‘I am very, very tired.’

19-year-old Ukrainian soldier in village of Pisky, where war continues, despite official cease fire.

http://dailysignal.com/2015/06/20/ukraine-war-looks-like-8-days-front-line/

Another soldier: “You have no second chance here.”

(Seldom are soldiers as angry as portrayed in movies. Mostly, soldiers are tired. You can get angry at the enemy for forcing you to dive into mud or dirt or when his fire interrupts your meal. Eating is a major part of a soldier’s day, especially the evening meal, when maybe you have a chance to wash your face and hands before eating, at the least using canteen water to wash your hands. Interruption of the evening meal brings a special kind of anger, but it lasts only as long as the interruption.)

My, how we have grown

The 1876 Boston Red Caps’ roster contained 17 players. The tallest player was Foghorn Bradley, 6’. The other players ranged from 5’7” to 5’10 ½”.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=1876&t=BS4

Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, major league baseball players height averaged around 5’8”.

The average height of a Union Civil War soldier was 5’8”. Average height of a World War I American soldier was 5’8”.

In 1554, the British warship Mary Rose sank off Spithead. The ship was raised in 1982. Studies of recovered remains shows average height of crew members was around 5’7”.

Archers, though, presented a different story.

“They were 6ft 2in or 6ft 3in, and strapping individuals,” Mr Owen said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/9686177/Mary-Rose-scientists-identify-shipwrecks-elite-archers-by-RSI.html

Stupid teens

But I repeat myself.

“The Cañon City football team will forfeit their next game after district officials discovered that a number of students took nude and partially clothed photos of themselves and sent them to classmates, according to a news release from the school district. The news release says that a tip to Safe2Tell on November 2nd resulted in an investigation by law enforcement into the photos. The news release didn't specify whether the football players were the ones taking or exchanging the photos.

“The district says that the number of football players involved was high enough that the coaches and administrators decided to cancel Saturday's football game against Discovery Canyon.

"’We concluded it was impossible to safely field an entire team representative of the personal qualities and characteristics that truly represent the history of the Cañon City High School football program,’ the news release said.

“The investigation has been turned over to the Cañon City Police Department. Police will be focusing on determining whether adults were involved or if any of the photos were coerced.”

http://www.koaa.com/story/30439251/officials-caon-city-football-players-exchanged-naked-photos-will-forfeit-next-game

I’m having a difficult time lining up ideas of sending nude pix = forfeiture of a football game.

M42 Duster

With two 40mm Bofors antiaircraft guns, the M42 Duster was a good machine for base camp/fire support base defense and for fire support in convoys.

When the Army decided it needed a fire support vehicle in Vietnam, someone recommended the Duster. Problem was, there were none in Active Duty units. So, the Army borrowed Dusters from the Army National Guard.

In early 1967, a Duster platoon was at a small fire base in Tay Ninh Province, where Air Cav Troop’s gunships and slicks operated during daylight. One Duster set up right next to Aero Rifle Platoon’s part of the perimeter. The vehicle was older than anything else around.

One night the nearby Duster opened up, firing into the treeline about 300 meters away. The tracers seemed to change colors going into the night – red to white to green. It was one of those things civilians would pay money to see.

Wikipedia says “… the Duster's high ground clearance and excellent suspension-system design gave it an ability to withstand land mine explosions with minimal crew casualties.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42_Duster

Whoever wrote that part about withstanding mine explosions with minimal crew casualties should have seen the blackened steel mass hauled into Lai Khe in the spring of 1967. The remains were recognizable as a Duster, but a Duster that had been ripped open at the bottom center, a two-foot hole that bent the deck into the crew area. I don’t think anyone could have survived the blast. Maybe the driver.

Jay Leno one night …

… had a newspaper ad for a “Saddle Light dish.”

Some almost as good.

A State Sale. (For broke states, maybe not a bad idea.)

Pop Tards.

More fun less taxis. (Uber fan?)

Farwood for sale. (The trees were a long way off.)

Our teachers make a diffarance.

Respect Are Country Speak English.

Unions Our My Cup of Tea. (Should have met with the English one.)

Sorry Their Are No Shakes Their Are Ice Cream And Sundaes.

Shoplifters Will Be Prostituted. (Whatever pays the fine.)

Women in Combat Arms part of dangerous American culture change

(Probably not all that much Hope, though. Only Change.)

“Early this year I talked to another military buddy who had just left the Pentagon. His comments were even more troubling. ‘I used to think the Pentagon was divorced from the reality of the combat arms side of the military- that it was so out of touch with the average infantryman that it made me sick to work there,’ he let on. ‘But that was when I first got there,’ he continued. ‘Today it is times a hundred. The advocates of the women in combat arms are basically part of a larger effort to change the military culture- which they call a “rape culture”- and these folks are really linked close to the wider effort to change American culture.’”

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/changing-the-%E2%80%9Cmacho%E2%80%9D-male-culture-of-the-us-military/

When the need to move was great

Looking at ancestors and considering the times in which they lived shows some families have a need to move.

In the 1850 federal census, Great-great Grandfather Jeremiah Ward lived in Fannin County Texas. He was born in 1788 in South Carolina. His wife, Nancy Ward, was born in 1806 in Kentucky. Their oldest child, Jeremiah Jr., was born in 1832 in Illinois. Son Lewis, 16, was born in Missouri. Their other children -- Andrew J., 12; Ellen and Sarah, 9; Amanda, 7; James, 5; and John, 3, were born in Texas.

Track that route on a map – South Carolina to Kentucky to Illinois to Missouri to Texas – in the 1820s and 1830s, by horse and wagon and on foot … That equals several hundreds of miles, the crossing of rivers and making one’s way through forests and across plains.