WAR MAY BE HELL, BUT READING ABOUT IT IS FUN 2

Blog number 213                                                             02 September 2008

Reading a book called, Iwo Jima in Barnes and Noble's this morning.  Found a bit of trivia.  That flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi, that is so famous?  It has a bullet hole in the second stripe. 

The way it happened was that the guys were so short of people because of their casualties that they were waiting for replacements, so they dug in and slept right by that flag.  The guy telling the story heard noises during the night, and thinking it was Japs, he fired at the noise, found out that the noise was the flag flapping in the wind.

There is an asterisk by the word, "Japs"  in this book.  The asterisk's explanation for existing is that "Jap" was commonly used during the Good War, but the proper word is, of course, "Japanese."  I thought that curious because I, myself have used the word, "Jap" in my blog, with the explanation that that is what we called them during WW 2. 

I was a little nervous using that word when responding to Maryanne's comment on one of my entries, because her mother is Japanese, but I expected that she would understand I didn't mean anything derogatory to the Japanese.  It's just the way I think of the WW 2 Japs, that's all.

WAR MAY BE HELL, BUT READING ABOUT IT IS FUN

Blog number 212                                                             01 September 2008

"Vinegar" Joe Stilwell was put in command of the attacking "enemy" forces during military maneuvers before December 7, 1941.  "His ideas and surprises and unexpected tactics, " included the breaking of rules by beginning his attack by jumping off ahead of schedule.

When I first read this, I thought, "well, that's not fair, to begin the games before the agreed upon time, " but then I realized that war doesn't go by any rules, so that what he did was right on target.  Best to expect the unexpected.

Before the great battle with the Japs at Midway, the Japanese were running war games on the way there, and once they lost a carrier, but they figured that could never happen so they brought the carrier "back to life."  When it actually DID happen that they lost a carrier - two actually, they had no backup plan for that eventuality, and it cost them dearly.

One Jap officer saw the American torpedo bombers shot down one after the other, and kept coming.  He had been told that the Americans would turn tail at the first sign of trouble, so observing this, he thought Japan might be in more trouble than they believed. 

The Japanese before this had always ran into troops that gave up long before they had to.  Singapore, Wake Island, Burma, China - all could have been victories sans idiots and cowards.  Not the troops - the leaders.  Troops mostly do what they are told.  Leaders do the telling.

DRINBKING IS BAD FOR SAOME, BUT NOT FOR ME

Blog number 211                                                             29 August 2008

Mine wife, the beautiful Teresa, asked if I wanted a glass of wine.  I said, "Sure.  Why not?" 

The wine tasted so good that I drank it instead of sipped it, then I had another and now I am legally drunk.  I got to wondering if I could write while drunk, and this reminded me of a cartoon I pasted in my cartoon book.  It's entitled, "Pearls Before Swine" and the goat is drunk and writing because he thinks he writes better while drunk and what he writes is, "beer good."  That's not very good writing, so he figures he better drink another six pack.

My black cat, Zipper, loves me.  He cuddles my slippers, follows me around, and when I pick him up, he just collapses.  It's like I'm his Momma.  He stays in the garage mostly, doesn't want to come out. 

This morning I let him out and he seemed glad to go, stayed there until I went to collect him.  I grabbed him from under the car where he wouldn't come out.  I had to kneel down to do this, and since I am old, I had a hard time getting up while holding him, and he started growling and biting me.  He never does this.  I finally got up, and while I was carrying him to the house, he kept complaining and biting.  It reminded me of a two year old slapping at a parent who was taking them inside when he awaited to stay outside and play. 

Damn!  Writing while drunk is not all that easy.  I keep hitting the wrong keys.

MY HEROES

Blog number 211                                                             27 August 2008

In case anyone is writing my unautorized biography, my three favorite heroes are Homer, George Castanza, and Dwight Schrute. 

Do the right thing.  Don't mess it up.

GRIPES FOR TODAY

Blog number 210                                                             27 August 2008

I'm reading another book about General Stilwell and in it, it mentions Madam Chiang K'ai-Shek being told about how the Communist Chinese pay their soldiers, treat the populace well, and do not have the graft that the Nationalists do.  Madam went to the window and looked out for a bit, turned around and said, "Well, that's because they have not known real power."

A few years back I read a book written by the campaign manager of Goldwater's failed attempt to secure the presidency of the United States.  In it, he stated that he noticed that he looked upon the crowds standing watching Goldwater ride by, waving to them, that he and Goldwater were obviously going places, but these people seemed to him like they were always going to be standing there, waiting and watching for those who were moving on.  He stated that this was the main problem with politicians.  They seemed to obviously be above and beyond "those people."

When Rockefeller was running for president, I watched him talking to a man who was saying that he wanted Social Security to be voluntary instead of mandatory.  Rockefeller seemed confused by what the man was saying, and he finally asked, "Well, why don't you just send the money back?"  The man was rendered speechless.  How could a person answer that?  It was obvious that Rockefeller (and many others) had no experience at all with paying Social Security.  Probably no experience with paying any kind of taxes, actually.

I remember when Ronald Reagan, as Governor of California, after saying that "taxes should hurt," was found by a College newspaper reporter, to have paid no taxes at all. 

This revelation roused the ire of the State of California, which then geared up to find the dirty scum that would dare leak such a valuable state secret to a lowly newspaperman, which enabled the ordinary common citizen to have access to information previously allotted only to the Chosen.

Now, if you tie all these stories together, you should begin to see that it really doesn't matter who becomes your representative.  They all become the same person and that person is never YOU.
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I read in the paper today that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a below average temperate for the U. S. this year.  This is news?  This should be put in the paper?  This is the kind of news we expect in out papers?  TV, yeah, but newspapers?

And oh, yeah.  Julia Roberts is still Gorgeous.  I just read it.

WAR MYSTERY

Blog number 210                                                             26 August 2008

Several times, in the books I have read, horrific losses of B-29s by MIG jets during the Korean War is mentioned, but no number or anecdote is ever mentioned or told. It's pretty obvious that with the large number of MIG jets and the also large number of B-29's used during that war, and the fact that the speed of the MIG was so overwhelming when compared with the B-29, that losses must have indeed been horrific.  Especially at the beginning of the bombing runs, when no American jets were handy for protection.

I tried Wikipedia, no help.  Wonder what the problem is?  Very curious.

DISTILLENT?

Blog number 209                                                             26 August 2008

When I was about 12 years old, living on the farm in Northern Iowa - that would be about 1943, the Good War still on, our John Deere tractor ran on a colorless fuel called "distillent."  We pronounced it, "dis sill ent."  I don't think it was diesel.  Not oily enough.  Had the consistency and look of water.  But the tractor ran like a diesel engine, so I couldn't say for sure.  I do know that in 1949, when I was stationed in northern Texas, they sold something called, "white gas" in the gas stations.  It was much cheaper than the leaded gas, but I don't think many used it.  Some must have, to be selling it like that.  White gas looked like our "distillent."

Which reminds me.  While still in Texas, I was driving down a two-lane road in 1949 in my 1937 Chevy and three brand new '49 Ford convertibles, a red one, a blue one and a white one, passed me on the right, in line, and off the road.  I thought at the time that they were probably three sons of some rich oil men,

A man one farm north of us got killed when his B-17 got shot down in the Pacific, and a guy that lived on the farm across the street from us got killed in his tank in France.  The one that was a tanker was the one that I overheard telling my Dad and Grandpa about a guy that brought in two prisoners and asked the commander what to do with them and he told the guy to "take them over the hill so's they don't stink up the place,"

My Dad and Grandad thought that a funny story, but I didn't.  It shocked me because of how we were always told that Americans didn't do things like that - that only the Nazis and Japs did things like that.