Author: BigCountryExpat

Greetings and Salutations!
Back home safe, a lil worse for the wear as I am 55 and NOT in my younger ‘lets bounce alllll over the place’ shape. I got in at 0100 after an interesting flight(s) home… not sure as to how grammatically correct that was/is, but hey, I’m spent.

Now, it was a night flight, so I’ll put up the two pics in a minute. What was INTERESTING as all get out was how one goes through the TSA these days.

Gone apparently are the days of taking out ALL electronic devices and separating them for a scan. Also gone was the whole ‘remove the belt and shoes’ which TBH was a stupid reaction to that retarded Shoe Bomber asshole…

The ONLY issue I had?
Whelp… it’s a bit -complicated-

Back in 1999 I had one of my first post-Army jobs at a computer call center. This place had ALL sorts of different businesses we supported… I happened to work on/for the Morgan Stanley Dean Whittier stock brokerage. It’s where I learned UNIX and how to get Sun System Terminals functional…

One of the other contracts was a team that was working on the first Facial Recognition systems… one of my bros was on that team… It’s where I learned about facial recognition and the ‘how it works’. One of the things is the number of nodal points, aka the identifiable pieces/parts on your face. There are (as I recall) 68 primary points that are used to make an initial ID of someone. Then it further drills down… Mind you this was waaay back in 1999…

Eye location, separation between the eyes… cheekbones… ear size and location… You all pretty much know the drill.

So because of this, waaaay back in the day, I started grinning
in ALL of my ‘official photos’. Case in point, my Driver’s License:

And then my DotMil ID:

Redacted (of course) with painters tape.
So….
Because of that grin, I had some ‘minor issues’ with being ID’d. The way they do it now is that instead of a person, it’s a facial recognition system that takes a picture of you and compares it to your ID.

The TSA uses 1:1 facial matching technology, also known as Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2), to verify passenger identities at security checkpoints by comparing a photo taken by a camera at the checkpoint to the photo on their ID document. The ID gets ‘fed’ into that slot in the lower right corner… Then the camera takes a picture, and usually it just takes a second or so to get your answer, Yea or Nay.

In m case?
Yeeeeeah… Not so mucho.
Not once, not twice but three times the system failed to ID me and verify me…

It got to the point that they ran me through a couple of databases and didn’t get a ‘hit’ so to speak.

This is supposedly I couldn’t be found… that’s what I was told at least… I have NO idea as to the veracity of that, mind you… I will say that THANK GOD I had gotten there a full hour and a half before the flight as I’ve had ‘issues’ in the past as y’all are aware of, usually in the form of the dreaded “SSSS” marker on Ye Olde Boarding Pass. That stands for (from what I can tell) “Strip/Spread ’em/Smile/Sit and Wait”

So either way, according to them, it was a ‘no joy’ situation. In both cases (coming AND going) that they had to get the Senior Supervisor over to conduct an “enhanced facial screening”.

I.E. the HMFIC (Head Motherfucker In Charge) came over, looked at my ID, then looked at me, and then I was cleared to fly. Of course it helped that I was grinning like a fucking deranged lunatic the whole time to match my ‘official photo’:

And nope.
I’m a dirty bastard today. It being Monday I didn’t get a chance to shower as I was soooo wasted in general from the hustle a bustle of the weekend. It’s one thing to grab up your wallet/passport and basic bug-out bag/party bag and bounce when you’re 25…

It’s a whole new level to be doing it at 55.

NOT that I’m complaining by far.
The only major bitch was the Long Term parking screwed me to the tune of $50 more or less. THAT pissed me off. I talked about it with Sapper and IF I decide that I’m hitting the friendly skies again anytime soon, that he’ll be dropping my ass off instead of me being porked for $25+ a day in parking fees.

And lastly
The two pix I shot on the plane. These are from the first leg of the trip. The plane itself was an Embraer ERJ-145 which is essentially a BIG commercial version of a Lear or such. The damned thing moved with a purpose I can tell you that…

We had for whatever reason, got stuck in Bristol for 30 plus minutes on the launch threshold of the runway. According to the stewardess (a very nice lady… a welcome change from the normal ugly assed attitude ones I’ve dealt with in the past… ugly physically as well as mentally if you will) Charlotte was and had been a MAJOR shitshow with various delays and ‘stuff’ all weekend long.

Despite the 30 minute ‘hold’, once we launched, let me tell you… I have a hunch that this particular pilot was a retired DotMil fighter jock. Like “F-18 or F-15” fighter jock. We landed on time anyways. I mean I’ve flown since I was 5 years old, with my first flight being a Pan AM 747 from Boston to Hawaii (non-stop as I recall… In fact this’s one of my earliest memories as I was like 5 at the time as stated).

And since then? I’d hazard a guess that no shit, I’ve probably broken the million mile marker for flight miles since then. I mean just as a Contractor, I was doing the Iraq-to-The-States bounce multiple times a year.

Never mind when I had courier duty…

My point being I could feel that this guy had ‘opened it up’ so to speak, rather than the ‘usual’ meandering flying. Either way, I took these from my widow at the back of the plane. The first one being a shot of the moon:

It was soooo bright it flared out the cameras as you can see… or maybe not see if you will. Now to my eyes, it was clear as a bell and hence why I snapped the pic. There was also no sign of that “Blood Moon Eclipse” everyone was talking about… one of my online Gab Frens said that we were in the wrong hemisphere to get a good look… either way tho, a good shot IMO.

The next one is really cool however:

I really like this one.

I looked out the window at one point from my Kindle (on my phone… 1203 days of continual daily reading BTW) and realized that there was a great shot to be had. I had to scramble to get this shot and almost missed it.

What I did get?
WOW!!! As you can see, the cloud cover and delineation between clouds/clear sky was/is sooooo cool! To me, the fact that WE had ZERO clouds at whatever altitude we were at, and yet below us, was a cloud cover so perfect and beautiful, it looks almost like a foamy sea washing up and over the lit community below…

Some things are just too cool and beautiful…

I especially love the red reflection on the leading edge of the wing… makes a beautiful contrast.

Sort of like this weekend.
It too, was awesome and mellow.

I was (for the most part) able to get my ‘timing and headspace’ readjusted. For a few hours here and there, I actually had peace and quiet without outside interference, nor any stressors being thrown at me unnecessarily.

The company I kept and the old frens I saw were completely awesome and I look forward to them visiting here at some point. Shortly. Hopefully before the end of the year, but before the holly-daze. I mean everyone should do a ‘Florida Trip’ at one point or another amiright?

Especially my former room-dawg from the 187th and his wife whom I hadn’t seen in nigh about 20+ years… their kids are all fully grown, and I think their youngest, Wyatt is in college right now as a Junior? (I love that name… it reminds me of ‘Weird Science’ hence my mentioning it) Either way, I’m not sure…. I do know they has a whole platoon sized element of kids… she being kid-cray-cray and then acting on that urge. Besides Wyatt, they’re all grown and “oot-and aboot”

It’s a good thing that my room-dawg went “Warrant” and reclassed to Patriot Puke back in the day and retired as a CW3. From what he could tell me is he’s now a senior Civilian Contractor working on various Patriot Systems as a “technical advisor” making MAD bank. I’m really happy for them both. Especially for her as when she met him, it was through me and she and I were huuuuge FWB and after they met? It was all over for the BCE…

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride LOL!!!

Those (like this weekend) were/are some Great Times.

So that’s it for tonight…

Oops… minor interruption:

Sorry for the later-ish poast but someone really cool from this weekend (the primary) called me while doing this debrief, and tied me up (figuratively) on the phone for 3+ hours… I was typing the whole time on and off, but ‘distractions’ and whatnot as you understand… anyway, the call was awesome.

And her? As stated before she’s really nice and cool as she has a LOT of similar likes and such that I have… leastways as she was telling me…

So since she was claiming GeekGirl status, I threw an intentional ‘test question’ to establish if she was for real, or a being a wannabe poseur. Money Talks and Bullshit Walks and all that Aye? So specifically, since we were talking Sci-Fi channel and various sci-fi shows, I asked her about one of my favorite shows from ‘back in the day’ (and TBH, since I have them all on MPEG, I –still– watch them regularly) and if she had ever watched it, that show being the BBCs ‘Doctor Who’ series? And her answer was sort of a shock…

I mean how many chicks know about ‘Doctor Who’, never mind that after? when I asked her which Doctor was her favorite? And her immediate answer was “There is only ONE Doctor and that’s Tom Baker!”

Holy.
Shit.

Like I said, she’s a cool chick AND that her answer was a bit of a shocker.
Make that a Stunner actually.
Physically AND Mentally apparently
Kind of blew me away TBH…
More on that down the road (hopefully)

And like I said, sorry for the late post. I’ll try to do better in the future, provided I can stretch the time.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Pretty much presented w/out Comment:

Adventure Awaits!
So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Man, sorry for neglecting the ‘housekeeping’ as of late. Had a LOT on my plate per usual. Nothing bad actually. Just been busy. A new project of sorts has been eating up a lot of my time…

And no.
This’s a zero issue ‘thing’ in Florida.
I met ‘her’ two months after the separation from X#1 and she had moved in like a year before the deee-vorce was settled. There’s no ‘alienation’ clauses in Florida (thanks be) so this’s a good thing….

So yeah. Haven’t actually done much but spend some quality time talking to an old fren who make me feel better and relaxed and all of that jazz… and that’s really it. Talked. No more, no less. Just reacquainting which I’m realizing a few things that I’m not going to go into, let’s just leave it that I haven’t felt this good in a long long time.

Which means I’ll probably get run over by a truck or get hit by the Sweet Meteor O’Death… which I’m comfortable with. I’d cash my chips a happy man.

Now, as far as ‘other things’
I found out that MREs are still selling for cheap!!!

Link HERE
And yep. I get a ‘taste’.

In fact I -think- that’s like $2 cheaper than the last time, and STILL with free shipping. At this point I really am wondering if this isn’t an ‘undercover civil defense’ sort of thing. There’s been a LOT of rumblings about polar shifts, the slow breakdown of the magnetosphere, and even a possible micro-nova and worst-case scenario, a continental inversion.

At which point if the worst case scenario happens, we’re all dead anyways. There’s a reason that waaaay back in the Ancient Times -something- happened that got early humanity down to only 25 females per the DNA modelling. SOMETHING catastrophic. We’re ALL descended from them 25 chicks because of that. The remnant DNA sequencing doesn’t lie.

Just like in Mongolia, something like 80% of the population can trace their DNA back to Temujin AKA Genghis Khan. That was because when he took over an Area, he fucked ALL the wimmenz. Motherfucking Temujin was a Swordsman First Class in more way than one it seems… a busy dude to say the least. Makes you wonder as far as what he used as there was no Viagra back then…

Another reason I personally believe some of these things may have happened is the plethora of evidence that’s just now coming to light due to the Internet. “Stuff” that “modern science” was able to suppress. Things like the 15 foot tall skeletons and mummies found in the 17 and 1800s… Also like the “what is?” the Chinese Baigong Pipes:

Metal pipes in the stone that date back like 150 thousand plus years they think… leastways the stone is that old…

Nature doesn’t -do- perfect circles or straight lines…

…nor does it make ‘pipes’.

You tell me…

So other things:
This weekend I’ll be out of town. Getting out of Florida.

Changes in Latitudes and Changes in Attitudes so I’ll be out of pocket. I might blogg depending on time and circumstances.

To whit another thing was the re-do of Ye Olde Headlamps on Ye Boatte? Well they started yellowing again already. And as my plans for the weekend involve some ‘driving in the dark’. I figured fixing this was important:

So I sucked it up.
I managed to score a couponed ‘set’ of Left AND Right with NEW halogen bulbs pre-installed. For $170! A fair price to say the least. And the difference?

Pardon the pun
But it’s literally night versus day.
On both of them:

So on that note, Wish me Safe Travels and Fair Winds!
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Had me a Hell-Day.
Work/VA “issues”/General Bullshit.
I mean by all rights this week -should- be good because it’s a four day I would thing? However the Universe has other ideas, so y’all get Memes for tonight:

Side note on that one: Up an hour North of Tampa there’s actually a classic Pizza Hut with all of that, plus (from what I heard) table top video Galaga and a salad bar!!! One of these days I’m going to have to make the trip up there for nostalgia’s sake.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
I appreciate all of you who kept the place rolling whilst I took a step back… as of late, Ye Olde Life as you know, while peaceable… well there’s still some trauma I’m dealing with…

And the exposure to that pile of psychosis?

Next Level Frens

Anyone would need a break from that.
What a Shytteshow Aye?

So bad that it crashed DiveMedic’s server apparently…

And from what I can tell,

-I’m- the only one who still has the tranniefesto still up in whole.
ALL. OTHER. COPIES. have been wiped/erased and nuked.

However, as DM said in the comments “Better to get the truth out”. I couldn’t agree more…

Cockroaches and FedScum hate the light
It’s disinfectant
I’ll keep bringing the light for as long as I can…

Either way…
Man, my notoriety is getting up there on the Threat Board I guess… bad enough I was “that guy” who first poasted on “how to build your own Flammenwerfer”…

Anyways
Besides the ego-stroke…

IRL on the weekend of September 11th I’m actually going fishing for the first time in thirty plus years with J3… the guy who graciously donated the Boat to me asked me to join him for a deep-sea fishing trip… Dude is a God on that, but I hope he realizes…

I hope I don’t puke too much…
Seasickness is a real thing for me…
Which is why it’s been 30 + years since I’ve been foolish enough to get on a boat… it >might be< a BARF-O-RAMA Baby!

But as far as this weekend?
Nope… this weekend was me and ALLLL me.

Plus reconnecting with some old Frens.

SPECIFICALLY reconnecting with some Olde Female Frens who’re there to be a shoulder for me to lean on and cry on. LOTS of good conversations… some of promises of later meetups and such… makes a man feel good to know that somewhere, at some point, good people and wimmenz are still out and rooting for me, and lusting after my broken carcass

LMAO!

Truly… it’s nice to feel at least wanted…

Not that I expect shytte anymore.

“Money Talks, Bullshit Walks” so to speak…

But that’s tonight… it’s been a nice weekend, barring we didn’t get to see the Redheaded Nuke as the rain was so bad that it precluded a visit to her A.O… I mean it’s a bit of a haul, and the Boat’s AC is still out… No AC and not being able to roll ‘windows down’ was a no-go. I need to raise/save about $800-$1000 to replace the AC system as it NOT a coolant/refrigerant issue… I figure it’s a “fuck it, replace/overhaul the whole fucking thing” sort of issue.

That’s going to have to wait for a bit.

Too much $$$.

And ALSO because of the rain, I couldn’t do any yard work… rain means no mowing nor other needful things. It’s getting tiresome… For the past couple of months, it was so dry (oddly so) that I could have easily done this IF I needed to… and then when I NEED to get this stuff handled, we get rain rain and more rain… go fucking figure…

But that’s the latest.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Taking a break
Too much mad-bad mojo…
Last poast was literally psychological draining…

So Back on Monday
BCE

Greetings and Salutations!
Busy last night so apologies for the absence.
I was downloading and having the “TrannieFesto” translated from Russian into English. I had to work FAST and QUICKLY as it appears that it keeps getting deleted every. single. time.

Interesting how that phrase keeps popping up innit?

Now the Question is:
Am I Next?
Tough call.
All I can say is do your worst.
So onward

One veeeeery interesting note:

The fucking Psycho In Question’s Dad?
LONG TIME DoD Contractor who’s company provides services to <dun-dun-dun-duuuuuuuuuuun> The CIA.

ANNNNND
Add on a couple of things and it somehow gets worse.
One is that the fucker stated OPENLY that “He was tired of being ‘Trans’ ” which then begs the question

Who was pushing him to be ‘trans’?

Inquiring minds want to know… I have an idea, but speaking personally, I know the utter heartbreak of the whole trans ‘thing’ as the one true female love-of-my-life my Daughter… I lost her to the whole ‘trans thing’…it helped to destroy me… and if I had a name or face for whomever planted that seed in her mind, there is no death slow enough nor agonizing enough for me to inflict on whoever the fuck did it.

Sorry
Bit of rage there.
Back to the thing of it… MOM it seems has now lawyered up. Is refusing to answer questions…
I wonder why that is???
MAYBE because she was the one pushing the Trannie Agenda?

Robin M. Westman was previously known as Robert Paul Westman, according to a court document filed by a mother named Mary Grace Westman.

“Minor child [redacted] identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification,” she wrote at the time.

The name Mary Grace Westman also appeared on the school’s Facebook feed in 2021 – identified as the parish secretary ahead of her retirement party.

Hat tip to Arthur Sido for that quote.
Minor child is MY bold.
We don’t let kids buy a rifle until they’re 18 in most states. Drinking nationally is 21, same as buying and carrying a handgun…. however a minor (under the age of 18) is allowed to declare that in this case he wants to cut off his cock and live as a split for the rest of it’s life!?!
Make.
It.
Make.
Sense.

Yeah… got me a hunch Mom is a AWFL of the 1st Degree…
That being a “Affluent, White, Female Liberal”

When you’re right, you’re right.
They’re LITERALLY going to be the no-shit death of civilization

So let’s see how this looks… I’ll post it page by page, and let you be the judge:

Annnnnnnnnd that’s a no-go
I have to CONVERT the jfif files to JPEG Dammit…
OK back… that took a minute… 28 fucking files… so back to it:

Whew…
THAT was some work…
Hope you all appreciate it.

Quite the cesspool to swim through… I feel like I need a shower… better to see and KNOW what was going on… a fucked up nihlist kid who was apparently trans’d by Mom…

No wonder she lawyered up.
ESPECIALLY if she bought him the weapons

We’ll have to see…
So after that pile of fucking crazy, I need a drink or four and a shower…. May God Have Mercy on the Two Lil ‘un and keep them Safe unto Him. Hold, Hug and Love yours… they’re not going to be here forever….

Jes’ Sayin’

More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
Glad y’all liked my “foiling the CSM” story! I got two more concerning “Fast Eddie” (my nickname for him) in which the first one was when he first took over as the CSM for our Battalion, and our initial introduction, and then the last time I saw him, which was after my separation from Active Duty. Both previous poasts were stories from the ‘in-between’ times of those two markers.

Stay tuned as both are great… lots of good memories there.

Then, well Mike Hendrix over at Cold Fury has a minor issue that he asked if I could mention it. Now the background is Mike is now missing BOTH his legs. He’s waiting on the Social Security Disability folks to decide IF he’s fully disabled… mind you… leastways that was the last update I had… which kind of describes just how utterly fucked up the whole DotGov system is…

Illegal Alien with a ‘lazy eye’?
100% full Social Security Disability despite never having paid in. Must be nice Aye?

US Citizen who loses BOTH his pins due to circumstances beyond his control?
“We’re still trying to decide if this is a valid claim Miiiiister Hendriiiix….” (said in the ‘Agent Smith’ Hugo Weaving voice from “The Matrix”)

Gah.
Remind me again just why we haven’t really started hanging, drawing and quartering motherfuckers again?
Reject Modernity
Embrace Tradition

Make Drawing and Quartering Great Again Aye?

So, the issue is this:

His well head pump shit the bed. The link to the now-active fundraiser is HERE I think between us (myself I throw in on Payday as I accidentally overdrafted this past pay period dammit) we can get this done, so let’s see how quickly we can get the water back on at Gimpy-Mike’s place. I’d greatly appreciate y’all doing whatever you can.

Instead of a Double Mocha Latte… err… sorry… my bad… wrong crowd… instead of a double Jack at the bar, throw that tenner towards Mike so’s he can keep the water flowing and so’s he can wash his nasty ass. I’ll be hitting it on Friday and you’ll be able to track it. So again I thank you all in advance.

Next up?
Scotland

Y’all have seen that little 12 or 14 year old girl defending herself from a Rapefugee right?

Let me tell you… things are looking bleak for the DotGov in Britishland AKA the new English Islamic Caliphate. To the point that the Templar Church is raging:

Templar Church Minister Defends The Scottish Warrior Princess. pic.twitter.com/BF3KoeHLuJ

— Knights Templar International (@KnightsTempOrg) August 26, 2025

At this rate, I’d personally say 80-20 if the BritGov lasts through the end of the year, and 70-30 if they start killing the muzzies outright.

Ireland? More like 90% on both sides

The Satanic GloboHomoCorpopratocracy is on extraordinarily thin ice and once the locals start dragging the local cops out of their houses and putting them on the gibbet, and then burning their domiciles to the ground, running off the coppers families (if they don’t outright do them too) and slaughtering the muzzies in wholesale lots?

I mean they don’t have a lot of ‘armed’ cops per se…
And their DotMil?

I mean FFS… the BritDotMil is one of the smallest, ineffective and most pathetic nevermind actively apathetic in that they’re there for the most part for “three hots and a cot” and Hell… one part of England in the the north, County Durham:

It has, as of the last survey, a population of about 872,000 people!!! It also has the highest MAJORITY Original White Stock British folks with 96.7 percent of the population being “white” per the same survey!!!!

While on the other hand, As of January 2025, the British Army consists of approximately 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Gurkhas, 25,742 volunteer reservists, and 4,697 other personnel, totaling about 108,413 people. IN TOTAL.

I like those odds TBH.
-I- could work with those odds…

That’s a 8 to 1 Advantage, and that’s IF the British Army even showed up to ‘play’ and even that I’m sure would not happen in that traditionally, the Brits and their social services treat their soldiers like scum. The overall lack of respect in general for the average soldier is completely lacking by both the general population and their “betters” and due to that? The apathy in the ranks? I’d say that IF say County Durham decided “Roight! We’ve ‘ad enuff of this ‘ere balderdash, time to clean house!!!” and arm up as best they can, and head south?

Yeah… It’s be all over but the fat bitch squalling.

Got me a hunch the BritMil would be like “‘Ard Pass on ‘at Mate, get me anotha’ pint!” and go back to arguing who’s turn in the barrel it is….

So that’s my take:

I mean you know it’s bad when the Number One Question a lot of people on Twitter/X have been asking is “How do we run guns to our Irish/Scot/BritCousins?” I’d call that a serious sign of things to come. Watch… next thing will be requests for extradition of people like ME for having dared to “question my BritFag Betters”… and then? Once people here decide that ‘active measures’ have to be put in place?

Shiiiiiiiiiiit… I know people who ran guns to the IRA back in Quincy when I lived there… and it wasn’t even for profit but for the fun and because “Fuck the Britfags!” was the overwhelming response… One of my neighbors (who I lost track of unfortunately… a good Irish kid) was out on appeal for being arrested for doing exactly that, and that was running guns to the IRA… He from what I know lost the appeal and went back to the FedPen… he was a great kid though… still is as far as I know…

So IF people here decide that it’s in people’s best interests to assist with the Irish/Scot/BritCousins? I’d say watch for a blockade on certain people/places and things in the really near future as the BritFagGov is not putting this particular djinn back in the bottle.

So your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country

Soooo since I’d been busted for various ‘felonious but not quite’ activities in the Battalion, I was known as a troublemaker, but a needed one. Specifically I was the Battalion Thief. The Dog Robber. The CSM’s Bitch… call it what you will, but it was a great place to be as a Corporal/Specialist 4 who at that point realized he wasn’t going any further career-wise in the DotMil

I might have if they were smart enough to have ranks like other countries DotMil had, like the Brits have a “Career Corporal” where a dude signs up, can do his 20+ years, and never have to perform beyond a Corporal’s operational area. TBH, I had no interest (outside of pay bumps) to be the HMFIC (head motherfucker in charge). I lack(ed) and currently still do, a certain confidence… it’s hard to define, but I didn’t want the responsibility of command? It’s not being afraid per se.. and yeah, a personal weakness, but I had zero interest in being “Large and In Charge”

Especially if I had to take responsibility for my bros lives. Not my bag baby…
Soooo because I was approaching my RRT (Rank Retention point, 10 years at that time) as an E-4 and I was ALSO working on getting my medical retirement (in line of duty, I ended up with 80%… not bad for a peacetime injury) I really had, in my mind fuck all to lose.

So when Field Grade #3 showed up… I knew the extra duty was going to be special.
On this one I only got hit with 7 days… seems that they knew that to have me do anything over that would ONLY encourage others to ‘game the system’. So in this case, the CSM came up with a pretty good bit of Extra Duty for the weekend. It was one I really had to put some skull sweat into to beat him, but in the end, I managed it.

As I mentioned before, one of the Unit next to us was 2/8 CAV. That’s where I had ‘rented/borrowed’ their new-ish death mower mentioned in my earlier poast. The issue here was that THAT tool for the particular job wouldn’t be useful… oh no… our mission for the weekend was to clear out the 40 foot wide by about 200 yard long “grass” strip BETWEEN the 2/8 Motorpool and OUR 1/12 Motorpool.

There was a slight issue however.

That area?
Due to the design and layout of the flood control draining ‘stuff’ on Fort Hood, that area between out Motorpool(s) was a fucking swamp. It was a MAJOR runoff “Catch all” for the massive occasional seasonal rain Da Hood got… we’re talking 1-2 foot deep muddy holes, nothing too dramatic. Lots of mud, and what the CSM wanted was all the “clumps” of long ass out-of-control grass growing on about 40 “Islands” in this “swamp” cut down/eliminated by Sunday night.

We got this assignment at 15:30.

It took me a few minutes to come up with an idea… My boyos on this particular Extra Duty consisted of a couple of dope-smokers, one DUI case, and another thief (who in this case got caught). I was the Ranking Penitent, so My Word was it. I jokingly called them my ‘convicts’ just to be a dick… they were all cool, and my rep sort of preceded me, so that meant that they knew things on this extra duty was going to be iiiiiiinteresting to say the least.

Once I had The IDEA, The IDEA quickly coalesced into a PLAN. Once the Plan was solid, it was good, and I sent my Merry Men/Convicts off to do my (evil) bidding, whilst I went and made a fuckton of phone calls before the duty day ended.

Now, since we had only gotten started on this endeavor at around 15:30+/-, I knew there wasn’t shit to be done that particular night, and I told the NCOIC of the staff duty as such. He agreed, and I told him we’d be back early on Saturday before he got off duty… Then I had my guys ‘gather the gear’ that we’d need for the 0700 mission I had planned. Mind you, once they knew what I had set up, EVERYBODY was all in. One of them said “THIS is the Magic that is the SPEC-4 Mafia… it’s truly better to ask for forgiveness, than to ask for permission!” I of course Blessed them all, as the High Priest of the E-4 Mafia, and bid them to be there early early the next morning.

Saturday Morning rolled around, and TBH, we’d ALL gotten there early in anticipation of what was going to be a FUN Article-15 Extra Duty Day. My boys were enthusiastic, as they knew what we were doing was “coloring outside of the lines but not-so-much” They did everything I asked of them, and at around 10:00am, the Fort Hood Fire Department showed up.

Yep.
This’s your clue.

Once they were on scene, and we made sure EVERYONE was clear for the entire length of the strip between the two Motorpools, and the senior NCO of the Fire Department said we were clear, I yelled “FIRE IN THE HOLE” and lit off a flare right into the middle of the strip.

WHHHHHHOOOOSH!!!!

The combustion of what was about 40 gallons of ‘acquired’ MOGAS that I had my boys spray over every. fucking. inch. of that shit-assed nasty fucking unmowable swamp was nigh-impressive. It looked like something out of an action movie… I really wish cell phone cameras and the like were more prevalent back then as WOW!!!

Just as the flames started dying down, and as my ‘convicts’/boys as well as the Fire Department started cleaning up (making sure nothing was still fully burning nor could spread) who should roll up on us but The CSM himself!
CSM: “GABBLE!GABBLE!OOOK!WHO!!!WHAT!!! Burn!!!GABBLE!GABBLE!EEK!!“

Me: “Calm down Sergeant Major… we did a ‘controlled burn’… you see? There’s two fire trucks, an MP directing traffic, and even an ambulance! It’s cool man… I got everything under control!”

CSM: “MOTORPOOL!EXTRADUTY!!!BURNGABBLEBURNINGGABBLE>SHRIEK<GABBLE!GABBLE!”

Fire Chief (my homie): “Hey Sergeant Major, you seem a bit ‘off’… let’s walk you over to the Ambulance and have you checked out! You look like you’re about to stroke out!:” >grasps the CSM’s elbow, walks him to the Ambulance<

Needless to say, questions were asked.
Questions also were answered
I did everything by the book.
They had jack shit on me, and Jack as you are aware of, left town a while ago.

What I gained however was absolute “bulletproofness” at that point. They realized that IF they wanted to fuck with me and put me on “extra duty” then unless give exacting parameters as to what I could and could not do then they were ultimately doomed.

To the point I was pretty much AWOL for the last six months of Active Duty, but that’s a story for another time. Hope you enjoyed!

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings and Salutations!
So I pulled the clamp off the Enfield today, and did a bunch of sanding on it. I also cut off the pin that was still sticking out:

Now, a couple of things
One is that I’m going to have to do a deep sanding on this. The finish is in a lot worse shape than I expected. Cleaning it up, I realized the wood is positively hammered to shit. I can hopefully sand it down and get it positively refinished, but that remains to be seen.

The repair itself came out great IMO however:

That’s the ‘brass dot’ if you will.
I personally think it adds character in that the majority of my Enfields have similar brass repairs to the stocks… it’s part of the rifle’s history if you will. Here’s an above view:

A perfect trim and sanding in, and I think it looks great.

It’s also now completely structurally sound.

Now the rest of it I’m going to be sanding the Hell out of it and then staining, once I get it to where I want it. It’s not about maintaining it’s originality, in as much as me making a fully functional Mark 3 with good wood, clean lines and nice esthetics.

We’ll see how it turns out in the long run.
Tomorrow, besides this, I’m refinishing the remaining pieces parts, and then hopefully getting that fucking barrel finally finished, as it’s been a bugger which has been hassling me to no end.

So More Later
Big Country