Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
So, Gretchen’s on Doc’s shitlist just a wee bit. Seems the side trip we took to see her sister in Clarkesville TN was a bit out of the way in that he wanted her to be resting, whereas she said that sleeping and laying back in the car is fine.
Me?
I follow orders man. Best not get on her bad side.
Now, granted -I’m- not that upset at being here in that this trip I managed to get on post. Namely Fort Campbell… my Rakkasan Alma Mater so to speak.
2-187 was re-flagged to 1/33 CAV much to my horror a few years back.
The wind was blowing like a pure-dee motherfucker today, hence the long hair in the wind… Today I didn’t bother with my usual topknot… and yeah, my shit is long enough now to have a topknot. Or even do Viking Braids…
But yeah. Unreal to be back here 20 years later.
Clarksville is HUGE.
The base is a LOT more packed and waaaaay more modernized. I did however find my old barracks:
My room was on the second floor, on the left, behind the overgrown bush/tree. Leastways I -think- that’s it. The walls had some “Delta Company” stuff on it on the surrounding areas, so I’m pretty sure that it was ours.
I also visited the NEW 3rd Brigade HQ and bullshitted with the CQ.
Found out that the Famed “Rakkasan Sprint” is no more! That shit blew my mind!!!! The original “Sprint” was a Brigade run that the Standard ‘back in the day’ was 4 miles ran at a 92% completion rate in 32 minutes. That means if you start with 100 men, 92 of them have to cross the finish line in 32 minutes. IF you fail to do this, you get 30 minutes to recover, and they run you again.
Now granted, that was a stone cold motherfucker of a run.
4-8 minute miles, consecutively.
Personally, no shit, I –never– failed to make standard.
That being said:
IF your unit fails THAT second chance, then the WHOLE UNIT, every swingin’ Richard, from the CO to the Lowest Private had to do the “Brigade Command Sergeant Major’s Remedial P.T.” which could read as “torture.” Needless to say, NO ONE fell out of the Sprint, unless they were bleeding from the asshole/eyeballs. Death was pretty much the only excuse.
Now?
Try that whatever the fuck they call it, these fucking weak-sauce bastards now get 36 WHOLE MINUTES to do the 4 miles!!!! Truthfully, I hate saying this, but the whole “Back when I was in the Army…” thing? Yeeeeeah… shit like that just makes me shake my nugget in horror….
Anyways…
Today was a Day Of No Scheduled Activities, also called a DONSA. The base was empty, which made it waaaay easier to get around. Only thing was the Pratt Museum was closed, which sucked. Might hit it tomorrow in the AM on the way out of town for home. We -did- hit the PX and I picked up a lot of ‘shit the ex-wife had shitcanned over the years’ like some regimental ‘stuff’ and other things…
Got Sapper a giftie as well as Dad-in-Law, as he digs stuff like that… specifically a polo w/the 101st Eagle on it…. souvenir ‘stuff’ if you will… Gretchen found a 10st Airborne Breast Cancer T-Shirt which she loves so that was cool AF IMO too.
The rest of the trip is us headed home. Weather is supposed to suck ass, as it usually does, but I got new wiper blades and a mission , so fuck it amiright? I will say though it was awesome to ‘come home 20 years later….
So… Hope everyone had a great Easter
More Later
Big Country
Go with the braids, buns are a bit gay.
Don’t have a bun… in the pic it’s blowing wild as I didn’t have any/enough gel in it to keep it matted down
Question for you BCE… I seem to recall previous post on Wilcox L4 (or C4 .. bad handwriting) G22E mount and Wilcox PVS-14 arm.
Was looking for your writeup because I’m pretty sure I wrote it down from here or one of the previous blog iterations… can you repost, redirect, or maybe add to your growing substack gear notes?
Yeah. Buns are not manly. But i am just an old phart.
Agreed
Buns are gayer than three brothers fucking a whole bag of dicks covered in AIDS.
wow. haven’t seen the Rakkasan barracks since 1985. i lived next door at 3rd battalion Bravo Company
1st Sgt Mc Callister a tall black stuttering holy-roller nam vet who wore braces on both legs from being shot up could outrun any motherfucker in the entire 3rd Brigade- fact
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/m-16-era-ends-armys-101st-airborne-division-receives-next-gen-assault-rifles
I am really curious to see how that shakes out.
Top knots should be just that: an actual overhand knot. Long enough for that?
Even so, still looks like a bun, so yeah, maybe not in public. Braids, on the other hand, stay out of your way, even the way of a ruck… can also be dressed behind the ears so no diminished hearing. Very “low maintenance”, when braided wet.
Could you imagine a Hartman or Highway in the mechanized rainbow hairdresser forces that we have now, they would be crying in the safe spaces or dropping out.
Foreign page says Army and Navy elite units already in Taiwan as PLAN agents are on recon in FUSA.
A shipping container could hold some serious weaponry and PRC does have the false front ships with gun turrets hidden.
Quislings will have to be dealt with first and traitors get what they deserve.
Pappy got sponsored by the local running shoe store after wrapping up Army career in the masters age class but he did get a track and field scholarship from Marxist EDU state college as the only white guy at a technical school uptown, I tried it and hated it but walking is fine.
What is it with 50-something men growing their hair long, now?
I noticed it when I grew my hair down to my shoulders and saw many other guys my age were doing the same thing. My problem is, I wouldn’t wear it in a pony tail, or a man bun, and wouldn’t let my wife braid it – so it kept getting in the way when the wind blew. A couple months ago, I went to my barber and had him cut it all off and give me a proper men’s haircut. Bastard said he had a one-day sale where he was charging by the pound. I thought he was joking until he hit me up for $20 instead of the usual $12.
Trips down memory lane. Our brigade runs at Ft. Carson were done at a walking pace (Airborne shuffle) so the fatboy tankers could keep up. On one of those runs, our platoon (yeah, 3rd Herd) fell out and ran circles around the brigade while maintaining formation. We got a platoon ass reaming from the brigade CSM, but he was trying to keep from laughing while he did it.
Latigo, I’ve worn mine long since I got out of the USN. I’m 59 now.
BCE, you were not far from me. My company has me working at the LG plant, between Clarksville & Tiny Town.
Went in with the 82nd and ETS’d 4 years later with the 101st with 37 months in the middle in Wildflecken, Germany.
So, ex-soldiers can enter Ft Campbell and go into the barracks with no problems? I was in the 20th Engineers. And they can purchase stuff at the PX? I didn’t know that. (I have a DV card in my wallet.) If that is true I might need to make a run down there.
In 1978 I bought a kick ass Sanyo bi-amped sound system for my 1970 Camaro SS at a place in Clarksville named Mastronics – wonder if it’s still there?
Tell your wifey to rest if the doc says to rest!