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Heh.  Yep, there was that, as well.  I imagine the ARVNs had plenty of our 60s and 81s.  Both had been in the arsenal for a long time before VN.  I suppose a small VC unit tasked with harassing a base would have trouble carrying  anything heavier than a 60.  Most of the time it was fire five or...

I can't swear to this, but back in the bad old days, when I was in Vietnam, several supposedly experienced sorts told me the VC/NVA often fired captured 81mm rounds in their 82mm Soviet/Chinese mortars.  Assuming the round would fire at all, I can believe it, because the dinks were seldom...

I think North Korea is a hollow shell.  Kim's saber rattling is intended, I believe, to keep everyone off balance and to extort more aid from China and the West.  Whether he's over-stepped himself -- only time will tell. Armies are more than mere numbers.  NK is a humanitarian disaster, getting...

Glad to see the CF is just one big happy group hug family bunch.  :) Being lumped in together like that, there's no inter-service rivalry, eh? FWIW, US Army officers don't make coffee either.  Neither do enlisted men. Nobody knows who makes Army coffee.  jim

Thanks to you, Wes, and to all your mates.  I worked with Aussie aviation types in Vietnam (Canberra bombers -- 13 x 500lb bombs -- Charlie's nightmare).  Australian Vietnam vets got an even worse ration of crap at home than US vets did.  I salute them all. :salute: jim

Happy birthday! Forty?  Well, I guess that's a milestone.  Next up for me is sixty.  Is that a milestone or a millstone? :) jim

Check this out!  Excellent book review! The good folks at National Summary blog have posted a book review of Gehenna Station and an email interview of the author (yep, that's me).  Go to: http://www.nationalsummary.com I'm still supplying the book direct to Canadians at less cost than...

So, if Canada had a Senate with two senators from each province, and a Commons with each province represented according to population, what does that do to the existing balance of power within the Federal government?  Your current arrangement guarantees a concentration of power.  A Senate set up...

This hits upon an important factor in fighting guerilla wars.  The quality of officers and non-coms, especially at the small unit level is very important.  In the early days of American involvement in Vietnam, SF teams were comprised of highly qualified and committed individuals.  In those days...

I wanna know about these naked demonstrations.  We never seem to have those in Fort Collins. Must be the altitude or something. Bears, we got.  Jim

OKay, I found a couple pics from the bad old days.

Somewhere out in cyberspace there's a picture of one of my aviation company's Chinooks doing the same thing, only it was a CH-47A with its butt squatted on a small pad atop Nui Ba Den mountain, circa 1967-68. I'll see if I can find it. Jim

Well, a meter, sure.  A meter means something, even to dinosaurs like me. Snot-nosed kid: "Grandpa, how long is a meter?" Me: "A meter?  That's easy.  It's part of a diabolical measuring system foisted on us by those damn Frogs.  A Commie plot, that's what it is.  Take my word for it." Snot...

As a holdout for English measurements who has to exist in a partly metric world, I have done a fair amount of thinking on this subject -- lubricated by beer, of course. I think the basic problem with the metric system is that it lacks quickly identifiable units for everyday observations. Like...

The papers are being released by the agency created to coordinate CIA/FBI/NSA/whoever.  I forget the proper acronym.  Individual documents have been vetted by several sources, all of which are available on the web.  Naturally, I can't make the translation myself so . . . :) Your point is well...

You're right.  We've beat that subject to death.  I've read other posts my macqueen and he seemed to be a reasonable sort.  His remarks seemed out of character.  Okay . . . let's see.  Dubya's speech?  I didn't watch.  His speeches usually frustrate me because of his poor delivery.  So I read...

No, it wasn't by rank, but the amount did change over the course of the war. Officers might have gotten more.  I can't remember. I was an Sp5 the whole time I was in country.  $450 total pay.  I still have the pay records . . . somewhere. I was married, so some of my pay was separation...

In '67-68 I got $50 US for 'hostile fire pay' while in Vietnam.  Same as the infantry guys got. I earned mine by dodging mortar attacks and the occasional rocket. They got theirs the hard way. Let's see . . . $50 US . . . what's that in Canadian scrip? Heh.  :) jim

macqueen -- there's no doubt that the fighting in Iraq has drawn terrorists from all over the Middle East, but the belief that Saddam had nothing to do with terrorists and Al Queda prior to the war is a flat falsehood.  Not only was Saddam doing things like paying death money to the families of...

Anyone who's spent a few nights on guard duty in a sandbag bunker can relate to this one . . . . ************************** On the Berm at Midnight It's dark, damned dark. You can't see shit. There's a bunker all around you, sandbags, four deep on top, thicker at the sides. A fucking crypt...