Probably Correct

Seeing the Elephant

     It occurs that combat offers a new maturity.  War is never a good thing but sometmes it is a necessary thing, especially when He Has Seen the Elephant.

Old soldiers in the Civil War coined a phrase for green troops who survived their first taste of battle: "He has seen the elephant."

This Army lieutenant sums up the combat experience better than many a grizzled veteran: "Well, I'm here in Iraq, and I've seen it, and done it. I've seen everything you've ever seen in a war movie. I've seen cowardice; I've seen heroism; I've seen fear; and I've seen relief. I've seen blood and brains all over the back of a vehicle, and I've seen men bleed to death surrounded by their comrades. I've seen people throw up when it's all over, and I've seen the same shell-shocked look in 35-year-old experienced sergeants as in 19-year-old privates.

Army Faces Worst Recruiting Slump in Years - Yahoo! News

     Why we need a draft.

Link: Army Faces Worst Recruiting Slump in Years - Yahoo! News.

     Of course, we musn't let the true facts  get in the way.

My Vietnam photos

     After 36 or so years, I've finally digitized hundreds of the photos I took in Vietnam and have begun mounting them onto a website: 69rvn.  The first category to go online is "things".  "People" and "places" are next.

     The site includes captions for the photos and commentary about my experiences there.  It will be updated as often as I can get to it.

     Your comments will be welcome.

"36 heavily armed dolphins..."

     Once again, life follow fiction.  The George C. Scott movie "Day of the Dophin" was probably the first to speak to the possibility. And now there's a whole platoon of these rascals loose.

     Are they pissed?  Are they aggressive?  Do they only kill their masters?  Do they fall under the US Department of Fish & Wildlife's new "catch and disarm" program?

     Note to self:  no diving while in the Caribbean this coming year.

Link: Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

A project I began 36 years ago...

     ...is finally coming to fruition. Of course, without the Internet, it would never have been possible.

     I, along with nearly two million other Americans, spent a year in Vietnam.  I had the fortune to be able to document much of it photographically and I have recently had the slides I took there digitized.  I also dug up the rest of the Army "stuff" and have been scanning it in a bit at a time.

     The site, 69RVN.STLMedia.net, is nowhere near ready (I pick up the digitized slides this afternoon and still have to resize them - nearly 400 images).  But there's enough material online for you to get an idea of what's coming.

     Please feel free to check in and see what's already on line.

Arrgh, matey!

Don't ya just know that the world press is gonna be all over this?

And all based not on fact, not even on any kind of substantiated allegation...but on an admitted rumor?

What the hell, though...it's from the BBC.

US faces prison ship allegations.