Peoples Attitudes, Depression, Roadkill Recipes and Other Thoughts

[Randy]

Thanks Mike...everybody is home and as safe as they could be.

The joint service rivalry is something I've always had fun with...and I mean honest fun. My family has served in every branch and most likely every shooting match since the early 1600's here in this part of the world (even have a some odd number great-grandfather that was a Hessian during the Revolution how's that for laughs). Between me and my dad we served 54 years combined (dad was USAF). I enjoy making fun of wing weenies, squidlets, and doggies. I even toss around ugly comments about Marines every now and then.

Bravery and sacrifice are not centered in a sole branch. The bravest guys I ever saw were USAF helicopter guys that pulled me off of an island in the Gulf of Siam in 1975 (they put me there too)

Enough of this talk.....pack sand squids

 

[energy]

Re: Re: Legs, squids and jar heads

Originally posted by Michael T

Randy - I sure hope your son is safe during this current conflict. I can not yet imagine what it takes to let a child go during a situation like this. I don't want to have to imagine letting my son go, yet if he chooses to do so, I certainly will be proud of him.
Cheers!!!

After the wasted lives in Korea and Vietnam, I decided that if my son did not want to go, I wouldn't object. No politician would feed my boy into a body gobbling fiasco without a plan to win. When my son was 17/18, they were talking about draft registration. (He is now 32 with two children) He asked, "Dad, what if I don't want to go?" I told him that was fine with his mother and me. Believe me when I tell you, I would have mailed him weekly checks to Canada, if that was his choice. By the same token, if he wanted to go, that would also be his choice. I may have tried to talk him out of it. When I see the lives lost in those two other conflicts, that were terminated by politicians, my heart goes out to those parents that lost their children. It was such a waste. Winning wasn't in the plan. I would be so bitter. My heart aches even thinking about it. I'm proud of what the military is doing today. But, there are those already starting to question our motives. After all, it's an election year. Those with young children should never think twice about honoring their child's wishes to remain out of the service. Selfish? You betcha! Those that want to go, should be allowed to follow their desire with your blessings. Randy, I'm glad the boy is home safe and you know exactly what I'm talking about. Enough ranting.

 

[Randy Stewart]

I think we have too many Randys here!?!?!?!? My son is still over there in the trench.
I agree with you energy. I came home on leave once and while talking to my dad, who served in Korea, I was shocked when he basically stated the samething. They had ended the draft when I was 4 months away from my 17th birthday, I enlisted 9 days after my 18th, and when he told me he wouldn't have let me go I was floored. After coming to an understanding of what actually happened in Korea and Vietnam, I could see his concern. I told my kids they didn't have to serve but it was their decision. I was very suprised my oldest son enlisted because of the problems my absence from home caused. He followed his dad in his love to blow things up, but where my expertise was nuclear weapons destruct, his is in recon. He turns 21 in a couple months, and I know he won't be the same person who left, Right Randy? (the Marine Randy).
All gave some, some gave all.

 

[Randy]

Even moving away from home and going to school changes us. All that matters is what we allow that change to do....I'm actually effected more from what I went thru as a police officer that I experienced as a young Grunt.

I'm not the same person I was 20 years ago, 10 years or even 1 year ago and I'm sure not the same as I was from 68-71.

 

[energy]

We all do!

Originally posted by Randy
I'm not the same person I was 20 years ago, 10 years or even 1 year ago and I'm sure not the same as I was from 68-71.

Sure, everybody changes. Lose a job, lose a loved one. Just getting older. Being around to change is what I’m referring to. Finding yourself in huge meat grinder with nothing to show for it, is the real tragedy. My Dad was never the same young man that fought in WW2. He volunteered instead of waiting to be drafted. He served in the African Campaign as well as fought at the Battle of the Bulge. But, and here is what the difference is, the lucky ones came home. Many did not. Their cause was just and honorable and most importantly, truly appreciated. Dad had 5 more children after he returned home. In the years that followed he became timid and frightened of those things that he was able to handle as a younger man. Combat related? Or normal progression? Mom said the war had changed him. Prior to her leaving this world, she said “Take care of Dad. He will need you kids because I always took special care of him”. He would never talk about his Army experiences. A few years before his passing, he began to talk about some of those things, usually due to my prodding. This conversation I remember above all. I asked him “What was the strongest memory you have of the War?” His eyes filled and his lower lip trembled when he told me, “When I was ready to go ashore in France, I saw body bags stacked up like firewood waiting to be shipped home. The height of the stacks was over my head. My thought was is that how I’m going home? What about my family?” (I was born when he was in the Mojave training for Africa). Not being in that situation, I can’t even imagine having that thought in my head for the years of active duty that followed. Surely that would change you. But, he came home.

 

[Marc]

I suggest there are very, very few people who would not significantly change after being thrust into a war zone whether in combat or as support personnel. How could one not be affected by a situation where you're in a foreign land and to know you might not return. Few people want to die young despite the tendancy for optimism in most youths. As one gets older the realities start sinking in and one increasingly realizes their own mortality is evident, one better sees through the eyes of experience many of the follies, and the emotion of the loss of friends and such take a further toll. Many people even feel increasing guilt that they did survive (why me?).

My father was in WWII as was an uncle. Neither talked about it but I do remember as a kid (it had to be the late 1950's) that my uncle, after being heavily prodded by several of us male kids, did tell a few stories. He told of taking on German tanks and how at one place they got into trees and poured gasoline on a bunch of tanks as they passed under and then lit the gas. In my mind I could see the soldiers coming out engulfed in flames skin searing and burning in the heat and flames. As kids we never heard about American dead. In later years they wouldn't talk about the war even with prodding.

About 1959 - 1961 I went to Culver - a naval themed military school and summer 'camp' in Indiana. It was kinda neat. I was in the summer camp program for several years. My father told me at the time this was somewhat what it was like being in the Army.

Around 1964-5 my father gave me Catch 22 and told me to read it and to think long and hard before considering the services. I was about 14-15 years old.

Luckily I didn't have to go to Viet Nam. Nor have I served in the armed forces at any time. The closest I have come is working in the military-industrial complex - design and manufacturing of 'classified' military electronics hardware and firmware. I feel I've done my 'part' for the military - But... I can only imagine what the horrors one experiences in a combat zone in some far away land would do to me. I have enough trouble dealing with 'normal' life in Ohio...

 

[Randy Stewart]

A lot of things can change us. What you speak of Randy, the Police and Marines, give you or expose you to a different side of humanity that a majority of people never see. I know my time in Beruit changed me more than any other episode in my life. I never wanted my children to go through and see the things that I experienced, not those horrors. In some areas I may be more indifferent now, but I know I appreciate what I have more. No doubt.

 

[Marc]

Originally posted by SteelMaiden
I'm thinking that if we go into partnership with Marc and publish a redneck quality geek cookbook, we'll be able to get that shiny new server he was talking about wanting?

My donation for the week:

***DEAD LINK REMOVED****

Starling Stew with Olives
A recipe from Calvin Schwabe's "Unmentionable Cuisine."
This one comes from Turkey where it's known as "Karatavuk yahnisi."

"Fry some chopped turnips and carrots. Add a little stock and a glass of red wine. Place some starlings or other small birds in the pan. Add a thin purée of boiled potatoes mashed with beaten eggs, dry mustard, and some stock and a little beer. Cover with stock and cook for about 30 minutes, adding some ripe olives near the end."


:thedeal:

 

[Randy Stewart]

Marc is that recipe for those spoiled cats you see on the Fancy Feast commercials????

 

[Marc]

I know it's not the thread title, but this is also the roadkill and eating - shall we use the word strange - food thread.

This thread has taken more twists and turns than a mule path through the Rockey's. :thedeal: