Author: Zero Ponsdorf

I think I posted about this before, but it happened again today and I STILL get rattled when it happens – enough to post about it yet again.

Some back-story: For 30 plus years I didn’t acknowledge my Vietnam service outside of some very narrow confines.  BTW –  The only VN mud I got on me was during a one-time trip to a bar in DaNang .

Around the time we did GoE (Gathering of Eagles in ’07) it kinda felt okay to do so.  A coupla years ago I bought a baseball cap (made in China?) , and I wear it often.

So today I visited my local Mini-Mart and a guy also checking out said “Thank you for your service.” I had enough wits to respond with “Thanks, we all did what we could.” But THEN he added “I hope you didn’t get greeted like some did?”

By this time there were, maybe, a half dozen folks standing there and I kinda blurted out ” Got spit at and called Baby Killer once in San Fransisco in ’69.”  Noted some odd looks from the mini-group and left.

Yeah, I know the PC answer to the “Thank You…” is a simple “you’re welcome”, but I still get flummoxed and fumble.

Just might be too old to learn proper decorum?

My headline is no joke; although when I first read the actual headline “Tabasco sauce used to train Ebola health care workers” all kinds of strange thoughts ran thru my head.

The opening paragraph clears the matter up some.

“It may sound strange, but Tabasco hot sauce is proving to be a successful training aid for health care workers learning how to avoid contamination when taking care of patients with the Ebola virus.”

The idea is kinda neat, but my first thought flashed on a myth(?) that the Tabasco Sauce in C-Rats was there to kill bacteria IN THE C-Rats and sadly went downhill from there.

Anyway, read the story…  it really is an imaginative way to use the stuff.

ETA: A memory (or maybe a memory OF a memory) can be strangely wrong at times. I would have bet money, and lost, that Tabasco Sauce was included in C-rats. Keeping in mind that it was more a curiosity in The TGYC and never primary rations; I DO recall the tiny bottles in conjunction with the ration packs BUT they were not, as far as my Google-Fu allows, ever directly issued with the things.

Yeah, I know… two  posts in one day… If Jonn don’t delete this you just might just learn something.

An online pal of mine (TGYC) is mentioned is this story. Simply put… I was unaware of this event until he mentioned it.

“Hannah Ackerman, a Cedar Falls High School graduate now attending Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, has won history awards for her presentations on two naval disasters. One is the loss of Waterloo’s five Sullivan brothers during World War II. The other is the “missing 74” of the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans during the Vietnam War.”

During that time frame I was doing other stuff, like Woodstock, etc.

This has merit. The lost were deployed.

 

Some here have actually jumped out of perfectly good aircraft. I planned to do a tandem jump on my 65th birthday a few years ago and even invited Jonn to join me, but it never happened. I wanted to jump into my big field for my birthday party, but the cost was toooo steep.  I still aim to try it on my 70th in a coupla years, BUT it sure ain’t gonna be like this!!

“A helium-filled balloon carried him 135,908 feet to nearly the top of the stratosphere  — more than 25 miles — above the ground, before he cut himself loose and plunged toward the earth at speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour.”

Of course going faster than the speed of sound has one benefit… no one can hear me screaming.

 

 

TSO’s posts prompted this! I reckon if he can belittle (SAVAGES!) us for our answers to his poll I can post this:

One of the most difficult concepts to communicate, for me anyway, is that I can admire the vocal skill and emotive chops of an opera star… BUT I still wouldn’t walk across the street to SEE an opera.

Ballet dancers can do amazingly beautiful physical feats, BUT I have no interest in seeing a full ballet either.

Like TSO I can admire a single athlete (although not quite with same  fervor) without being interested in the team or sport.

My point? Imagine if pro sports or the opera adopted a sort of “Radical Islamic Method” for dealing with potential fans?

Don’t wear the correct team t-shirt or fall asleep during the third act and….

I kinda feel like that when I’m called a “SAVAGE” for having differing tastes.

Aside: This is an attempt at humor. I you don’t GET IT I won’t be calling YOU a “SAVAGE”.

 

With the influx of possibly bad intentioned/diseased  illegal immigrants  from down south AND talk of actually bringing Ebola patients HERE for treatment there are rumors that there may be worse to come!!!!

This cute little critter has been mentioned among some groups as the perfect pet for those with allergies to cats and dogs.  Justification for importing this sweet little thing is that domestic pets have ALWAYS had more primitive and dangerous ancestors, so it will become tame/housebroken if we only give it a chance.  Apparently this is the current logic?

Imagine waking up with this cutie sleeping on yer head.

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The article that spurred this kinda sad attempt at satire is here, All things considered it really ain’t satire to see the uproar from some groups if this ever came into question. And it does mention puppies.

 

 

 

 

Saw this AP story and fought off a brief episode of paranoia to wonder why he would NOT be calling out Homeland Defense, and/or the CDC or any of the myriad Federal agencies actually tasked with this sort of thing?

I kinda assumed he was talking about CONUS before reality hit? But no…

“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized the Pentagon to call up reserve and National Guard troops if they are needed to assist in the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.”

Mind you he apparently didn’t consider extra funding for  WHO or other international health organization? So some shoe salesman from Anywhere, USA could be sent to Africa?

 

Read Hondo’s post about Global Warming with some concerns.

Then I discovered that SecDef Hagel and the Brass Hats are taking care of it.

“We’re seeing the impacts” from global warming across Army facilities, said Katharine Hammack, assistant Army secretary for Installations. “Wildfires, changes in precipitation, and increased extreme weather events are growing in frequency and intensity,” Hammack said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

I always kinda thought the old dictum of “Adapt and Overcome” applied to our military in general? I am REALLY glad to know The Brass is concerned enough to spend millions on  important stuff like:

“The alternative financing is absolutely essential,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostwick, head of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Bostwick pointed to several base projects to save energy – a solar wall for heating buildings at Fort Drum, New York; a ground source heating pump at Fort Carson, Colorado; and solar hot water panels at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.”

Yeah, that’ll be better than spending the money on foul weather gear, better all weather vehicles, etc.

Aside: the other branches ARE doing the same indeed, I didn’t single out The Army.