Big Country Expat

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
This’s going to be short to address some of y’alls questions regarding the ‘Potential New Gig.’ I’ll quote them as I feel needed. The first is from Hesher in a reply from JimmyPX:

Do you miss the ragheads that much to leave your family without you at home during these interesting times? Sorry to be a dick, but it’s a fair question.

Hesher

Miss the Goatfuckers?
No.
Family back here?
Dude, it’s at the forefront of my thought process.

Believe you me, part of the reason I don’t have a relationship w/my kids is I was gone from essentially 2004 to 2014. Yeah I was home, but the critical years back when they were 4-8 respectively? Yeah… gone forever… and let me tell you NOT my choice. The amount of pressure to keep at it (being overseas) was GINOURMOUS from the Ex AND the Demon-in-Laws… not that they’ll ever admit it, nor say anything to either Spawn. I’ll carry that guilt to the grave for missing out on such formative years, and that what they did get was a mentally broken, spent and used up drunk of a father. I got no excuses, but, as they say, it is what it is.

This gig?
Gretchen already knows I got shit locked down. I’m never getting fucked over by a female again. It’s not her, and she gets upset with being lumped in with what happened with the Ex, but I tell her, “Baby, it ain’t you, it’s the entirety of the female specie.

Deal with it.
Then:

What will you miss out on by taking that job ?

JimmyPX

Dude…
Literally 3x times what Glorious Tractor Factory is paying me, I’m going to miss out on a lot. Being Underpaid for my troubles is the biggest. Being Underappreciated, despite growing the business. Being Overworked and told I need to better.
Any Questions? /sarc
Doing this gig? I can have the car paid off in less than 5 months, while saving shekels. I know I’ll miss out on some ‘growing times’ with Addy as well as the Redhead.

However, this’s a pretty good opportunity to try and at least better my financial position while everyone else is drowning. The same. exact. thing. happened while I was overseas in 2007… My family thrived and survived while others crashed and burned during THAT financial fiasco. Also in this case, video chats are FAR more common, so I’ll at least have that, whereas I didn’t when I went over back in the day…

Would it have helped with my relationship(s) with my family??? Not sure. Call it “Lost to the Mists of Time” I suppose….

Then from the MOST respected Berglander:

Don’t do it. It isn’t worth it-in any way, shape, or form.

Berglander

Bro… I dig it. Believe you me.
TOTALLY agree to a certain degree.
Problem is?
I can earn MOAR in 3 months than I can earn in 6 here stateside.

Greed is Good

Gordon Gekko

And not only that, the overseas $$$ is TAX FREE.

There’s also a certain problem with this whole issue. I knew that IF I got the offer I was going to go for it. It’s a basic issue. Baseline deep seated programming. Granted Kuwait isn’t in the shit.

Yet.

However, it is in the middle of the Middle East Fuckfestivus which may or may not catch fire… I’m not one to miss out.

Think of me as a Fully-Trained Coon Hound who’s smelling a fresh trail of a trash panda… I got the ‘scent’… it’s going to take an Act of God to deter me.

God Help Me I Do Love It So….

And not only that, I got 60 days before I actually have to leave.
AND
I am, unlike the DotMil, am NOT held and bound to this contract.

I can fucking “Throw Deuces” at a moment’s notice.

I did it before… doesn’t bother me to burn a bridge, as folks like me are hen’s toofuses in this game. There’s always going to be a demand for a lucky and good mercenary, of which I am both.

In fact the guy I talked to today and hired me, told me at one point during our mutual bullshitting session that “Oh my fucking God, it is so nice to talk to a fellow professional for once…” Seems hiring and vetting newbs was wearing on him, hence why it went so well. We got along very well. And he even told me “It’s not like the ‘old days.”

Apparently no one from the “old crew” AKA former Full Time Contractors and Mercs from MY particular group of ‘Contracting Pros’ are willing to go anywhere, anymore, for any price these days… hence my lack of In Real Time Intel… Guess the majority aged out or died off, or just did the “fade” as I call it when they vanish into the ether of a third world retirement…

Meh… I figured that shit out when I started having MY people ‘drop off the grid’ post-COVID.

Now?

Fuck it.
Unlike ‘other’ jobs I’ve had which were “Unarmed but I was Armed” officially/unofficially, this gig?

I’ve been in the warehouses that I’ll be working in.

In your head, imagine a football field sized room, slightly broken down into smaller rooms, if only to make sure the armored roof doesn’t fall in. Now… That’s the Arms Room.

FILLED with every. single. weapon in the US DotMil Inventory.

That’s 57,600 square feet.

That’s a lot of fucking weapons.

The other similarly sized warehouse?
That’s the spare parts and shit to repair and maintain alllll the weapons in warehouse #2. Enough spare parts, receivers, and fiddly bits to completely reproduce warehouse #1.

I’m comfortable with that.

Especially since I’ll be nominally in charge of all of them.

Queue Daffy Duck:

Yep. Mine…. ALL Mine!!!

God I love when stuff like this comes together.
And to the absolute Doomers out there?
From SemperFido, another who I respect:

Now is NOT the time to be anywhere other than stateside. 

SemperFido

HOWEVER
Just how many fucking times have we been told “this is it!!!”
That the wheels are going to come off?
THIS TIME FOR SURE!
TBH I can’t live my life on what might happen.
I took chances over a ten year period that caused me insane harm emotionally, physically, and mentally. It destroyed my first marriage, and by proxy, my relationship with my kids, who I miss desperately.

I literally have already shed a ton of literal blood, sweat and tears for what amounted to bupkiss. In this case, if… nay when I go, I’m going for me.

Unless Holy Mother Mary shows up and tells me “BCE, thou shalt not deploy!” I’m going.

NOT for Gretchen or the Grans per se.
Call it pure selfishness.
I haven’t done a fuckin’ thing for myself in 30 years.
I purely LOVE doing shit like this.

They will be the recipients of my sacrifice, but dammit, “A Mans gotta do, what a Mans gotta do.” Otherwise I may as well lay down and die. Not only that, but as I said IF I think shit is going to go sideways, I can always come home right there, and right then.

Right now?

I truthfully do NOT see anything but “more of the same” retardation against OrangeManBad. Then the whole up and coming backlash about the whole JQ in that they’ve went and done something utterly stupid by making a Law to question various Zionist/Jewish Interests, in direct violation of the 1st Amendment? Yeah…. not a good thing.

Either way it’s going to be another interesting summer, and IF things go sideways, I’m a 12-18 hour plane ride home in worst cases…. Like I said, I got two months +/- to kill this bitch of a contract IF things go cray-cray before I leave, and go back to People’s Glorious Tractor Factory.

My cause is righteous and just.
And… if I play it right, things will be better overall in general during this fucked up timeframe. I mean FFS, the timeline alone tells me that a “Higher Power” has it’s hand in this… As I poasted on my infrequently visited FecesBook:

“SO. I got a brand new Gig everyone. “Back in the Saddle”

so to speak. Camp Arifjan, Kuwait as a Gunmaster 3. I’ve got about 45-60 days before I mount up.

Fastest contract EVER.

Applied last Thursday.

Friday Morning: Got an Email to confirm my background info to reactivate my Clearance. Did it.

Monday Morning 11:30: New Email “Can we talk and when?”

Monday Afternoon 12:41: “Yeah, tomorrow is better, what time?”

Monday, 12:42 (yeah, THAT quick a response) “OK, Tuesday, 13:00”

Today: Interview which was more like “Old Home Week”… the guy and I hit it off… to the point I gave him shit about being a Marine and asked him what his favorite flavor crayon he preferred?

Needless to say, I got the job.

Holy. Hells.

My head is spinning.”

To give y’all unfamiliar with the contracting process;

NORMALLY I’d get Interview #1 with at least 2-3 follow ups.

That would normally stretch over a period of two, three weeks, maybe even a month. THEN you’d move on to the “Final Boss” so to speak, and THEN get an offer letter. That’s with me having a pile of “Overseas Experience under Austere Conditions and Environments” meaning I’m used to almost dying while trying to take a shit as the Bad Guys are dropping Mortars and Rockets on us…it’s how it went when my old Platoon Sargent brought me on in Affy to Honeywell…. he was the PM (Program Manager) and it still took two months to get me on board…

However: In this particular case?
Not so much.

Like I said, this shit happened so fucking fast my head is spinning. SOMEONE or SOMETHING wants me there.

NOW as it seems.
Who am I to argue with The Fates/God?

I Report.
You Decide.
Your Voat Doesn’t Count
(Much like Our (s)elections)

More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
LOTS of good commentary from everyone. Much appreciated for your input. If I had to make a call, I’d say 80% NO GO and 20% GO on the percentages.

Thing is I talked with the guy today. Turns out this was a formality… “Your reputation precedes you… when can you start?” Turns out this guy is the PM for the overall Small Arms Maintenance Support and Repair project, and that he’s a Marine, as well as a Master Gunsmith as well. It went from an interview to “Who do you know and where have you been?”

Seems we chewed a lot of the same turf and never crossed paths. Apparently it’s a Kuwait Job only. And yes, he’s putting that in writing. It’s for the APS-5 Contract which just got renewed. That would be the Army Pre-Positioned Stocks that we have stored in the Kuwaiti Desert. The same place I worked the GMASS contract doing the vehicles back in the day. The conversation went so well I even asked him what his favorite flavor crayon he preferred? It went that well.

Going to be an interesting few weeks ahead.
The I.T. Commissar told me to GTFO while the getting is good.
That’s saying something as HE was the one who got me on there.
SO
LOTS of pre-deployment ‘stuff’ as well as medical prep to do over the next few weeks. Even IF the People’s Glorious Tractor Factory makes me an offer I can’t refuse, I need to do this stuff anyway.

You do not want to go to Kuwait without having your medical shit straight. When I got MedEvacc’d there back when my knee got shattered, the Orderly? Doctor? who didn’t speak English in the Hospital I was in at the time? He mimed what they wanted to do to fix my knee with a Black and Decker drill with a hand full of fucking wood screws. Thank God for my female coworkers who got me OUT of there and to a good hospital, who then decided the repair was beyond them, and had me sent home.

So yeah. Going to be interesting here as I’ll be doing a lot of writing about the local goings on. As well as my usual aecerbic commentary.

Which brings me to this:

Watch to the end…

I’d say a fairly accurate situation IMO.
The Krainians are full-on getting their kollective shit kicked in by Ivan. Which is what I fully expected, as all the Wunderwaffen turned out to be vaporware. Talk about embarrassing. Even I’m a bit shocked about the Abrams. Apparently the crew has a hell of a lot to do with the performance… I mean I want to say I’m not surprised, but well… It is what it is I suppose.

Now, lastly, a lot on twatter about the supposed “Patriot Launch Vehicle” spotted –somewhere– in China:

Couple of issues I spotted
One: The rear of the ‘launcher’ Notice the difference between that one and a real launcher:

Yeah…
That one in the top picture doesn’t have like any of the launch/fire control cabling on the one being serviced by ‘Joe’ like it should. Just a couple of way-too-thin rando-black cables… In fact another thing, lets do a close up of the two ass-end parts of the launch tube(s):

This’s the “Wish Dot Com” variant:

And this’s the Real Deal:

Lots of plugs, 2x per tube, that we know of.

Just based on these two pics alone are enough for me to throw the bullshit flag on this play. Even the earliest models of the Patriot ALL had the same heavy cabling… it absolutely has to as there’s a LOT of electricity needed to light off one of them bottle rockets.

To the point that it has that BIG assed genny up on the front of the trailer, which also seems to be missing from the “Wish Dot Com Patriot”.

I think our slant eyed brethren decided to punk the DotMil and the various Ministries and Political Organs of State, and put them in a full scale pantshitting panic. I mean credit where credit is due… they made a pretty fair-to-middlin’ reproduction… enough to induce panic in Normies, Retards and Shitheads at the various Departments… I mean the vast majority of General Orificcers and Civilian Bootlicking Political Lackeys wouldn’t know a Patriot from a fucking Popgun.

Jes’ Sayin’

I’d hate to be Pvt2 Shmedlap on the Hotline when the Gen’ruls start calling in demanding information about the ‘stolen-maybe-sold-by-the-Krainians’ Patriot System that “… the God-Damned Chinks got ahold of!!!!” That particular duty-to-explain has to purely suck. It’s a great operation. It casts mad shade on the Krainians who may or may not have sold off one of the supposedly Premier ADA weapon systems to our theoretical enemies for Vodka Money… then when it comes out that No, this was another head-fake, it makes the Intel Community as well as everyone else currently running around like chickenz with their heads cut off look like the fucking retards they are?

Well Played Joe Chink
Well Played.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
I had a ‘wife-imposed’ no-tech “Get the hell off of that damned computer!!!” weekend. I suppose it was a good thing. Lowered the blood pressure, and I actually caught up on some sleep. Seeing that the two day marathon working on Uncle Connie’s ‘stuff’ left me rather deprived of the ZZZ’s.

Now I’m back….
And as I paraphrased Captain Willard from “Apocalypse Now”, shit… it’s still only Monday…

TBPH, I was not feeling it this A.M.

Still feeling a mite salty over the lack of a raise. Don’t know if I went into it. I had a two-year review a few weeks back and got a whole dollar for slaving for those two years. I expressed some displeasure at this. To which Head Commissar said we’d do a ninety day review.
OK. Cool…
So the 90 days comes and goes, and I get the review, at which point I’m told that I’m getting an assistant.
OK. Cool…
Been swamped to be honest. Part of the reason that People’s Glorious Tractor Factories (there are several) is doing so well is that I provide a widget that none of the other Factories do, so our reputation in the industry has flourished among the Proletariat, and even the Bourgeoise.

Hell, even some of the competitor Factories are starting to offer these services, just to try and keep up. So I’m fucking slammed on the reg.

So, New Assistant. OK. Cool… I actually already knew her, as she was already in the Factory, working as a Coordinator. UN-fortunately, she raised the ire of H.R. as well as her Commissar and was demoted to fucking being a receptionist. And this here is a digression, but bear with me. This particular case in fact shows exactly why women need to be barred from the workplace. Even she agrees with me.

Reason for her demotion?
Being the youngest (21) cutest/hottest (looks like Winona Ryder in her Vamp-Hawt phase) and the smartest out of ALL the coordinators. The clients loved her, so therefore, the Hagridden H.R. Harridan had to ‘take her down a notch.’

Bitch.
Women can not help but stab each other in the back, and cause the toxicity level to shoot through the fucking roof. Shit like that is why I’m thrilled to be out doing ‘my thing’ and not tied to the ‘orifice’ itself… I had so many H.R. complaints from cunts who were ‘afraid of the Large Man’ even though other females in the past I worked with adored me. With chicks in the workplace, it’s either love me, or hate me with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

To give you an idea of that extreme dynamic: I was a call center supervisor. Had 30 people +/-. Had the Highest Producing team ‘cos I motivated the fuck out of my people compared to the ‘rule through fear’ supes. The other wrote their team member sup for the pettiest of infractions, whereas I had a chick got to jail and miss a week, and I covered for her… shit like that… what can I say, when she was at work,. she outproduced the rest of the team by a long shot…

So because of this the blaq H.R. broad, who I know hated whyttepeepo anyways, made it her mission to get me fired. I could write about ten blogs on the shit I did, how I won, and that I literally gave her ulcers. One time, I got accused of being a racist by a worthless lil Nigger… never let on about it, but he was a piece of shit, and the accusation was made.

Investigations were launched, and a lot of my team, well… they didn’t give in, but the H.R. Cunt put a lot of pressure on them… especially the blaq girls… I found out later.

Enter Anna.
6’1… at least 400 pounds.
Black as all get out. Ghetto too. Mother of 4? 5? Not sure.
GREAT WORKER
Had attendance issues because of BabyDaddy Drama and things of that nature. Always made up the lost time if she could. I took care of her as I lead by the way I was taught in the military: Take care of your troops, and they’ll take care of you. I used to tell them that all the time… It also helped we called ourselves “Team Torii” and had T-She was the last girl questioned by H.R.

Now this was related to me after.
Seems she was called in by Blaq H.R. Bitch who started trying to pressure Anna. My understanding was that these were low-key threats about attendance and whatnot. Ann wasn’t having none of it.

She closed the door so H.R. Bitch’s secretary couldn’t hear her, and, from the story told (by Anna’s BFF who worked there as well) that Anna, well… she closed the door, told the H.R. bitch words to the effect that I was the best and kindest Boss she’d ever had, and that if the H.R. Bitch kept this bullshit up, Anna was going to cut her up…

Now, as to the veracity level? Unsure.
Anna did cop a 5 day suspension for this ‘conversation’. MY boss even said something had happened in there, but with no witnesses, and no recordings? Yep. RUMINT came out later she’d actually pulled a switchblade.

Myself? I can full well believe it. Anna is one of those Yas Kween! chicks and didn’t take shit off of anyone. One of her absences was for hospitalizing one of her BabyDaddys and she had to go in for questioning… she played that off as ‘she was attacked first’ but the list went on and on with her curbstomping motherfuckers who broke her heart or got in her way… or threatened her beloved boss for that matter.

End of digression #672… sorry about that…
So Winona is now assisting BUT
No raise for me. Pisses me off because I like this gig.
LOVE my immediate supervisor.
BUT
The whole “Because you have an assistant now…”
Who happens to be wearing two hats now.
Buncha Bullshit.
Fucking I swear.

Sooooooooooooo Long Story per usual.
I reached out to my “usual suspects” asking if there were other gigs out there for one my, shall we say eclectic background? I got back that a group was looking for a Gunsmith… a supervisory Gunsmith. I’s a possible overseas gig at an ‘undetermined location’ that requires me running a shop “…overseeing the repair and reutilization of the M242 Bushmaster 25mm Autocannon and ‘other small arms to include foreign weapons”….

Who is currently using the Bushmaster to it’s fullest extent currently?

Three guesses, the first two are free.

Even if it’s based out of Kuwait as almost ALL contracts are, almost every. single. deployment. had that line stating “…and other countries as needed/required”

THAT is where I get a wee bit in the nervous-making side of things. On one hand, this’d allow me to fully recover from the debts(s) incurred on the Adriana fiasco, as well as maybe allowing us to go at it again, from a slightly different angle. The last time I didn’t realize just how utterly corrupt they system is, whereas IF I had, I probably could have paid off her BabyDaddy in cash, with no one the wiser.

Either way?
Glorious People’s Tractor Factory can fuck itself IF I choose to go that route. Even the I.T. Commissar said that I should… his quote “This place is being run into the ground behind the scenes because of alllll these fucking women.” And I got a strong hunch that it’s mine for the taking.

I made call on Thursday at 16:00 to see if this was a legit gig. 0900 the next day I got a link to have my security background (TS/Secret, inactive) checked to verify, and see if I’m eligible. Cue to 11:30 this A.M. The recruiter emails me asking if I’m interested? I email back at 12:41. “Sure.”

I got a reply email back within 60 seconds to set up a phone call ASAP. It positively reeks of desperation, so I know I got wiggle room on negotiating a salary. I set it up for tomorrow for the preliminaries. I have a lot of ‘must haves’ nonnegotiable. Life insurance for one, plus IF I go, I get the last week of October off, as well as the first 3 weeks of November off, as there ain’t no way in Hell I’m potentially getting fucked and trapped somewhere during the next (s)election. Last thing I want is a mob of Feral Niggers/Leftards or whatnot stealing or burning up my house and shit.

So that’s been my weekend. How was your?
More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
So last night I was watching a vidya on YouTube. It wasn’t bad. It’s a relatively new channel ( a year or so) called “Vestiges of History”. It came up as a suggestion on my playlist, and the first one I watched was about Lee Marvin, best known for his Academy Award for “Cat Ballou” and being an all around badass… My favorite film of his was “The Big Red One”. The guy presenting below gives a really good synopsis of Marvin’s Marine Corps Service in that particular vid. Link to that vid is HERE. I had no idea that Lee Marvin was that much of a badass…

So, then I watched a few other videos, to include this one:

Go to 7:40 on that.
It struck home.
Reason being, I have ONE relative that died in World War 2.

My Great Uncle 2nd L.T. Cornelius F. O’Leary.

He is an enigma to the family as he died young, and the video above really touched home. As far as I know, there isn’t even a picture still in existence of him. I started researching this back during COVID in February/March of 2020 as I had always heard about him, and realized HIS Story about how he died needed to be answered. I also had nothing but time. My initial research got me -some- info, but there were still a LOT of ‘holes’ that needed filling. That video spurred me to continue the search for answers. I owe him that. If anything Honor demands it, especially in light of my Infantry ethos.

Now, many of my relations have served in the DotMil. All of them that I know of were Officers, with the exception of DeadDad who was a no shit Spec-7! He was the enlisted equivalent of a Warrant Officer LOL.

But as far as ALL the rest?

Officers.
This is part of the reason (among many) that I’m considered a bit of a Black Sheep in the family.
The First to drop out of College.
The ONLY true enlisted man in the family that I know of.
(As you all know, Officers positively hate to mingle with the Enlisted Swine, ‘cos they’re afraid the fumes from them will tarnish their brass)
And lastly, the last to get my bachelors degree in 2012 (20 years late from when I started).

In a family that prizes education above all things, you can sort of see the issue(s).
That and I’m an unapologetic asshole.
Jes’ Sayin’

Now, one of these occifer relations as stated is my Great Uncle Connie. He died on November 16, 1942 in the Pacific. He was my Grandpa’s littlest brother. Out of five boys and two girls (BIG Irish Family right?) Cornelius Francis O’Leary was the baby brother born in 1914. There was a younger brother James, however according to the family history, James died shortly after birth.

Now… After Connie died, Grandpa, who Officially was the Second Born Son (that would be Daniel in the chart above) spent a few years travelling around the world trying to find information regarding his little brother’s death. As the eldest brother, (and yeah, there’s a story why Uncle Colonel Tim is listed as the eldest… in real life he wasn’t… more on that later and MAN it’s some wild shit…prolly need an ENTIRE post to that story, and no one will believe me…) Grandpa? He felt it was his duty to find out What Happened to his baby bro.

There wasn’t much to go on. Just a cablegram, and a box that showed up months later with his personal effects. I used to have his aviator’s sunglasses, that were gifted to me when I found them in the attic of Grandpa’s house by Grandpa when I was a kid… unfortunately they are lost to the mists of time. Wee bit of a piss-me-off there for me not understanding the significance Aye?

Ah, the ignorance of youth. A blessing in many ways, and in this case, a curse.

Anyways… to continue…

There were lots of ‘rumors’ as to the how, where, when, and why about Uncle Connie’s death. It didn’t help that this was during the time of primitive typewriter/mimeograph stuff, and it took weeks to get letters and info back to a family, IF there was anything to be gotten anyways.

Connie had joined the Army Air Corps right out of college. Specifically Harvard Business School. If he’d survived, I have a hunch he would have been destined for greatness. He enlisted in Suffolk County, Boston Massachusetts.

Because he got his degree early, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

Now… this is where things go and start getting weird. Grandpa got word that Connie had been shot down over Europe in France. From who? Unknown. Now, the Allies, to include the US, had been bombing France since January of 1940, so it was plausible that Uncle Connie got shot down over there. Problem was, the Cablegram specifically stated Connie had cashed his chips in the South Pacific. The thing was, there was no info on Connie even being in the South Pacific that Grandpa (at the time) knew of.

So Grandpa went and hit the village of Epinal, in Vosges, near Lorraine France around 1949? The timing is fuzzy. Either way, he found the grave of Cornelius Francis O’Leary:

As you may be able to see, there’s a big problem.

Connie Not-Connie? according to this died March 4th 1944. Connie Not-Connie? was also on this marker listed as a Tech Sergeant. This caused quite a bit of confusion with Grandpa as you can well imagine.

Now, cut to a few years later, he found a wee bit of clarity to a point. During a trip to the Philippines in 1961? I think +/- a few years, he stopped and went to the Manila American Cemetery at Fort Bonafacio. While he was there, he started checking the “Walls of the Missing”

The tablets make up the support structure of the rather large Memorial:

There are over 36,286 Missing In Action Marines, Soldiers, Airman and Naval personnel carved into the tablets. To give you a perspective, that’s just in the South Pacific Theater. The surrounding graves number at 17,191 known KIA, buried surrounding the Memorial itself. LITERALLY the MIA troops outnumber the KIA at a almost 2 to 1 basis.

So far, only 436 MIAs have been recovered.

The Pacific was truly a savage war.
Back to the story.
Grandpa went to the “O’s” on the tablets (they’re alphabetically arranged), and found his brother:

Mind you, Grandpa had been searching for 20 plus years for this. He’d gone to every. single. American DotMil Cemetery in the Pacific, as well as that one in France. Manila was the last one where he struck paydirt.

So, you must be asking “What the Hell Big Country? Are they same guy or what’s the deal? Same name, but different death dates? What’s going on?”

Well… this’s when everything pegs into a 11 out of 10 on the weird-shit-o-meter. Hold on ‘cos this time, I’m NOT exaggerating as an Irishman is prone to. Even Sapper got weirded by this.

Last night, I found the online Enlisted Records from the National Archives. Specifically “NARA – AAD – Display Full Records – Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 – 1946 (Enlistment Records)” which was the microfiche. In it, I found TWO enlistment records.

In them I found that there were TWO dudes Named Cornelius Francis O’Leary in the Army Air Corps at approximately the same time!!!

BOTH had the same. exact. name.

BOTH were born in 1914.

BOTH were from Boston, and enlisted there as well.

BOTH enlisted in 1942, with my Uncle Connie signing up in January, and Not-Connie as I call him, in August. I was able to differentiate from the two by the serial numbers as Uncle Connie’s DotMil serial number started with an “O” for Officer, and Not-Connie had an enlisted man’s Serial number. Also, the education for Uncle Connie was a 4 year college degree, whereas Not-Connie had one year of high school.

BOTH flew the same type of aircraft/airframe, as Connie’s plane that he was on at the time of his death was a A-20A Attack Plane. Not-Connie was on a B-24 when he died. Seeing that traditional Bombers sucked at bombing moving Japanese ships, they used the earlier produced A-20A ‘Havoc’ (first flown in 1936) and installed a metric shit-ton of .50cal M2 Machine Guns and 20mm Oerlikon Cannons… Heavy hitting like you read about!

I then went to a Genealogy website, which gave me this screen capture to show of what I speak:

Holy. Hells.
I can’t even figure what the odds of some shit like that happening. Shit like this makes me think the “Matrix” glitched again or something. I mean seriously!?!

Not only that, I followed up by checking Not-Connie’s family tree, juuuust to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind:

No relations to OUR family.
To repeat myself: What ARE the odds amiright?
Astro-fucking-nominal I think… a Billion-to-One?
Whew…. Crazy right?

OK, so now a 82 year old mystery on the whole “who” part of the equation, as well as the real “when”.

The “where” and “why” took a bit more work.
I found back in 2020 a website Pacific Wrecks. It’s a database of ALL the known aircraft that crashed in the Pacific, with dates of crashes, crew info, and all sorts of ‘stuff’ related to the crashed aircraft. If the wreck is found, they update and annotate as appropriate. Their mission as stated “Pacific Wrecks is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to bringing home those Missing In Action (MIA) and leveraging new technologies in the study of past conflicts.”

So back in 2020, I started there.
I found out that Uncle Connie had died while on a flight from Cairns Airfield in Australia head to Port Moresby New Guinea. He was on an A-20A Havoc named the “Abijah Gooch” which was a character from the comic “Lil’ Abner”. Pacific Wrecks had the following:
A-20A “Abijah Gooch” Serial Number 40-155

USAAF
5th Air Force, 3rd Bombardier Group
3rd Bombardment Group (3rd Attack Group) “The Grim Reapers”
89th Bombardment Squadron (89th BS)

Crew:
Pilot: 2nd Lt. Francis C. Pruitt, O-442230 (MIA / KIA) LA
Crew: 2nd Lt. Cornelius F. O’Leary, O-649101 (MIA / KIA) MA
Crew: SSgt Roger S. Martin, 11014927 (MIA / KIA) NH
Crew: S/Sgt Roland C. Noyes, Jr., 18010733 (MIA / KIA) TX
MIA: November 16, 1942
MACR: none

Now, I added the two pics for referential purposes.
And an IMPORTANT thing is that thing at the bottom? The MACR? That is the Missing Air Crew Report. During World War II the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) required group echelon units to submit Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) to AAF headquarters within two days after an aircraft or air crew failed to return from a combat mission.

According to this website there wasn’t a MACR to be had.

To the point that back in 2020, I had submitted a request to the National Archives to get a copy of the MACR or at least find out IF there was one. The reply was this:
“The National Archives has custody of the Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92), Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs), 1942 – 1947 (Entry A1 2109-B). After reviewing the Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92), Name Index to the Series Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs), 1942 – 1947 (Entry A1 2109-A) we located the index card for Cornelius F. O’Leary which connected him to MACR 16437. However, after searching that number within Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs), 1942 – 1947 ( A1 2109B) no results were yielded. Please note that during the course of World War II some 16,700 Missing Air Crew Reports were filed. Unfortunately, not all losses are documented. As MACRs have all been digitized, they are free to the public through our Catalog. We also located index cards for other members of the crew all of which were also connected to MACR 16437.”

That being said I did a hell of a lot of digging now than I did back then. I found the Record Group (92). Thing was, it contained 2347 files and I have NO IDEA how many individual pages. And BTW, side note? THIS is why I didn’t get to bed until 0330 and why I didn’t blog last night… FFS it’s now 0251 RN… I’ve been at this for 3 or 4 hours…

The things I do for y’all.
Anywho…
After what seemed like an interminable time, I found the MACR… my hunch is the prick at the Archive didn’t want to dig deeply to find my info. Fucker.
So here’s what I found. This’s the complete MACR that was done retroactively on February 28th, 1948.

Now, what I glean from this, is the plane took off at 0900 from Cairns, in GREAT weather, and was heading to Port Moresby, and suffered some form of catastrophic failure that was so bad, there was zero evidence left. As stated in the report “…it is reasonable to believe that any survivors would have been reported or picked up by friendly vessel(s) or plane(s) had the plane crashed or made a forced-water landing. Since this crew has not been heard from in over ten months, it is reasonable to presume that they are ‘deceased.’ “

The reason for that was that the Cairns-Moresby flight was a milk run so to speak. They had multiple flights back and forth daily as it was only an hour +/- flight at 520 miles each way.

IF someone had seen anything (oil slick/wreckage/bodies/rafts) then it would have been noticed. Seeing that the Battle of the Coral Sea had been fought in May of 1942, there were no enemy to speak of that could have shot them down.

And as far as recovery or finding a wreck now?
Well, back in 2020, as well as 2021, I went and found almost ALL of the SCUBA shops that offered dive excursions on and around Cairns and Port Moresby. Believe it or not, there are 3 A-20 Havocs that are within ‘normal’ diving range’ i.e. no mixed gasses needed. I got in contact with them all, and kindly, they let me know that they (as a collective group so to speak) had not found the Abijah Gooch, but IF they did, they’d be in contact. Another issue is once you get past the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns, headed to Port Moresby, the drop off is sudden and dramatic:

As you ca see, the drop goes from 20m +/- to an INSANE 5500 meters plus. Some of the Dive Shop guys told me if it went down in deep water, that was all she wrote, leastways until we get some seriously advanced deep sea diving tech that’s affordable and easy to use.

Now, Uncle Connie was listed in the MACR as the copilot, but not officially listed as on flight status.  That being said, even back in the day, they played fast and loose with the rules, and from what I can tell, Connie had some serious balls and might have been volunteering and going on combat missions for fun.  His official title was listed as the “Unit Statistical Officer.”

Sound boring AF in my opinion.

I found a definition as follows: The purpose of the statistical training was to prepare statistical officers to gather information about personnel, aircraft, and equipment and to present facts and analyze them in ways that would suggest improvements for future missions and other operations.

Yep. I was right.
Absolutely Boring As Fuck.
No wonder he might have been volunteering for combat missions. I know I would have, and it would go a long way in explaining MY propensity for battle-lust as only Uncle Connie, Uncle Tim, and myself out of a SCAD of relatives on BOTH sides of that family really enjoyed being a part of the DotMil as well as being fucking good at it.

So, training for that particular job was conducted at Harvard University, but I have no official confirmation that he attended the course there but it is highly likely as he did earn his degree at Harvard. This apparently handles the “where” details of this mystery.

Now, as far as the “why” of what happened?
That’s a bit complicated.
According to a lot of sources, there was a big problem of fuel contamination that led to a lot of downed aircraft of all designation. B-17s, B-24s, B-25s, and of course the A-20a. Something tells me that the fuel probably had something to do with it. Maybe a fire or something that blew a wing off? Hard to say… either way… this’s been a hell of a project and journey. I emailed MomUnit and the other surviving relatives everything I found. Hope they appreciate the effort (0355 now… I’m fucking tired.)
OH!!!
Lastly, earlier I said we didn’t have a picture.
well, while checking my sources, I found on a page that didn’t have this before, on OzAtWar Dot Com, another relative, “Timothy O’Leary” submitted this pic:

The caption on the back of the photo reads:- “Connie, Mother, Father, Dan”.

And yeah, that is my Grandpa on the right.
How cool is that?

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed the writing and research. Once I got started, I was like a cat unravelling a sweater… to include tonight.

I couldn’t stop until I found what I did.  
So, let me know your thoughts.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Seems that Russia has officially thrown down a rather large Gauntlet, Steel, Type One Each, Nuclear.

Link to the full story is HERE
Can’t say they haven’t been told enough that “This ain’t no fucking game assholes!” I mean OUR assholes seem to think that this’s some sort of fucking game or something. ANOTHER HUGE CASE of “People Who Haven’t Been Punched in the Fucking Mouth Enough IRL” playing fucking games with like the entire world.

Not for nothing, I’d have to say at this point they are desperate to start some shit, if only to keep themselves in Power, as that and money is all they care about. They sure as hell don’t give two fucks about the possibly One Million Dead and Wounded Krainians that’s for damned sure.

Recently there was a vidya circulating out there of Two Recruiting Commissars who were forced to dig their own graves, and then got blasted by Farmer Petrovich with a 12 gauge.

There’s also another one of a bunch of Romani (gypsies) storming a Recruitment Center to ‘rescue’ one of their own who got snatched up off the street… they destroyed the office, and beat the ever-loving fuck out of the Commissars.

Another factoid: Seems the majority of the Commissars are of a particular tribal affiliation. Who’d a’thunk it?

Fact is, the fat and relatively comfy job of being a “Meat Snatcher for the Grinder” is becoming rather hazardous as well it should be. As the Joker said, “You get what you fuckin’ deserve!”

The TL;DR thing about the above story is essentially the Brits and Frogs have been making Heap Big Smoke about getting actually involved ‘boots on the ground’ involved in the Krain. Supposedly, as mentioned yesterday, the Frogs have a bunch of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of Légion étrangère running around there now. Including that the Russians have killed and recovered up to 7 members of a Scout Unit at the current front.

Then the Brits mentioned that they were lifting the restrictions on the Cruise Missiles that they gave the Krainians, and gave then carte blanch to use them at targets directly inside the Russian Heartland.

THAT right there has been a solid red line for the Russians

And our assholes don’t seem to understand that. The Russian mentality towards the Rodina is off-the-charts when it comes to preserving the aforementioned Motherland. Hell, Russia has been invaded how many fucking times in the past 1000 years? They got every right to be seriously paranoid and hyper defensive.

So the Russians called the two Ambassadors on the carpet, and read them the riot act.

And even still, after this? Our “Elite” Educated Retard Class of Fuckwits, Lackwits, Morons, Neer-do-wells and Assholes just don’t get it. They’ll ignore what’s a pretty straightforward warning. The only thing they all seem to get is if say their dual citizenship holding asses Cuntry of Israel is threatened, (no, no misspelling) then “ZOMG! We have to saaaaaaaaaave them!!!” Otherwise?

We’re just grist for their mill
Meat for the grinder.

Anyways…
Another little blurb I found out there. You want to know how financially fucked all of this “Intervention” has been just in ammunition?
Feature this gang:

That’s just A.D.A ammo!!!!
H/T to CMDR Salamander for the graphic

A.D.A. for the unfamiliar is Air Defense Artillery.
We’ve had at least 2-3, maybe even 4 Arleigh Burke DDS’s go “Winchester” on ALL the Shooty-McBang-Bang Rokkits. That means out of ammo BTW… as discussed before, they can carry up to 94 of the newer model (Block 2A 3rd Gen SM-3s) or 90 of the earlier SM-6…

Either way? Let us use the cheaper variant, the SM-6 “Standard” at almost 4 mil a throw as an example.
To empty out 90 of them in the magazine?

That’s roughly $351,162,720.00

To Reload EACH Ship!

A billion here, a billion there amiright?
Fuck it, it ain’t their fucking shekels…
Jes’ Sayin’

I don’t even want to begin to contemplate the cost of the Block 2A at almost 28 million dollars a shot!!!
90 of them? Try Over Two and a Half BILLION clams.

Oh my aching head!

We are so done.
Beans on Toast Done man…

And ALL of these ‘wunderwaffen’ have to be replaced of course… and those prices reflect what they did cost… it, as far as I can tell, hasn’t take into consideration the inflationary aspect as well as just pure greedheadedness. I mean a 155mm HE round used to cost about $600.00 to make.

Now? Like $3000.00

And that doesn’t even cover more specialized rounds like the Copperhead and Excaliber… I don’t even know if the copperhead is still around actually…a quick check annnd
Yep… it’s still there operationally speaking.
17k in stock, but they stopped making them a ways back. Don’t know if they wasted any in the Krain… the data doesn’t reveal that.

The Copperhead was one of the first ‘laser guidable’ smart-Arty rounds developed in the 70’s. A classic which is still being used I guess. Kind of cool IMO.

Now, the ONE THING that’s bugging me about ALL OF THE ABOVE… in particular the whole “French getting involved militarily” thing… As a minor Military Historian, this is bugging the hell out of me.

Especially in light that as far as I can tell…

No one has brought this issue up yet anywhere!

That being?

Almost every. single. major. bloodbath. that the Untied Staatz has gotten involved in has been because WE ended up getting involved because the Fucking Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys, A.K.A. those Foul Smelling B.O. Soaked Wine-Swilling swine, the Fwench have dragged us into some seriously fucked up conflicts…

Seems like every. single. time. (there’s that phrase again!) the Frogs piss some one off, and WE end up having to go and pull their collective snail-sucking asses out of a hot spot.

World War One? They backed the Russians, and the Germans figured to knock the Frogs out FIRST before dealing with Russia… sounds familiar eh?

Then, come World War Two, the Frogs had been so utterly obnoxious in trying to fuck over Germany spiritually and financially after WW1, the Krauts just had to March down the Rhine to kick their asses again, deservedly so IMO.

Don’t even get me started about The Nam.
56k Dead +/-

And yet
Here we are

AGAIN!!!

FFS, you’d think we’d learn after a while right?
But nope… we keep acting like a literal retarded kid who’s burned his hand on the stove not once, not twice but a ton of times, and can’t correlate the “Hot Stove = Burn/Ouchies”.

Every. Single. Time. we get involved with the French, it ends with us having a HUGE amount of American Blood being spilled, with No Thanks nor Gratitude for such expenditures. A few of my favorite quotes by a better man than I about the Frogs:

“There is nothing lower than the human race except the French.”

“France is miserable because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen are miserable because they live in France.”

“France has usually been governed by prostitutes.”

Mark Twain

Yeah… good stuff right there innit?

So now, we wait on the precipice of potentially another disastrous French Foreign Military Adventure. Only this time, a whole hell of a lot more is potentially at stake. Like the entirety of Human Civilization possibly being snuffed, all to let the Grandma-Fucker Midget Maricón satisfy his teeny-dick energy thinking he’s the ‘savior’ of the Krain… I mean is he trying to avenge Napoleon for fucks sakes?

Hell, you’d think that the fucking Frogs themselves would get tuned in by now right? Guess Twain was correct in his heartfelt contempt. They may be an endangered specie shortly if they keep poking the Bear… it’ll be a damned shame about the Eiffel Tower tho… but at least all the Muj’ll get cleaned out, so there is that on the ‘plus column’

We’ll just have to Sit Back
Relax, grab the Popcorn and Watch.
After all:

“Forget it Jake, It’s Clownworld”

More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Orthodox Easter today with a trip allll over the place. Started the day early, getting prepped and ready. Then, We went out to my Man Cowboy’s horse ranch for a quick visit. He’s 27 days from Full Retardedment (retirement) after 20 years in the construction business.

Not that he’s retiring to mellow out.

His wifey Miss K actually runs the Ranch and he’s now going to be doing a vast ‘Honeydo List’ longer than my Johnson. In fact he’s in progress doing a new HUUUUGE haybarn.

To give you an idea of scale, that’s a full sized tractor trailer on the far left. Thing is mongasso huge. The Redhead LOVES going out there, so it was as much as a trip for her and she purely loves going for visits to “Mister Cowboy’s Place”

I personally love going there myself… got that ‘old Florida’ charm going on… like OMG mellow and fun

Magnificent ‘old growth’ trees

The whole place… the smell of the horses… real ‘back to simplicity stuff’ I mean yeah it’s ball breaking work, but good honest work. Kind of shit I’d love to be doing post-retirement. I mean hell, if it’s in the cards? I’ll take it.

The other aspect of going out there is that he’s got enough land to have a mini-range. One of these days I’m going to work with him to put in a full on berm I swear. So today was -supposed- to be a minor test of the Musket, and then a Poly 80 lower I finished a ways back. I got a new trigger for it, and wanted to see how it fired. I started with it and well…

I have to get a bit ‘beefier’ spring for the trigger.

The trigger breaks clean as a champagne flute…
Crisp as all get-out…

BUT… so light that I had it ‘bump stock’ on me…
The first trigger pull was good.
The second? I think I didn’t brace enough and man, it cut loose a 4 round burst!!! Going to have to research that. No giggle switch at all… just a clean lower with a lightened trigger. Mind you this was NOT the intent. Not the first time this sort of thing has happened to me, but I sure as hell will make sure for this one it’ll be the last.

Cowboy was a little freaked (as was I) but hey, this’s why we test our stuff before things go pear shaped.

Then we made it to Gretchen’s BFF’s house for Greek Easter.

Looks delicious right?

Unfortunately, no. Not the cooks problem… I think the lamb wasn’t as fresh as it was advertised. Like as in bad-bad. My stomach after a pinky-sized bite got mad at me… even when I was chewing I was like “This doesn’t taste right” as I have experienced this exact issue in the past in Iraq… The Haj, for all their bullshit can eat stuff that’d make a Billygoat puke. So, tonight? I’m in “never trust a fart” mode lest something untoward happens, like a “catastrophic failure of o-ring integrity”.

Funniest part was when the cook, BFF’s cousin tried to play me on the “Hey do you want a eyeball?” thinking he’d get me grossed out or something… I told him “My Iraqis played this game with me and I ate everything they offered me, from balls, to heart, to brains… your game is weak man!”

Also, I may not speak Greek, (everyone in the house except me and Gretchen and the Redhead) but I literally grew up with a Greek Kid as one of my best friends. As well as my Aunt is a full blooded Greek as well as my cousins, who ALL speak Greek. So I have MORE than a passing understanding, (like Arabic, and German which I do speak pretty well, and 4 years of High school Spanish) so I understood when they were talking shit about me LOL.

Never underestimate the opposition Aye?

Now, as to new stuff Internationally
Seems the Houthis are getting a bit more uppity.

Seems the goatfuckers are now expanding the sphere of influence. Whether or not they actually do something IRL remains to be seen. They’ve said that they’ll start throwing Ballistic Missiles at ANY boat headed to Hebeland.

Eh.. let it happen.

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

I did notice however that map only shows the 5th Fleet Base in Bahrain. Fact is, we still have a huge DotMil presence in Kuwait. In fact that’s all of our “prepo” (pre positioned) war stocks are. Arifjan being the biggest with THOUSANDS of vehicles. I know because I used to count them nightly.

Which begs the question: Who’s paying the Houthis to do all of this? Iran? Maybe Kuwait? I mean there’s a lot of open-ended possibilities. You’ve also got the U.A.E. and Oman as well… ALL within range and ALL with so DotMil, albeit in a reduced and/or small capacity. Not sure exactly what’s happening, but, either way, shit is getting a bit weird(er) these days. The full story is HERE

And then, going over to the Krain, we get this from a pretty reputable source (despite being on Twatter):

Now, IF this’s true, they really screwed the pooch. The problem is Macron, AKA Maricón has some delusional hang up about desperately wanting to get the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys involved in the Krainian Klown Kar show against the Russians.

Some have posited that this’s some leftover angst from when the Russians obliterated Napoleon’s Army waaaaay back it the day. The C.E.S.M. (Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys for brevity) are seemingly hell bent on getting boots on the ground.

Problem is, Bad Boy Vlad has said, and warned very specifically that IF some NATO fucktards get involved, and are proven without a shadow of a doubt, the that country (in this case Fwance) It’ll be long range Open Season of the parties involved.

Fucking morons, especially Maricón

He’s right up there with Canuckistan’s “Leader” Buttboy Supreme Turdoo. Fidel’s love child…

Telling you all, I personally cannot wait for the “Great Unravelling” as it’ll be known as… It’s like a sweater with only one lil thread of yard hanging… and the kitten gets at it, and starts running… the sweater s-l-o-w-l-y starts coming ‘undone’ and then, like I said last Night, “Slowly at first and then Suddenly” shit falls completely apart.

Best to prep now and be ready.
They hate you and are looking to eliminate us.
More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Well, I do dood a thing…
Look over at the sidebar.
A New Pic… Leastways I –hope- there’s a new picture over there. It should look like this:

Clicking on it will get you to a new “Big Country Expat’s Place” a.k.a. my T-Shirt and Bullshit store. Figured I’d get it out of my system, and when I typed the “Profession Of Oppression” something just ‘clicked’ in me nugget.

So, 15 minutes of photoshop with paint (no shit, I’m awfully primitive aren’t I?) and then a hour or so adapting the various “things” to the storefront.

I’m working on how to add more colors… give me a wee bit of time… converting to a PNG and removing the background -should- ostensibly hit it up…

Now, don’t be surprised if the Local Constabulary get upset when they see you wearing it… instead use it as an ‘iopener’ and let them know that they’ve become the “…Standing Army our forefathers warned us about.”

Per the article in Defense One:

The founders also, we well know, had a pronounced fear of and antipathy toward standing armies — large, permanent, professional military establishments — because of the dual temptations for domestic oppression and international adventurism by those in power, the drain on public resources, and, not least, the not-infrequent aberrant behavior of those in uniform.

GREGORY D. FOSTER
PROFESSOR, NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY, Defense One Magazine

Considering just how militarized the fuzz have become, even at a local level? Yeah, in my and I think everyone else’s books they’re now a full on occupational Military force, designed to forcibly extract resources (money) from the slaves, and keep us in ‘our places’ i.e. under their bootheels.

Sorry Not Sorry
So, gotta get Dinner Ready, then clean the crib. Got the Nukular Powered Redhead coming for the weekend. Going to be a blast.
So More Later”
Big Country

A Ukrainian M1A1 on Display in Moscow for the May Day Celebration.

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Most of you have heard of this:

“In his book Three Felonies a Day, civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate estimates that the average person unknowingly breaks at least three federal criminal laws every day.”

Yeeeeeah…
It’s a stone bitch when you get hemmed up with the law, and you had no idea that you’d violated one of their cash-generating laws…

Got done with Gretchen’s follow-up appointment, and had a run-in with an overeager 5-0. Thought I was going to get a ticket and whoops! Notsomucho.

Thankfully I was able to bond out. Very Minor offense, but like I said, and overeager just-released from rookie status FEMALE.
Didn’t even have the spine to cuff my giant ass herself.

And yes, I behaved, despite my urges to tell her exactly what I thought of her, and her chosen “Profession Of Oppression”

Hmmn… that sings donit? Got me an Idear There

That’s all I’m saying about that…
6 hours fucking wasted, and $250 for the bond.

Back the Blue?
Yeah… into a landfill.

So More Later
Big Country