11 Nov 18
“Where there is trust, no proof is necessary. Where there is none, no proof is possible.”
Anon
The Great War officially ends, 11 Nov 18, 100 years ago!
In a recent photo of the USMC Drill Team passing in review (“eyes left”), I noticed they are all carrying M1 Rifles (Garands).
However, bolts and op-rods have been removed!
Can you believe it?
I remember as a young USMC 2nd Lt at Quantico, VA (1968) taking my M14 home with me (off base), because there was no time to clean them during the day’s activities. We, along with our wives, had to clean than at home, at night!
We cleaned our M60s the same way, at home!
They were ever eminently functional, and we knew it. We were trusted, absolutely, and trust conferred upon us was a critical point of honor!
Discipline was ridged and morale high. We dressed sharply, walked upright, spoke clearly and in complete sentences, and never thought of doing otherwise, lest we disgrace our families and our Regiment.
No slouched posture, sloppy dressing, mumbled speech, nor dull eyes buried in iPhones!
The point, drilled into us, was always:
“Bona fide war is only a breath away, son. You may be called upon to engage in real fighting, with that very rifle, before this day is over. Your nation, your family, and your Corps EXPECT great things from you.
Be always ready!”
ROTC units today drill with 1903 Springfields, with steel rods welded into the bores. They have been thus converted to scrap metal, and can never be returned to service!
Military academies, who used to drill with functional guns, now use sterile, plastic props!
Today, apparently there is no one who can be trusted with real guns, and thinking about (much less talking about) US forces engaging in real war any time soon is evidently unthinkable!
Those responsible for this nauseating decline, leftist legislators, academics, and media people, remind me of ancient pagan priests, who irrationally feared “objects” and “occurrences,” and who regularly chopped heads off of innocent people in a fruitless attempt to appease insatiable, invisible (and patently false) gods.
“The pervasive expansiveness of the (Roman) Empire which we see today did not come about as a result of accident, nor precipitous good fortune. These (Roman) warriors do not sit around congratulating themselves in the wake of every victory, nor are they idle in peacetime. Rather, they are constantly training and refining their warrior skills, so as to be ready at a moment’s notice.
Indeed, they seem to have been born with weapons in their hands!
Josephus Flavius, circa 90AD (before The Decline)
/John
