only used in training under very supervised situations. 

Anyway, I was a safety NCO a couple of times at the grenade range. I posted the other incident here years ago. This time actually turned out to little more than a nothingburger except it started a pretty good rumor about me.

The safety NCOs went first. We went through the motions and chucked out grenades as a refresher familiarization on how the process worked.

When it was my turn I went by the book, threw my grenade, ducked and too the pin off off my finger, put the ring in my teeth and after the grenade went off I stood up.

The guy, Sgt Brinholder, next to me spotted it and asked me how many teeth I had lost and looked again. He naturally assumed I had pulled the pin with my teeth. I had not lost any, of course and he cringed.

I knew he'd tell someone I had pulled the pin with my teeth and it would go through the battery like a dose of salts. I felt pretty good knowing the rumor would put me in the badass/out of my mind category.

Later on Lieutenant Phil approached me. Lieutenant Phil was a pretty good junior officer and I respected him because he paid attention.

He said he has been watching things through binoculars and asked me "What's with this badness of making it look like you pulled the pin with your teeth? It's a bad example. I saw you pull it with your finger but you just had to show Sergeant Brinholder you had pulled the pin with your teeth like John Wayne. It sets a bad example because Brinholder will say something and it will go through the entire battery!"

I tried to squirm out of it by asking him if he thought everyone else was stupid enough to follow my example.

"Yes I do! You know damned well there are privates out there that will try that! How about Private Globie?"

"Hmm... you got a point there, Sir." 

"Don't worry," said the Lieutenant. "I'll just let the rumor run its course. The guys always figure it out after a while. Still, stop doing $hil like that."

"Yes, Sir."

 

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If you are an Iranian American

then your work is cut out for you. 

If you are a citizen and a registered voter it's time to help keep the Republicans in charge of Congress. Vote Republican.

If the Democrats take the house Trump is probably going to be impeached. The Democrats will cease any action against Iran and the people there will be screwed.

If you are not a citizen then there is something you can do and that's to put the shoe leather to the pavement and go door to door and see if you can gather votes supporting Republican candidates. No law against that.

If you are an Iranian-American citizen and a voter you, too can slap the shoe leather down and gather votes.

If you are an American citizen registered to vote as a Democrat you can switch parties and send a message that you support our military efforts in Iran.

If your congress critter is a Democrat you can call his office and tell him to support the President. Make it clear that if they don't you will make a concerted effort to vote them out.

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A part of Iran's laundry list. Why we fight.

John Roberts FOX News compiles an impressive list of Iran’s reign of terror over the years. This can all be verified. This is why it matters.

Here’s a short list (1/2)

•November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran — taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff .

•April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.

•October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel — including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel — in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.

•March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut, ultimately killing him the following year.

•September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 innocent people — including two American service members — in a car bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut.

•December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 en route to Pakistan, diverting it to Tehran — where they brutally tortured and killed two American officials.

•June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 on its way from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver before shooting him point blank in the head and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.

•July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

•April 1995: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists killed eight people — including one American citizen — in a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.

•August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.

•February 1996: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up another bus in Jerusalem, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans.

•March 1996: A suicide bomber linked to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups killed 20 people — including two Americans — in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv shopping center.

•May 1996: Iran-backed terrorists killed an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounded another American citizen in the West Bank.

•June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

•September 1997: Iran-backed Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens.

•August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people — including a dozen American citizens.

•August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.

•January 2002: An Iran-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist killed an American-Israeli dual citizen in the West Bank.

•July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

•June 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people — including an American citizen — on a bus in Jerusalem.

•October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza.

•Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq — “roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”

•August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.

•August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War — the only American to die in the conflict.

(2/2)

•January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers and entering the Provincial Joint Coordination Center.

•March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.

•July 2014: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed two American citizens serving in the IDF.

•October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

•December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.

•January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.

•September 2020: U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranian regime was considering a plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.

•February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.

•July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

•September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.

•November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.

•March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in a strike on a coalition base in Syria.

•October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7th massacre.

•December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.

•January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.

•Between October 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.

•November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.

•June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.

520 killed, countless wounded and this doesn't include the 2977 killed on 9/11 which Iran helped fund.

This war has been LONG overdue.

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Piccolo does a good deed

I was working construction south of Seattle and my partner and I had just finished a siding contract, had our pay in out pocket and were getting ready to leave for Alaska. We dropped into a tavern for a late lunch. We were both pretty keyed up. We were headed north in my old pickup.

We walked in and I said the the bartender as we headed to a table "I'm the Pro from Dover and this here's the Ghost of Smoky Joe. He wants a Lite beer and a ham and cheese sandwich and I want a roast beef sandwich and a Heineken." I turned to the waitress nearby and said, "And I want you to know that you have about a half an hour to get your stuff packed it you want to come to Kodiak, Alaska with us."

She approached me and asked me, "Are you for real?"

I saw a brief look of desperation in here eyes and turned to my partner, "Whaddya say?"

"I don't care." he said.

What happened is we bolted lunch and took her home which was nearby. She was in and out of that house MOST riki-tik with a sleeping bag and a small backpack, threw her stuff into the bed of the pickup and hopped into the cab.

She rode with us up the Alaska Highway all the way to Kodiak. Upon arrival she was on her own.  

Later she married a Native, had a couple of kids and we lost track of her. I think she moved to either Old Harbor, Port Lions or Ouzinkie.

I always think that it was one of the few halfway decent things I have done that truly made a difference in someone's life by giving them a second chance at life.

It cost me nothing.

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So far it has been an interesting year.

In January I got a brief note from someone letting me know a woman I met in my travels had just died. I believe it was from her daughter.

I had met this woman during one of my sailboat adventures and to put it in a nutshell we had a several day fling of some sort. There was quite a spark between us but there were just too many differences between us for it to go anywhere. Still, over the years we sort of stayed in touch with a rare quick note or something several years apart.

The note from the daughter said she had mentioned me a couple of times over the years as the man that taught her to sail. In her address book there was the word 'sailor' under my address.

I was and still am humbled.

A few weeks ago I had a mental alarm that told me to get on touch with my ex-wife. I chased her phone number down and gave her a call. Her son answered and told me she was in very bad health and not expected to live much longer and would pass my greetings on to her. 

Three days later her son called me and told me she had passed and then handed the phone over to his father, her husband. He told me that she had always spoken highly of me and never said a bad word about me. He said she was glad to hear from me before she passed.

I briefly considered going out to help bury her but they are going the cremation route.

Between the two of these events I got a call from a man in his very early fifties. When he identified himself I recognized him instantly. The last time I had seen him he was just turning five. He asked me if it was OK for his mother to call me. It was and shortly after she called.

It's scary getting a call from one's past, especially from a woman. The mental questions are scary. Do I have a child out there I was unaware of? Am I getting hit for back child support? WTF is going on?

Nope. It was strictly a curiosity call. She was simply wondering what I had done over the past half century. We had a nice talk. I told her about fishing, sailing, meeting my wife and my career at sea.

I had an odd and interesting relationship with this woman. I actually met her at a K-Mart and after we chatted I simply asked her out to a movie and we wound up back at her place. 

I had just arrived in town and was looking for a place that rented by the month. When I told her that she simply said, "Stay here until you find something." It turned into about four months. 

I was up front with my status from the beginning. When I got the word I was going to head back to Alaska without warning. I would simply go and she could expect a call or a letter inside a month or two. My life was that unstable at that time.

Sure enough, she wound up coming home to my stuff missing and a note on the kitchen table. Later I called her a couple of times and for the next year or two we exchanged very occasional letters. We lost touch.

About a month later I got a quick call from her son. She had passed and I had managed to catch her during a brief period of coherence. She's seven years older than I am which puts her in her 80s.

Funny how things work. She never held it against me that I left without warning. I had been up front and made it clear. She simply said she was glad I fixed the cabinet before I left. She also thanked me for being good to her son. Go figure.

What's next? It's only the middle of April.

=====================================

I think that after I vacuum the living room I am going to go through a box of old letters and shred some of them. 

While there is nothing incriminating in them whatsoever, I just don't want to leave any 'what's that all abouts' behind.

I will leave behind all correspondence (what little of it there is) with my ex-wife. My sisters remember her fondly because she was good to them when they were little and I think they would like to know that we got along well after we divorced.

  

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Sir I have JAG on my speed dial.

Whips out phone, calls and asks "Do I have to stand at attention when reporting to my Battery Commander? Is that a legal order? Just checking.

I can picture my Battery Commander dealing with that one, AND my First Sergeant. 

My BC would have simply said "Good one!"

Top would have said, "You asshole."

The BC would have taken that one to the O club.

Top would have taken it to the NCO club.

Neither of those two men would have EVER given me an illegal order.

In fact the BC stuck up for me when I questioned a 2LT giving a rah rah go for the team class on riot control. The 2LT even breathed a word on shooting protesters. I told him that i would shoot him before I fired on Americans.

Yeah. I was a pain in the ass soldier but for some reason I made E-5 in 25 months. 

Fact is it doesn't speak highly of me. It means I was in the right place at the right time.

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A beautiful day

I got to enjoy some of it outside and then opened the windows and did some spring cleaning. I also made slow cooker chili.

The chili is sitting in the fridge and tomorrow it gets put in containers and frozen. 

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War crimes.

Hospitals, public utilities, schools and orphanages are considered off limits so long as they are not used for military purposes.

However people forget the rest of the story. The 'so long as they are not being used for military purposes' part is often forgotten. That instantly changes things.

A power  plant that supplies any electricity to any military facility or unit whatsoever loses their protection and becomes a legitimate target.

Some time ago one of the wire services had an office in a building that was also being used to store ammunition that got bombed. They complained to Israel and in so many words told the wire service to settle it with the landlord because military hardware was being stored there.

Israel bombed a hospital because it was being used for military purposes. 

Currently the left is accusing Trump and Hegseth of war crimes which is a joke.

Two faced Mark Kelly flew air cover for people bombing utilities during Desert Storm so that makes him complacent in war crimes. Maybe we ought to charge him with war crimes and then watch the left stand there agape. Of course it would be a waste of time because some federal judge would likely throw any conviction out. That's probably a big part of the reason Hegseth didn't recall Kelly and courts-martial him. I would imagine the paperwork overturning anything done to him was already filled out and sitting in some judges desk drawer.

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The A-10 Warthog is headed for the dustbin soon

and I would imagine that the Air Force is going to babble incoherently about how the replacement is twice as good and so on and so forth. My guess is the slow moving Warthog is going to be replaced by a fast mover that can't stay on site as long as the old Warthog can.

OTOH maybe drones will replace it. Technology changes incredibly fast these days. It's hard to keep up with.

While the replacement may very well wind up being a good deal, I have my doubts. OTOH I am no expert in the field of close air support.

What interests me is the A-10 has been considered obsolete for a long time now and it seems that every time something pops up the Warthog keeps showing up and tearing up ground targets like it's supposed to. 

It is the prince of close in air support.

I wonder if the Air Force bothered to ask the grunts and ground pounders what they think of it. Probably not but they should have.

Before anyone starts carrying on about the old beast being 70s technology don't forget that the BUFF (B-52) is well over 70 years old and projected to last until at least 2050. 

The M2 Browning is over 100 years old and is still being used. In fact with the WW2 leftover parts and guns we don't even have to order spare parts or new guns.

Sometimes the government screws up and does something right.

Look at the P-38 can opener, for example. The government belted one out of the park when they made that one.

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ONE GUY. One single man.

Say what you will about the war but remember nobody said a damned thing when Biden lost 13 of our guys withdrawing from Afghanistan. Nobody said anything when Clinton lost 18 of our guys in Somalia. Nobody said anything about Obama abandoning our people at Benghazi.

Yet look what Donald Trump did just to save ONE GUY!

ONE SINGLE GUY!

....and Jesus said 'a good Shepherd will leave the 99 to go and look for the one lost. Key word - A good Shepherd!

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