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Post by scottschreiber on Mar 18, 2009 17:09:43 GMT -5
Thanks Billy and to all for the additional details!
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Post by rodthomas on Mar 18, 2009 17:27:04 GMT -5
Greetings Bunkies...I don't have the schedule for 21-23 June. Have asked for it but not yet "finalized." You know as much as I do.
Speaker order should be (please note that this is not finaled yet but pretty much on solid ground): 1. Al on preparation at Fort A. Lincoln. 2. Tom on the approach march. 3. Rod on the Scouts. 4. Mike Koury on the battle. 5. Jim Donovan on Reno Court of Inquiry 6. Sandy on aftermath. 7. Mike Donahue on maps.
Stay tuned. As for start date prior posting indicated dates selected to get ahead of "swarm" of buffs/tourists to the area for the actual battle anniversary.
Will once again suggest to Charlie Hubbard to get this on the website. If any questions please send to him at custer1839@hotmail.com or call at 1-812-431-8329.
Ride is separate from actual meeting. Discussions current about where and for how long. I tried two hour ride last week and will not be doing that again for quite some time. Suggestions are morass to Calhoun if possible certainly to Luce OR around Crow's Nest.
What you see in the NL is what your Editor has at the time it goes to press. No "news" means exactly that. We are always looking for news and good one pager articles and fillers. Michael Nunnally's article coming in April is a perfect example of a "filler." It is also neat stuff!
I don't normally "do" message boards. Back when I was helping Jay Kanitz with the original LBHA website (prior to becoming the full time webmaster) Jay hung a message board on the site. Wasn't a week until the site was hacked via the message board. Haven't trusted them since especially when it also happened to the CBHMA website three years later when their new webmaster hung a board on the site. Understand this is probably different but I work full time putting wounded warriors to work plus edit the NL plus sit a Board for a veterans group. constantly checking boards takes time and it is time I don't have. If you have something for the NL - email me please. You'll get a faster answer and more accurate information - well at least as accurate as I have it.
Thanks and look forward to seeing you in Billings...
Regards, Rod...
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Post by rodthomas on Mar 18, 2009 17:36:54 GMT -5
Fred, well, didn't mean to "spook the herd" but one needs to be cognizant (that's an old Regular Army expression meaning you ain't read the regulation dummy!) of wildlife interactions with tamer wildlife. Don't feel like you're the lone out-rider on this. My war bride, after I returned from the two hour "oh my god when is this going to end" ride on a 18 year old gelding (always get one with NO hormones!) Morgan (ain't a tamer horse in the barn), has laid down some hefty rules of engagement for me as well. The last thing my back needs (after 30 years of banging around in a M113/M557 track) is more bouncing on my tail bone. I'd say do your trip - sounds great and don't look back.
Regards, Rod...
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Post by cisdyd on Mar 19, 2009 0:28:45 GMT -5
Folks, anyone who rides a four-legged animal is looking for a hurting. I still remember the mule which bucked me off and kicked me on the way down. If someone supposes that I would do anything for those critters beyond figuring out the dressed-out weight, they would be dreaming.
An infrantryman to the core.
Billy
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2009 5:50:46 GMT -5
Thanks for the rescue, Billy. I owe you one and "you-know-who" would be grateful.
Best wishes, Fred.
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Post by conz on Mar 19, 2009 9:11:38 GMT -5
Aw, do you want to live forever? Worse ways to go than being killed on a horse...
Wish I could go to Billings this year...sounds like a good meeting. Would like to meet Rod Thomas sometime, too...thanks for your service and continuing good work with our Soldiers...
Clair
PS, Glad to see that the Obama administration has backed off on its plans to have Vets pay for their own military-related injuries through their own private insurance...
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Post by biggordie on Mar 19, 2009 10:14:41 GMT -5
All:
Stan the Zupe says that since Clair ain't goin' he ain't either, and he has canceled his reservation at the Red Roof Inn - hurry, Britt, there's at least one room available!! Actually, he says the ancillary costs [the field trip at al] look a little high to him, so he is taking the 1500 bucks he had budgeted for the week in Billings and using it to join the Harper/Varelis/Rosner clan's five-week trip to Mexico in December/January. We had two extra bedrooms in the hacienda.
Speaking of Mexico: if anyone happens to notice that Highwayman is absent for the next little while, they might not be too far wrong in assuming that he is somewhere south of Texas, sunning himself and sipping liter-sized margaritas [two for a finski at Happy Hour], while embracing another Margarita. He says he will be beyond the reach of a computer, perhaps even of electricity, for a while, and not to worry, or send out search parties.
Stan wanted me to say "Thank You" to everyone who volunteered to show him the ropes. Since I have fulfilled my purpose during this visit, I will now take my leave, and leave you all to your ruminations, speculations and erroneous conclusions [LOL], and please take my best wishes for the future [we may all need some help] and my personal thanks for your efforts on Stan's behalf.
Regards,
Gordie
PS Stan has also decided to tag along with another pair of enthusiasts on the non-tour portion of the Intrepid Company of Explorers 2010 trek to LBH, Big Hole, Bear Paw, Devil's Tower and etc. This will make at least two, and possibly three, additional vehicles running along behind. Pretty soon we'll have us a convoy [breaker, breaker, this is ...................]
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2009 10:38:50 GMT -5
Rod--
If you are reading this, please don't sweat it. Somehow I still think I'm 25 and my wife simply snaps me back into reality from time to time. When she and I were out there in 2006, she kept warning me off the trails. Then, when I was there with my friends in 2007, every time I called her, she repeated the same rattlesnake warnings. Not much I can do. But again, my two buddies were also going to do the re-ride until we started talking about the Fort Lincoln trip. That's what really took priority.
But thanks.... Also, aren't they M-577s and not 557s? Or has my brain gone as well? My heavens, the 113! Still around. My mech unit in Germany had them when I got there in October, 1962. They had just replaced those old, two-engined jobs. Do you remember those?
Best wishes, Fred.
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Post by rodthomas on Mar 19, 2009 12:20:16 GMT -5
Fred, thanks...yep...M577 - this is what happens when not enough Cassidy's Single Malt Irish Whiskey is left after the most holiest of days! I rattled around in a M-113A3 in the desert - I think they are finally gone. Take care!
Regards, Rod...
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Post by conz on Mar 19, 2009 14:51:13 GMT -5
Fred, thanks...yep...M577 - this is what happens when not enough Cassidy's Single Malt Irish Whiskey is left after the most holiest of days! I rattled around in a M-113A3 in the desert - I think they are finally gone. Take care! Regards, Rod... Nope...still here, go figure. We'll all die before the M113 does. Today mostly relegated to TACPs and odd combat support elements (what USED to be called combat support, that is)...those that need tracks but don't warrant Bradleys. M577 still around, too, in the heavy BCTs... Clair
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Post by rodthomas on Mar 19, 2009 17:22:32 GMT -5
Clair, thanks...I be doggone! When they swapped all the heavy tracks (tanks, brads, etc.) out of the brigades here at Lewis and converted to Strykers lost track (no pun intended) on the real armored vehicles. Amazing! Who says we can't build good stuff! Long about rush hour sure wish I had a 113...
Regards, Rod...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2009 17:30:55 GMT -5
Those things are unbelievable! I would love to have a dime for every "113-type" chassis ever made. Do we still fly Phantoms? That thing made its debut around 1952, I think. For my two cents, the greatest war-plane ever made, with that lazy-looking, drooping nose, the turn-up wingtips, the monster size of the plane... we used to love it when they roared overhead in Vietnam.
I saw a 113 once in a "junk-yard" during Operation Attleboro (I think it was; maybe Junction City), with a perfect entry and a perfect exit hole in the front on each side. The driver had this round pass completely through the vehicle, probably no more than two inches in front of his eyes, and it never exploded. He had been one of my drivers who I had court-martialed. They shipped him out to the infantry after reducing him in rank and fining him (he beat up an old Vietnamese woman working in our encampment) and after serving as point man on a few patrols, the infantry discovered the guy could drive, so they assigned him to a mech battalion. I happened to meet him a little later during that operation, and boy, oh boy!, you talk about a guy who had found religion! He couldn't apologize to me enough for what he had done. You had to see the 113 to believe it.
Best wishes, Fred.
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Post by bc on Mar 19, 2009 17:34:45 GMT -5
Lightweights!!! I joined another skydiving club a couple years ago just to go make a couple jumps and get my daughter's boyfriend to test his manhood. He passed his test with two jumps. Wind picked up on my last jump and I landed on my feet on the shoulder of the runway ten feet from the asphalt. What's age got to do with it. Even I have almost lost my hearing bouncing around in a M-113.
Agree Fred, no sound in the world like a F-4 Phantom making a low level approach. Really brings on the goose bumps. Newer jets all have mufflers on them.
bc
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lew
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Post by lew on Mar 19, 2009 18:50:33 GMT -5
Fred, The greatest Bomber was the B-36. I only wish I could have seen one fly,all we have now are film clips. "six turning and four burning"
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2009 19:12:37 GMT -5
Larry--
I don't know the B-36 at all. I'm not even sure I've seen a picture of one.
We had an odd-ball-type bomber in Vietnam and I don't know what it was. When I first saw it, someone remarked that it was a B-57 Canberra, but others have told me that's not correct. This thing was much bigger-- I seem to remember-- than a Phantom, and the wings came straight out. It seemed to be a rather slow plane, for it just sat up there, seemingly floating around, but dropping one hell of a lot of ordnance. I seem to remember napalm runs with the thing, and it was clearly a bomber, "B"-class as an old infantryman/trucker would call it. Some day I will have to see if I can find it in some U. S. Air Force, plane book in Barnes & Noble. But, man, how I loved that Phantom. So cool.
As for the 113, when we went on maneuvers in Germany, the division CG made us remove the heaters and of course, we always went out on these damned 3-week exercises in the dead of winter. "The men will go to sleep in them instead of staying up on guard!" Froze my ever-lovin' butt off. I would wind up staying awake most of the night, my RTO and I spelling one another, monitoring the radio: you knew damned well, just when you were the most tired, you'd get the order to move. Usually around 3:17 a.m. Boy, could those hulls keep in the cold!
Best wishes, Fred.
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