For those of you who read gun blogs, and haven’t been under a rock or in a coma these past few weeks, you already know that M.D. Creekmore of The Survivalist Blog is giving away 1000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, which was provided by Lucky Gunner.  Entry requires mention of the sites involved on a blog, so this is my entry.

In all seriousness, I read Survivalist Blog all the time.  It’s a great source of good, down-to-earth preparedness information.  I’ve bought ammunition from Lucky Gunner on a few occasions, and I’ve been very happy with their prices, shipping times, and customer service.

So, if you’re looking for good ammunition or good reading, mosey on over to Lucky Gunner or Survivalist Blog.

A Turkish report on the flotilla incident posits that at least 31 rounds were fired in the fight aboard the ships of the “peace” flotilla that was boarded by Israeli commandos.  You remember that, don’t you?  That’s the one where the peaceful Islamic protesters were trying to peacefully bring peaceful supplies like chocolate puppies and cashmere underwear for peaceful purposes to the peaceful people of Gaza.  These peaceful do-gooders greeted the Israeli commandos who fast-roped down to their deck with a peaceful round of lead pipes and fists and whatever was loose to be used as a peace-club.

Apparently when you physically threaten a highly trained and armed Israeli commando, you might get a little shot.

The Turks are complaining that a lot of the dead peaceful Turkish citizens were shot in the head, showing “show Israeli forces were shooting to kill.”.

No fooling?  I’d say the commando was trying to put down a clear and present threat to him and his mission and chose to shoot at the one part of the human body that if targeted properly will stop a threat in its tracks.

Here’s a message to the Turkish and Palestinian people who are shocked at this:

Look, skeezix, there is no such thing as shooting to wound, or a warning shot.  Pulling a trigger means you are employing “deadly force”.  Deadly, for those of you who need an explanation, means “meant to kill”.  If you and a bunch of your khat-chewing, camel-hustling cousins decide to physically assault a commando, his response is going to be to try to kill you. He’s not going to try to disable you, he’s not going to try to scare you off.  He’s going to try to put several small holes in your vital organs and blood pathways in order to make you stop trying to kill or hurt him.

If these “peaceful” protesters were in fact trying to be peaceful and make a political point about the legality of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, then they should take a page from Gandhi and MLK.  When the Israeli helicopters and ships show up to stop your little boats and keep you from getting to Gaza with dual use products, stop your engines, turn on the video cameras and satellite up-links, and sit down on the deck.  Force the Israelis to either let you go on or they can be the bad guys in front of the cameras and the whole world.

Don’t meet a boarding party with weapons and fists and then cry that some of y’all got ventilated.

The less excuse you give a man with a gun to shoot you, the less shot you will get.

Meeting Leader:  So basically, next Tuesday we will re-do the steps on the network and the servers we took yesterday and last night, and see if the problem happens again.
DaddyBear:  So basically, we’re going to crash the plane again and see if it bursts into flame again this time.
Guy Next to DaddyBear:  Snort
DaddyBear:  I’m going to go round up another 156 passengers.
Guy Next to DaddyBear:  Dude, that’s too dark to say out loud.

I was listening to a podcast from a history website on my drive back from camp on Sunday, and the narrator discussed U.S. Army Sergeant Alvin York.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Sergeant York, he was an American doughboy in World War I.  He originally attempted to declare himself unfit for combat duty because of his religious beliefs against war, but was eventually convinced that it was OK to fight for your country and was shipped to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force.

During the Meuse-Argonne battle, then Corporal York was sent forward along with 15 other members of his unit.  The squad of American infantry came under attack by German machine guns while trying to secure some prisoners, killing 6 and wounding 3 Americans.  York reacted superbly.  Using his rifle, he started killing off German machine-gunners who were firing from prepared positions on a ridge.  Eventually, he was rushed by a group of 8 German soldiers.  Using his head and his pistol, he shot the group one at a time from back to front so that the soldiers wouldn’t know they were taking fire and stop their rush to shoot him.  Eventually York and the rest of his squad of 13 men took 132 prisoners that day, with a loss of 6 dead and 3 wounded.

York was promoted to Sergeant, and eventually received the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military award.

As an NCO, I studied Sergeant York’s leadership and coolness under fire.  His marksmanship, ability to think and react correctly in a stressful situation, and leadership have made him a legend.

As the narrator was describing the battle, I visualized what Sergeant York was doing.  From the prone unsupported position with a bolt action rifle, he was making head shots at enemy soldiers from distances between 50 and 200 yards.  When he was rushed, probably when his rifle had run dry and needed reloading, he drew his pistol and shot 8 moving targets in such a way that the targets didn’t know they were taking accurate fire and stop to shoot him.

Then it occurred to me that this might make a fun and challenging shooting scenario at the range.

Basically, the shooter will be equipped with a World War I era bolt action rifle with open sights, such as a M1903, M1917, Enfield SMLE, Mosin Nagant, or Mauser, and a base-model M1911 .45 caliber pistol with fixed sights.  The shooter is also given 40 rounds of ammunition in 5 round stripper clips for the rifle and 8 rounds of ammunition for the pistol.

Purists will say that York was equipped with a M1917 and a M1911, so a true recreation would have the shooter having only these.  Since M1917 rifles and original 1911’s are pretty thin on the ground and are old enough to be collector’s pieces, I’ll open it up to whatever period rifle the shooter is comfortable with and just use the simplest 1911 that can be found.

The shooter would begin by standing at the firing line, with his weapon loaded and held at the ready.  At the sound of the starting horn, the shooter would drop to the prone unsupported position for the rifle part of the stage. 40 Pop-up targets the size and shape of human heads pop up randomly at 50, 100, 150, and 200 meter distances.  There will be two targets at each distance, for a total of 8 targets.  Each target would pop up 5 times.  This will force the shooter to engage multiple targets at once, and will force the shooter to look at more places for targets.  The targets will pop up for 5 seconds each, with five targets at different ranges popping up at once.  There will be a 5 second pause to reload after every group of five targets. 1 point is scored for each hit on a target

After the rifle targets are finished, there is a 5 to 10 second delay.  At the end of the delay, 8 irregulary spaced man-shaped targets come at the shooter in a staggered formation.  The shooter then draws the 1911.  The shooter must pick out the rearmost target and shoot it with the 1911, then move forward to the next closest target, and so on until all 8 targets are shot in the head or center mass, or a target gets to a predetermined distance from the shooter, probably 2 to 3 feet, bayonet range.  1 point is given for each target that is hit center mass or in the head.

To me it seems pretty challenging, and would be quite a bit of fun to do.

What do you guys think?

Update – I forgot to mention this at first, but thanks to the guys at the GunBlogger Conspiracy for helping me round out this idea!

If you’ve ever read or listened to a story done by a reporter embedded with a military unit, then you have Ernie Pyle to thank.  If you’re a history buff, and ever want to see how things went at the level of the lowly grunt and the other gang of heroes, then either have already read or should read the collected works of Ernie Pyle.

Ernie Pyle was sent to the front lines to report from the sharp end of the stick.  He did that, in spades.  He was himself killed in combat in the Pacific.

His home in Indiana has been turned into a museum dedicated to this true American hero.  Bayou Renaissance Man has pointed out that even though this truly worthy cause only needs a few thousand dollars a year to operate, it’s in financial trouble during these tight times. 

What I’m asking all of you  to do a couple of things:

1. If you have it, please consider making a small donation to the Ernie Pyle Home in Dana, Indiana.  It won’t take but a few dollars from each of us to make a big difference.
2. Spread the word on this.  If you have a blog, write about it.  Send a letter to the editor of your local paper.  Journalists know who Ernie Pyle is, and if we get their attention, they might get the word of this outside of the blogosphere.
3. Finally, if you’re close to Dana, Indiana, please visit the Ernie Pyle Home.  The more visitors something like this gets, the easier it will be for them to apply for aid from private organizations that provide support to things such as this.

Since West Virginia is already full to the brim of “Robert Byrd Memorial” whatevers, what will the honorable citizens of that state do to actually memorialize their late senator, Robert Byrd? 

Leave your suggestions in the comments, and I’ll pick the best ones tomorrow and post them here.

Say what you will about Byrd, he had a good work ethic, although he mostly didn’t work towards something I can support:

Byrd, who never lost an election, cast more than 18,540 roll call votes — more than any other senator in U.S. history. He had a 98 percent attendance record in his more than five decades of service in the Senate, according to his Web site. 

Want to bet he rarely, if ever, voted “Present”, unlike a certain former senator from Illinois we are all familiar with.

There are few cardio-vascular workouts more effective than chasing down a wet, sudsy two year old who has done a Fosbury Flop out of the bathtub and is running for his life away from finishing his bath.  After that warm up exercise, you must return the toddler to the tub, rinse him off, remove him from the tub, dry him off, and put him into his pajamas.  After all of this you should be at your target heart rate, and can continue other activities to keep it up for the prescribed period of time.  These may include, but are not limited to, trying to read a story to an uncooperative toddler, picking up toys faster than the toddler can remove them from the toy box, and doing a dozen reps of the “put toddler to bed, catch toddler after he escapes, put toddler to bed” exercise.

Some express their love for their mate with poetry.
Some express their love by lavishing them with expensive gifts.
Last night, I expressed my love by going to Walmart at 10:30 PM to purchase printer ink and Mountain Dew for the Irish Woman so she could complete a project for the zoo.

Ah, love is a many splendored thing

I haven’t commented on this yet because I wanted to see the end of it before formulating and expressing an opinion.

Recently, General McChrystal, the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, did an extended interview with Rolling Stone magazine, during which he and his staff made several disparaging remarks about the civilian leadership team in regards to Afghanistan, principally the president, vice-president, and ambassador to Afghanistan.  General McChrystal was summoned to Washington, and today tendered his resignation before he was fired.

This was not his first time catching flak after criticizing the administration over war policy.  Last fall, he was brought on the carpet when he complained to reporters about a lack of troops.  So no-one can say that he wasn’t warned.

Do I agree with what I’ve heard he said?  Mostly.  I believe that President Obama and his civilian leadership team want the war to just go away, and are willing to make whatever deal with the devil is necessary to make that happen.  I believe that Ambassador Eikenberry has, at least from the stories that I’ve read, not been a good partner to the military professionals sent to Afghanistan to stabilize and protect the Karzai government.  I believe that Vice President Biden is a buffoon who was added to the ticket so that Obama could disguise his hard left leanings.

But I’m a former sergeant with no military subordinates, and I have no responsibilities to these civilian leaders other than to pay my taxes and vote.  General McChrystal is a flag officer in charge of prosecuting the war in a critical theater.  His attitudes and comments can poison the critical need for the military to respect the office of the president, even if they don’t respect the person occupying it.  The recognition that the military is subordinate to, and not separate from or superior to, civilian leadership is a bedrock principle that has kept our republic from becoming a military dictatorship for over 200 years.

It’s a basic tenet of leadership.  You don’t complain in front of your subordinates, and you don’t air out dirty laundry with people outside of your organization.  No matter if you think the boss is an incompetent, glue sniffing, vote buying snake, you don’t say it in front of your troops, and for the love of God, you don’t say it in front of a reporter.

General McChrystal manned up and resigned, taking responsibility for his conduct and that of his staff.  I’m sad to see him go.  I’ve monitored reports from Afghanistan, both in the press and through friends who are still in the military, and what I’ve heard convinced me that he was the right man for the job.  I hope that General Patraeus has one more good campaign in him to see the mission through to conclusion.  I wish both of them luck in the future, because our country needs men like them to contribute enough positives to overcome the negatives heaped upon us by other men and women in positions in power.

By the way, reports are saying that General Patraeus has to be confirmed by Congress to fill the position.  When did the military start needing Congressional approval to fill a personnel need?