farts are better than belches,belches are betterthan burps-but diarhea is the best of all

ok.......

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

a long one,but extremely relevant,with creeping totalitarianism on the horizon here-brought to you by both major parties.remain vigilant.and remain armed

Mid October of 1981,I arrived,along with a batch of other "newbies",at my first military assignment,in Friedbergh,Germany.I was artillery,at the time,and was assigned to an artillery unit over there,and was now ready to start doing some REAL soldiering,after all my training was done.Well,when we arrived,the unit was gone,to Grafenwohr,a large live fire training area in Germany,so we had about two weeks to get setlled in and pretty much relax.(lots of time to get aquainted REAL well with German beer,as well)
Well,finally the unit returned from the field,and all of us were assigned to our respective batteries and gun sections.I went to "charlie" battery,and then,I met HIM.SFC,or sergeant first class Cruz,the Chief of Firing battery,or the platoon sergeant in charge of all six gun sections within the battery,assisted by the gunnery sergeant,SFC Mexia,the "mad mexican".Boy,these guys scared the crap out of US!

This was only 6 years after the last US troops had left Viet Nam,and the war was still reasonably fresh in everyone's memory.By contrast,as a desert storm veteran,my war was 16 years ago,and its ancient history to young soldiers coming in the army now.Not so for us-these guys were real live viet nam vets,who had been in combat while I was in junior high.And had stuck it out during the "hollow army" days after vietnam.Totally dedicated guys.And tough.And mean as a snake.

Well,we all settled into our gun sections,and SFC Cruz,or as the platoon sergeant in artillery units is known,"smoke",became more and more a part of our lives.The guy was everywhere.And was indestructable.We did'nt think he was human.He was a VERY stern taskmaster,expecting nothing but the absolute best from his soldiers.And we certainly did'nt want to dissapoint him.THAT could get ugly.....But he also showed another side.The guy was a walking encyclapedia of military knowledge-and loved training young soldiers.And after he taught you something-ONCE-he expected that you would'nt forget it.BETTER not.He'd make your life miserable.

Then,after a few months,our first sergeant was abrubtly relieved of his duties,and Cruz took over that slot.Oh shit,we're in trouble....

But it was'nt that bad,Cruz was colorful,to say the least-fluent in three languages,and able to cuss in five(english,spanish,german,korean and vietnamese),he soon became the dominant first sergeant,out of the 5 of them within the battalion.He was a prick,but he was OUR prick.We took pride in the fact that we could take whatever he dished out,and come back for more.He knew we were eating it up too,and he soon had built quite the winning team,We were Cruz's boys,and we were the baddest sumbitches on the block-and KNEW it.

We could'nt have been the tight knit,highly trained unit we turned into,without his firm hand,and huge grasp of technical knowledge about just about everything.

He CARED about us too-thats part of what an NCO does.And woe unto the sergeant under him,who was'nt taking care of his guys.They did'nt REMAIN sergeants.He'd stop into the barracks every weekend,just to see how we were doing-a habit that remains in MY bag of NCO tricks.

I owe a lot to the guy.I try to emulate him,as an NCO.But those are some REAL big shoes to fill.But it gives me something to shoot for.

I have'nt seen the guy since 1983.But knowing him,he's hanging around soldiers-when not chasing beer and women.