March 2010 - Argghhh!

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

Heartless Lib was asking about whether or not the deac reckless rifle was an M20 or an M18. It's an M18. And I'm betting, Heartless, that the M20 your guys pulled out of a cache was a Chinese copy - though it could be a Korea-capture, too, in that part of the world. Snerk. Or just bought at an arms bazaar in Pakistan, eh? We can arrange for a pic of the M20 on the Technical, once I decide I feel like schlepping 114 pounds around to do it. Speaking of the Technical - she needs a name. Suggestions...

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

There are two Medals awarded for actions on this day, though there are several from the Civil War and Philippine Insurrection which will come shortly and include this day. One Medal is a posthumous award.Civil War. The Appomattox Campaign, the beginning of the end.PEARSON, ALFRED L. Rank and organization: Colonel, 155th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Lewis' Farm, Va., 29 March 1865. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Birth: Pittsburgh, Pa. Date of issue: 17 September 1897. Citation...

There are four Medals awarded for actions on this day. One each during the Indian Campaigns, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Two were posthumous.Indian Campaigns - doing what now might well be a Posse Comitatus violation.WILSON, WILLIAMRank and organization: Sergeant, Company I, 4th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Colorado Valley, Tex., 28 March 1872. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 27 April 1872. Second award. Citation: In pursuit of a band of cattle...

…will be revealed shortly. But first, the backstory.According to some traditions in the ME, the Magi – or Wise Men – who traveled from the East, following the Star to Bethlehem were Chaldeans, a people whose Magi were as learned in the natural sciences – especially astronomy – as the Babylonians were. The Chaldeans called the area around present-day Basra home, way back when. They gradually migrated north, and today, most of the Chaldeans live in northern Iraq and Kurdistan...

...*and* it's in context!Now, for those of you who just got here *waving hiya at the weekend visitors*and jumped to the picture without actually reading the text, expecting to see another pic of one of John's bullet launchers, and have bactracked to the header in utter confusion and bewilderment (much like an independent voter who opted for HopenChange a lifetime sixteen months ago), take a quick trip here for the first pic.No hurry. I'll wait.And for those of you who have already seen...