Reads with Scotch ’s Comments (group member since Mar 14, 2008)

Reads with Scotch ’s comments from the Axis Mundi X group.

As a purple heart recipient, and can contribute a double-sided point of view here. I think I need to break this down into two separate responses.



1) Anyone that joins any military service (regardless of the catchy commercials) and thinks that they will be given money for school or a date, without giving anything in return. Probably shouldn't be given a gun. I think it displays a lack of judgment, and possibly a bit delusional. I mean no personal offense to previous posters.



As an E-5 I had a few "Reservist" that were folded into my squad. Most of them were top notch and I am proud to have served with them. There were (3) that should have never put the uniform on. They were a constant pain in the ass, and a real liability in the field. I had to assign marines to babysitting duty every time we went out. Doing so compromises the rest of the squad and reduces our effectiveness. Ultimately I had them removed from combat operations and assigned to administrative duties. (Getting the platoon beans bullets and band-aids)



The foundation to our military is a dedicated willing well-trained force. At the end of the day I would say 95% of service members are willing and able to fulfill their obligations. But there is always going to be that 5% that just doesn't belong. I have found (through observation) that that 5% usually had some childhood fantasy about being a war hero, or Rambo. (As do many young service members) The difference between good service member and a liability is, the good service member looses that mentality where as the 5% hold on to, and become disgruntled when reality doesn't pan out the way "they" envisioned it.





2) PTSD: There is nothing that will prepare anyone for what one will experience in combat. You can explain, and prepare all you want, it means nothing until that first bullet flies past your head. For me personally, the most stressful, situation was the welfare of my marines. As a NCO, they are my responsibility. They rely on me to lead them through some of the most hostile situation imaginable (urban warfare). The second most stressful situation is civilian casualties. Our military wields the most impressive and destructive tools of warfare. We spend massive amounts of time sweat and blood to ensure we can utilize these tools with precision. However again, the best-laid plans don't mean anything in a real world situation.



Thanksgiving 2004, someone of obvious genus decided that this would be a good time for the second assault on Falluja (sp?) My Unit was assigned to secure 8 schools, and 3 hospitals. My squad was assigned to secure a hospital. After a hairy thrust into the city our transport stopped and disembarked us about 1/2 a mile from my objective. “You're riding in on your boots gents,” shouts the vehicle commander. (vehicles are too vulnerable inn Urban situations) We moved about 30 meters when the insurgents moved in against us. Going 2by2's we moved up the streets; taking fire from rooftops, windows, doorways, dumpsters, a few RPG's, some IED's. We push on.



About 10 feet after the hospital came into view (4 blocks away) a large group of women flooded out onto the street from a side alley. Our weapons trained in on them, not one of my marines fired. Even when the AK47 reported. Women started falling, I am not too ashamed to admit that I froze for what seemed like hours. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. The (3) insurgents were shooting through their own human shield. We were exposed in the intersection, no cover in the immediate area. My marines, or the women. Out of the (approx.15) women I think (3) were left after the fire fight. (Recounting this is making me physically ill). We had to push on. Our corpsman fixed up two wounded (Lcpl. Joshua Garrison "skipper" & PVT. Steven Lyburger.)



We pushed on toward the Hospital. (2) wounded in tow. Some more minor encounters with insurgents. Once we arrived at the hospital, I realized there was no way my (7) remaining marines could effectively secure the hospital square. I ordered my marines into a hasty defense to hold 3 of 7 streets leading to the hospital quad. Called in the situation to task force wolf pack and requested another squad and medivac for my 2 wounded.



The flood begins, with a second support squad enroute, and only 3 approach avenues covered insurgents zeroed in on our position, exploiting our exposed dead zones (areas that are out of view). Being effectively surrounded and quickly running through our ammunition, I pulled my marines back further into a more secure fighting position. The ambulance bay was a godsend. Thick concrete walls and a great vantage point to lay down fire in a 360. I had requested mortar support, but it was denied because of the civilian population. Instead we gained some air support, 2 cobra helos. We were able to hold (I say hold in the loosest possible way) our little corner of the hospital. Iraqi Doctors gave further aid to skip and Steve. The Calvary arrived and we started to push the insurgents back and redeploy around the quad.



After placing my marines, I linked up with the Sgt. from the other squad. I never learned his name, I was debriefing him on the situation... then I woke up in Baghdad. From what I was told, there were 2 men on the roof of the hospital that had launched RPG's. The other Sgt. was KIA. I am beyond proud of the marines that fought and died for that hospital in Falluja that day. Protecting the doctors so they could continue to care for their patients. I am really proud of my assistant squad leader Cpl. Sean Graham, who had taken over the defense of the hospital in the absence of the 2 Sgt.





I have been told that I act differently today than I did before. But how does one experience combat and not change? Do I suffer from PTSD..? I don't know. I have always been an angry demanding guy, am I more so today? Again I don't know. I do know, that I will never forget the things I have done; I will never forget those women. I will never forget the marines I have lost, the pain I have felt, and continue to feel.



I am no fan of the VA either. I do feel the need to be fair, the actual people there do try, but they are forced to work through the same paper fortress as the vet's are. The system is broken and really needs to be fixed.

Awww, did I miss it?

Ja, mein Furer! Me and Rommel are lurking just beyond their sights, We are waiting for the optimal time to strike. Your flanks are secure.

Don't you get DVR through your cable provider? I didn't buy mine, it comes with the service. You may want to take your cable/sat box in to trade it in.

OK, A recount of the last week:



Yes, nick was dumb.

Yes I had to go to the hospital for 2 1/2 days.

Yes, I was working on my broken trebuchet.

Yes, my wife slapped the shit out of me. Once I was at the hospital.



There I was flopped on the couch, Trying to watch the news, before you ask, yes that was pretty painful. I had been laying around doing nothing for a few days and was in danger of losing my mind. The clouds parted and a ray of sunshine landed on the split support strut, of my trebuchet. I saw this as a divine command, to access and fix the magnificent machine of mayham.



A trip to Spernards building supply and about 2hours later there I was laying belly up in the yard passed out. Wife comes home from work and there I lay. I blame the jig saw. if it didn't burn out I wouldn't have had to use the manual hand saw. I guess I worked my heart to hard, and deprived my brain of too much O2. My fever jumped up. And then I passed out. I suppose I killed a lot of brain cells, but I am sure they were ones I wasn't using anyway.





But I am doing much better now. I can almost breath normally. And I think my fever is gone completely. I have an appetite again, so all is well. I will be back at work next week. Then I'll be on allot. Sorry everyone, just a few more days until you can strain your brains trying to decipher my cryptic miss-spelling, and Malaprop's.

Eh, still feeling it, I kinda disobeyed everyone, and ended up in the hospital.


I just couldn't leave my toy broken in the yard, so I was working on it, and ended up passing out.

I haven't read this thread yet, But I will shortly.



I would like to take a stab in the dark and say it is both. Americans buy to much, and credit companies are borderline criminal.



Example:



I recently bought some fencing for my yard... $700 something, that I put on my credit card. I paid off the card before the 1st of the month but apparently that wasn't sufficient. About 2 Weeks later I get a letter in the mail telling me that there has been a change to my credit score. My score dropped 75 points. So I called the 2 of the 3 credit bureaus to find out if someone had shang hi'ed my identity.



Nope My score dropped because I spent 700 bucks at a home improvement store. Since the country is currently in a housing crunch they saw this as a fiscally irresponsible. Bull shit, because they also raised my interest rates. Never mind that I have never had a missed payment and all my cards (2) are zero balances.



So I canceled any account that raised my intreast rates, This cause my score to drop again, because now I limited my available credit. Bull hoey!

I would like to buy a jeep commander... But I can't really justify that. instead Ihave a forester and a wrangler. I love my 93' wrangler and take it everywhere. I've only rolled it twice at chimney rock 4X4 ever!



So let me get or axis of evil list straight NB, we have:

The Goracle

Al Imadinnerjacket



I know there is more but that's all I can think of at the moment.

There would be very limited "on the surface"structures in ANWAR. Un-like everywhere else we know exactly where the ANWAR oil field is. It has already been found. All the north slope producers are asking is for permission to drill "UNDER" ANWAR. The closest Drill house is a few hundred miles away, with today's drilling practices they can drop a well from already existing drill houses. The only structure that would be needed is a small pump house (about the size of a barn) to keep the line pressure up. Apparently some think that the Caribou would be really distraught if we were to drill under their birthing grounds. That the vibrations (one would need a seismograph to detect the vibrations)would make the Caribou leave and birth their calf elsewhere... right. This in an area that has a few hundred earthquakes a year.

The whole argument about the animals is nothing new. "They" said the same thing 30 years ago when the slope was first developed.

What happened? Well it wasn't what was supposed to happen. Caribou are thriving,tundra squirrels are having a 20 year population boom, wolves are well fed because of all the caribou and tundra squirrels. The Grizzles are getting larger every year. The mountain sheep (Which are suppose to all be dead right now) are also thriving. I have a PowerPoint Presentation about ANWAR and the Alyeska pipeline in relation to the impact on wildlife and ecosystem. If anyone wants it let me know and I will e-mail it out.


All these arguments for the most part are crap. Very little facts, and a lot of party propaganda. The Facts are the Climate is changing. The evidence shows that it has always done this.

Conserve you bet.
Develop new cleaner, more efficient technologies, you bet.
Enact policies that will further stall our already bruised economy, not so fast.

I would like to see the government contribute moneys to hydrogen infrastructure. lets say 40/60 top side private investment. This would fast track a REAL solution not some red herring like Bio fuels.

http://youtube.com/watch?feature=rela...

Now this is a booty!

I don't think you will let that happen. If I'm not back have a good day.

Well now that the mirror is gone I guess I can stay standing.




Alright, I have to scoot, Might be back on in a bit, but I have to close up shop and make it ready for the oncoming healthy crew.

mountain biking, swimming, hiking. walking a 206lb mastiff up a mountain in Alaska tends to tone ones bottom too.

I dunno... I'm going to have to stop by when I get home and see how things pan out. My flight is on time, all outstanding reports are done, Clear skies. I'm going home in a few hours Woot!

OOPS!

:::Falls back to the floor:::

And proud of their personal improvement. A fun reason to get in better shape beside that stupid health reason.

Well, Lets see what the other ring leaders have to say (eh, once we have "other" ring leaders)

Were going to need feedback from all 10, and then also have to troll for good ideas from the participants.

Well that depends how often we choose winners, how long is the award good for? A week, month, I think I just got an idea. If you are not happy with your bum, we can do a most improved bottom award. This one could be held every 6 months.

Psst, next time you help someone up off the floor, and your wearing a dress, be sure there isn't a mirror behind you.


I think your bum will do just fine in the International Booty day Challenge.

Imperfections, can add to the aesthetics of the bum. Just like distressed wood.