At long last, the bayonet came off. Super. Guns run out of bullets, but knives never run out of stab. I climbed over the wall, ran for the tree line, and once there, looked up for the southern cross constellation. Vietnam is below the equator and so the north star is not visible there, but the southern cross constellation is. It’s featured on the flags of Australia and New Zealand. Once I saw it, OK cool. I know which way to run now. That constellation points towards the south star, Sigma Octantis, in a similar way that the Big Dipper points towards the north star. This was the second time astronomy came in useful during my time in the Army.
I found a river and followed it. Follow any body of water long enough and you will find people. It’s a trick I learned from reading various survival stories as a boy. Also, there is less vegetation to get through if you follow a river. As dawn broke, I came upon a village and saw some women going down to the river to fetch water.
It was hard to tell if they were friendly or enemy, so I hid in the bushes near them for a while and listened to them talk. I was so hungry and thirsty; I was very close to just straight up asking them for help. As they fetched water, I listened to them chat very closely. As soon as I heard one of the women say “well, I think Ho Chi Minh is son of a bitch”, I knew I had reached a friendly village. I came out from behind the bushes and begged for help with the best Vietnamese I could muster. I explained that I was an American soldier here to fight the communists, that I had been captured and tortured, and had narrowly escaped. They recognized my clothes as being the uniform of an NVA soldier which helped my case more than anything I said.
“Come with us” said one of the women. They took me back to hut, checked me for wounds, and gave me tea and a rice ball. It tasted so good. “Where are you headed?” asked another. I told her I’m heading for Da Nang, where the big American base is. “That’s a long way from here” she replied. “Why not stay with us for a while and recover? You’re safe here. We’re south of the DMZ and American aircraft fly over our village often” she continued. That was enough to reassure me, though the Army would consider me missing in action and Truman would be worried sick about me. Whatever, I thought. He’s a big boy and surely went through worse during WW2.
The villagers were of course very curious about me and asked me a lot of questions. In many cases, I wasn’t sure what to say. I told them I had been in the Central Highlands where I had been helping a village of Montagnards fight the communists. “How long have you been in Vietnam?” asked a villager. “About two and a half years, and I’m looking forward to going home for good” I responded. “Do you think the communists will win the war?” asked another. “Maybe, but I did everything I could and then some to stop that from happening. I’m not a general and have no say over the big strategy”, I explained. “My time in the Army is almost over and I just want to get home alive”, I added. It’s best to avoid controversial subjects with people you don’t know well, and those subjects are religion, politics, and money.
When I seemed healthy enough, they asked me to help out in the village. I chopped firewood, fetched water, and helped harvest the rice. There was no opium or marijuana to be had in the village and that was good for me. I switched to Vietnamese moonshine and beer. I drank some moonshine back in West Virginia to celebrate my college graduation. I didn’t care much for alcohol back then because I was focused on my studies. In college, it was the same except it was beer instead of moonshine. It took the edge off, but it was very hard to get when I was in various training schools for the Army, so I was basically straight edge in those days. When I got to the outpost in Vietnam, my stress level went way up, and I needed a way to cope. I knew I needed to get off the junk eventually anyone, so the village was a place to switch my addictions. Call it jungle rehab.
Since it was such a long way to Da Nang and US aircraft flew over the village often, I decided to spell out SOS in really big letters by planting bamboo in a clearing. Bamboo grows really fast; some species as fast as a meter per day. A few days, later I heard a chopper coming, so I pushed some of the stalks aside, stood in the middle of the O, and waved my arms. I must have looked like a dancing period in an O to the pilot. The door gunner pointed at me and waved back. I left the bamboo and moved to where the chopper was landing. To this day, I love the sound of helicopters. For me, it’s the sound of relief and safety. They flew me back to Da Nang in a jiffy. I was about to show the pilot my dog tags because he wouldn’t hear me over the sound of the engine. He yelled back “don’t worry, man lots of guys have been looking for you. Thank god you’re alive.”
I wonder how long that big bamboo SOS stayed visible. I’m sure word got around about it and it was a local landmark for a while. And so I became a minor celebrity amongst US troops in Vietnam.
Truman was waiting for me on the helipad. We saluted each other.
“Tommy, you’re taking years off my life with this shit.”
“Sorry, sir. My leave plans took an unexpected turn.”
“OK, executive decision. You’re done. You’ll be hanging out here in a safe rear area until your tour is up.”
I can’t say was looking forward to three months of pushing paper at Da Nang, but I couldn’t argue the logic of his decision. Maybe I could something interesting to do.
“Understood, sir. I’ll try to make myself useful.”
“Don’t try too hard. That’s an order too. Dismissed!”
Vietnam is below the equator and so the north star is not visible there,
???
OK, you win. Vietnam is not south of the equator. Not sure how I got that idea when I was writing the story. I guess I really wanted to teach astronomy about an unfamiliar location.
Technically, you can see the Southern Cross during part of the year in Vietnam, since it’s below latitude 26 North.
More realism. Joes repeat a lot of crap that they hear but isn’t true.
I see somebody already caught the SC bit. You are correct it is visible for parts of the year from VTN, and even from Hawaii.
Don’t sweat it. The end of the movie “The Green Berets” has the Sun setting in the east. That is a bit bigger flub.
“Knives never run out of stab.”
Mr. Stabby nods appreciatively from his closet sheath.
Word just came out:
They are not going to retry the rancher who was accused of shooting the illegal/cartel drug mule. Charges dismissed.
Also, apparently the county spent $1MM on the trial, which for that county is an assload of money.
I hadn’t followed closely.
They got a hung jury?
If I recall Dean’s previous posts, 11 votes to acquit, one hold out to convict. Not good odds to secure a conviction on a retrial.
7 – 1 to acquit.
They can bring him to trial again, but it really would require significant new evidence. Since the only witnesses are (a) the elderly rancher and his wife and (b) a bunch of so-far-unidentified illegals (except the one who was kinda foggy about his own name when he was on the stand), I doubt that will happen.
It was really, really important that they try to make an example out of this guy so that the lawlessness on the border could continue unabated.
You can’t have people thinking they can defend themselves from this invading hoard.
On the last post, Grumbletarian asked (regarding Animal’s lunchtime story):
“How can one be north of something in space? Was the intent to sort of position the ship stably above the north pole of the gas giant without putting it into an orbit over both poles?”
In (I think) Weber’s Honor Harrington series, it was explained that you look at the orbits of the planets in a system, and then kind of arbitrarily specify a flat plane that intersects the star, and is reasonably close to co-planar with the orbits of the planets. You call stuff on one side of that plane “north” and the other side “south”. I don’t recall how they decided which side was north, presumably there was some algorithmic method that could be applied, such that any ship entering the system would consistently arrive at the same decision. I don’t remember if there was some analog for “east” and “west”.
Animal may have something else in mind altogether, of course.
Query: Do the orbital planes of planetary systems tend to align with the plane of the galaxy they are in?
Negative; our own solar system does not.
Right Hand Coordinate system.
Curl your fingers in the direction of the orbit of the planets. Your thumb points to the North.
Arbitrary, but not totally arbitrary.
Three dimensional coordinate system. X crossed into Y is the Z axis.
But you said there would be no math . . . . . .
There are five stable points around the Earth (not counting geosynchronous orbit) . They are roughly aligned with the equator. It gets more dicey if a planetary system has multiple large moons.
what is stable relative to what?
“stable relatives”
You can’t be serious
The five Lagrange Points.
https://www.chicagospace.org/the-five-lagrange-points-l1-l2-l3-l4-and-l5/
Good description and illustration.
Thanks, dbl!
I was thinking of those. If you just consider the start itself to be north, like the geographic north pole of a planet, then north of a planet would be the planet’s L1 LaGrange point.
Person I know in NE sent this update from Friday, 10 tornadoes in the area, half of them EF-3: https://www.3newsnow.com/weather/weather-blog/confirmed-tornadoes-from-fridays-tornado-outbreak
During my stint in the hospital last weekend, one of the things I worried about was my cat and whether she still had food and water (turns out she did).
I am now thinking about getting an indoor surveillance/pet camera. Doesn’t have to be a hidden one.
They seem suspiciously cheap.
Anyone have advice or experience? It would be nice not to be hacked.
https://www.amazon.com/Security-Cameras-Detection-Tracking-Wireless/dp/B09CKQ7KW1?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
I subbed an English language arts class today. It was nice to see that they had studied Animal Farm earlier in the year. Hopefully some of them at least learned about how it was a satire of the USSR. I do what I can. Some of them, especially the soft, stupid, and weak ones will be recruited to be enforcers of Biden and other vermin. Maybe when their arms get ripped out of their sockets, they will understand that their commanders will not help them.
I read part of Maus by Art Speigelman today. How quickly the totalitarian schemes described therein would have ended with a few well-placed rifle shots. Molon labe. Come and take them. No wonder those cowards are still trembling about the unarmed protesters who briefly held their holy of holies.
Cowards and fools, all of them, and especially Joe Biden. The reason why the word “pussy” is an insult is because it means “you are so unmanly you might as well be the thing between a woman’s legs.”
I hope everyone who voted for Joe “Pussy” Biden is real proud of themselves.
This is why you should only laugh at any cry of insurrection. It would have taken a few dozen armed and motivated Trump supporters to cause some real havoc on the system that day. It was a Fed plan to discredit MAGA, though, and you just had a hapless and aimless mob making its way through the Capitol.
Next time, those people may not be so naive and aimless. That’s what really scares them and why they built a wall around the Capitol. They played with fire.
Did you see the newly released video of “podium guy”?
It showed him placing the podium down a few greet from where the cheeky pic of him carrying it and waving at the camera. He poses for a few pictures with the standing podium, a few others pose too, and he leaves it standing there undamaged.
There are HOURS of exculpatory footage from all over the Capitol that will never see the light of day because it shows that it was indeed a “mostly peaceful protest”, more of an unguided tour really, and the cops and security let many of them in like guests.
The average Code Pink protest in the gallery is more disruptive. But we almost lost America that day!! Good thing all those insurrectionists forgot their weapons that day.
Didn’t you see??? They found a small pen knife in a first aid kit!!
Bogus etymology.
Pussy come from pusillanimous. “Pussy Cat” camer about because cats are pusillanimous. “Pussy” meaning vulva came about because they’re cute, furry, and fun to pet. See also “beaver” and (I have read) “squirrel” in some countries.
::narrows gaze:: I’m not prepared to accept etymological explanations on the origin of “pussy” from a rat, however impeccably dressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Ekjzq5Tew
Understand your enemy, and you can’t lose. Don’t understand them, and you can’t win.
What it’s like to be me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACXOhRIe-s4
Army Special Forces are trained to understand the language, history, religion, and culture of the people there are sent to help.
***
Wendell Fertig (December 16, 1900 – March 24, 1975)[1] was an American civil engineer, in the American-administered Commonwealth of the Philippines, who organized and commanded an American-Filipino guerrilla force on the Japanese-occupied, southern Philippine island of Mindanao during World War II. Fertig’s widely scattered guerrilla force numbered approximately 32,000.[2] He faced about 50,000 Japanese soldiers, mostly garrison troops in towns and cities.[3]
…
Fertig was widely regarded as a hero by the people of Mindanao. In June 1958, Wendell Fertig and his wife returned to Mindanao on a business trip. As the inter-island freighter pulled into Cagayan de Oro, the ship’s captain approached Fertig and said, “Sir, I think friends await you.” As numerous small craft full of shouting men surrounded the ship, Wendell and Mary Fertig saw:[105]
…thousands of Filipinos waiting at the waterfront at Cagayan… They had come from every corner of Mindanao… There were masses of women in the white uniforms of the Women’s Auxiliary Service, and men wearing caps of the Philippine Veterans Legion, and the red fezzes of the Moros… The men were shouting and the women were singing…
They then saw a huge banner over the pier:[9]
Welcome the Indomitable Patriot Who Have Lessened Human Suffering on Mindanao
***
^they’re
typos, I make them
Bonus MSM: got “Republicans pounce” and “mostly peaceful” in the same headline.
https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1784915507210039748?s=19
impressive! Did that intern get a gold star sticker for his work? Or would a gold star be to close to (((them)))?
https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1785177416291217853
Mostly peaceful indeed. No different than that jackasses that broke windows on the hollowed ground of Democracy!
https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1785183713099149518
I am sure there is a fire code violation in that and the persons intentionally blocking a known exit will surely be prosecuted right?
Huh, the world hasn’t ended yet?
Have a great day Glibs!
🌄✊☕
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1ClCpfeIELw
🎶🎶. Such a chill tune.
Morning.
*waves*
Nineties overload 👍
Good morning, Sean, U, rhy, Stinky, OBE, and HES (if you’re still awake!)
Mornin’.
How’s it going?
Morning.
How are you today (other than the understandable disorientation from the disruption of clutter stasis?)
I’m a bit tired. I hope to make it to a sane bed time.
Not sure how well that will work.
I used my messed up sleep schedule to do a
bitbunch of cleaning. Now I’m in that state where everything looks worse because I distrupted the neat clutter.“Razer made a million dollars selling a mask with RGB, and the FTC is not pleased / Razer allegedly misled customers by saying its cyberpunk-style face mask was N95 grade.”
https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/29/24144425/razer-zephyr-face-mask-covid-n95-ftc-settlement
You know, it’s almost unethical to NOT take someone’s money who’d buy a contraption like that but I suppose the false advertising isn’t good.
Have mercy, there’s people still sticking up for mask wearing in the comments. Some people will just never learn.
Hey, the Hamas-boosters are totally wearing masks to cut the spread of COVID through their encampments! They say so!
They say that of course but it’s to make them potentially harder to identify. Shady I suppose but I bet there are some Jan. 6thers who wish they’d worn a mask.
something something sucker born something
Beat me to it…
Good Morning to all my fellow and lady Glibs
Good morning, 4(20)!
I initially misread that as “a mask with RBG” and thought it was a basic cloth mask with the image of “St. Ruth” on it.
There was that guy who was wearing a mask that was printed to look like the mask was under his chin.
That seems too compliant to qualify as “malicious compliance,” so…I don’t know what you’d call that. 🤔
…maybe “compliant malice?”
It was “gather videos of me being harassed for not wearing a mask properly and put them on the internet.”
I was thinking you bought the mask and it came with an RPG.