this is my rifle, there are many like it, but this one is mine
once again I find myself staring at this blank notepad, reminding me of the frequent "whiteouts" I used to get. I haven't bothered to install office on this thing yet, so now everytime I close my I eyes I see this huge purply square thing from the white screen where the persistence of my vision has burned it in my retinas..but only for a moment till the rods and cones take their old shape up again, healing from the scars and burns in front of my eyes so to speak, as the purple mass fades away to the same place those forgotten memories go, the ones we always make funny faces at in attempts to bring them back to the foreground..but it's always to no avail..they are gone.
I just got back home for lunch with my dad after a little morning drive. We stopped by this antique book dealer for quite a while. I was looking for some books on south africa's border wars back in the 70's and 80's, but I had no luck. Instead I found this little book on the Marines. It's called "The Fighting Elite: U.S. Marines, From Boot Camp to the Battle Zones" It's pretty old, published in 1985, but it still had some interesting things in it. It has these tables showing the differen't military occupational specialties, the time it takes to complete the course, and where the training takes place. I naturally skipped right ahead to occupational field 03: Infantry. For each of the ones listed; Rifleman, Machine gunner, Mortar man, and Antitank assaultman, the time for completion was listed as 4 weeks, and the locations were Camp Pendleton, CA and Camp Lejeune,NC. I doubt that the time frame is still accurate for today's Marines, but the Camp Pendleton part sounds right. I also saw another interesting book called "The Whites of Their Eyes". It's all about close quarters combat throughout the history of warfare..knives, bayonets, bare hands. It's something I've actually thought about quite a bit..it's one thing to shoot an enemy thats a few hundred yards away, but quite something else to look him in the eye and to know that it's either you or him, right before you look to your blade for the answer. The mere thought was quite depressing and I decided that I would get enough of that kind of talk in training, so I picked up another book that I've been wanting to read for quite some time now. The book is called "A Rumor of War" by Philip Caputo. It's Caputo's account of his tour in Vietnam..yeah, I know it's not exactly "holiday reading", but Vietnam, the whole conflict, has been a topic of morbid fascination for me for quite some time now. To read of these young men who change every day in a war not even their own country understands, really echoes the same for today... I know the war in Iraq has been labeled as "another Vietnam" or whatever..but the way I feel about it is much different..or maybe it's not.. how many times must we sit through the same detention, when one day just paying attention in class could have saved so many...or something else that makes more sense. When will it ever make sense though...just think about it..there are people who's job it is to kill, just because others choose to corrupt the world with flames and white flashes in the night that not even the innocent are safe from...it's a really shitty thing to say..even sounds like an excuse..but the brutal reality of it is that someone has to be out there doing the dirty work behind the smoke screen, so those who live in front of it don't have to deal with being in the thick of it, to choke to death...
..I don't even want to think about this stuff anymore..for now at least..I'm out
I just got back home for lunch with my dad after a little morning drive. We stopped by this antique book dealer for quite a while. I was looking for some books on south africa's border wars back in the 70's and 80's, but I had no luck. Instead I found this little book on the Marines. It's called "The Fighting Elite: U.S. Marines, From Boot Camp to the Battle Zones" It's pretty old, published in 1985, but it still had some interesting things in it. It has these tables showing the differen't military occupational specialties, the time it takes to complete the course, and where the training takes place. I naturally skipped right ahead to occupational field 03: Infantry. For each of the ones listed; Rifleman, Machine gunner, Mortar man, and Antitank assaultman, the time for completion was listed as 4 weeks, and the locations were Camp Pendleton, CA and Camp Lejeune,NC. I doubt that the time frame is still accurate for today's Marines, but the Camp Pendleton part sounds right. I also saw another interesting book called "The Whites of Their Eyes". It's all about close quarters combat throughout the history of warfare..knives, bayonets, bare hands. It's something I've actually thought about quite a bit..it's one thing to shoot an enemy thats a few hundred yards away, but quite something else to look him in the eye and to know that it's either you or him, right before you look to your blade for the answer. The mere thought was quite depressing and I decided that I would get enough of that kind of talk in training, so I picked up another book that I've been wanting to read for quite some time now. The book is called "A Rumor of War" by Philip Caputo. It's Caputo's account of his tour in Vietnam..yeah, I know it's not exactly "holiday reading", but Vietnam, the whole conflict, has been a topic of morbid fascination for me for quite some time now. To read of these young men who change every day in a war not even their own country understands, really echoes the same for today... I know the war in Iraq has been labeled as "another Vietnam" or whatever..but the way I feel about it is much different..or maybe it's not.. how many times must we sit through the same detention, when one day just paying attention in class could have saved so many...or something else that makes more sense. When will it ever make sense though...just think about it..there are people who's job it is to kill, just because others choose to corrupt the world with flames and white flashes in the night that not even the innocent are safe from...it's a really shitty thing to say..even sounds like an excuse..but the brutal reality of it is that someone has to be out there doing the dirty work behind the smoke screen, so those who live in front of it don't have to deal with being in the thick of it, to choke to death...
..I don't even want to think about this stuff anymore..for now at least..I'm out