School's Out.............

Today, I spent all day talking to 8th graders in a local junior high school. Part of what I do as a living historian is to educate the public, so I get to go into schools and talk to the kids, taking my surgical equipment along and hopefully getting them interested in their country's history. Ever since I started the hobby of living history, I made it a point to offer my services to local schools, since I know that schools are short on money and teachers don't have very many resources that they can use. Not to mention, it's a great deal of fun for me. I find that kids will ask questions that challenge me. They are not afraid to ask "stupid" questions. (I don't believe there is such a thing as a stupid question, other than the question you are afraid to ask.)

I had a pretty good time and the kids were bright and asked quite a few good questions so all in all it was a good day. Tomorrow I will go back to the same school for another day of questions and answers with a different bunch, I am looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday...........

Two birthdays of note..........

1853 William Barclay "Bat" Masterson, Buffalo Hunter, Gambler, Saloon Owner, Lawman, Gunfighter and Sports Writer was born in Canada today.

1871 The National Rifle Association was organized.

We Are Coming, Father Abr'am, Three Hundred Thousand More,

As many of you know, I am in love with words both written and spoken. In fact, that is part of the reason I blog, to give me a chance to be something of a word smith and to share my love of words and history with others.

On this day, in 1863 in a small crossroad town in Pennsylvania, a man who had been asked to say a few appropriate words at the dedication of a cemetery stood and spoke for two to three minutes. His speech only had 252 words in it. This was the time of great oratory, when speeches would last for hours so it was considered by some to be a poor effort, even a failure. But in those 252 words, so carefully crafted, this man, created a speech that would live forever. A previous speaker that day said ""I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

The man was Abraham Lincoln, The speech, The Gettysburg Address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Scarecrow! Scarecrow! The Soldiers of the King Feared His Name. Scarecrow! On the Southern Coast Of England, There's A Legend People Tell,

O.K. boys and girls, I was a little bummed out so I reverted back in my mind to the days of my childhood. (I know, a lot of folks including my good wife will be saying "and this is different somehow?")

Walt Disney recently released the DVD of Dr Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. I think that I will pick up a copy and see if it still holds up. I watched it when I was a young pup on the "Wonderful World of Disney" and it scared the bejesus out of me with the costumes of the Scarecrow and his crew as well as the laugh on the theme song. But with all that I still enjoyed watching it. As a matter of fact, it is one of the very few TV programs that I do remember fairly clearly.

I hope it is as good as I remember. A bunch of TV programs that I watched when I was younger when I watch them today I think "What the HELL was I thinking?" -grin-

Maybe the Scarecrow was the reason I am into the Revolutionary War so much. Who knows?

Bang, Bang, She Shot Me Down............

Last week was a very busy time for me. I spent most of it at the North Carolina Justice Academy in Salemburg at a firearms instructor conference. Once a year, the state host this conference so that instructors can catch up on the latest policies and laws and regulations on training, use of force and what the powers that be in Raleigh are up to. It also gives instructors a chance to network, pick up some extra training or just get away from the P.D. or Sheriff’s office for a while. Normally they will have various types of training such as armorer’s courses for various types of weapons, developing proper mindset for combat, various shooting drill that the instructor can take back to his department and other stuff like that. Since they didn’t have any armorer’s courses that I was interested in I stuck with mostly range stuff. (Which with me being on crutches, made for a very interesting time) I did pick up enough ideas to add to my training program to have made it worth my while to have gone, but standing there in the rain and wind, I wondered at the time, just what the HELL I was doing out there. –grin-

To be honest, I felt just a little like a dinosaur out there. I only saw two or three people that I knew. I learned that of the 20 people I had gone to instructor school with (back in the dawn of recorded history) I was the last still instructing. The next to the last one, dropped dead from a heart attack seven months ago. Things have changed so much since those days. I didn’t see a single revolver being used all week on the firing line. Back when I started, Semi-autos were the exception. Now the firing line is populated with young’uns dressed all in black with all kinds of high speed / low drag equipment. Semi-autos with all the bells and whistles, lasers and all other kinds of toys. Now mind you, I am not totally opposed to toys, I even took the opportunity to shoot a Glock model 18 which was a blast in more ways than one. That sucker puts out 1300 rounds per minute, which was pretty cool until I figured out how much it cost to feed that beast. (50 rounds at $10.03 was the cheapest I could find, not counting shipping. Do the math yourself) It sure doesn’t take long to empty a 33 round magazine.

I got to talking to a fellow I met out there on the firing line, older guy, like me. We were comparing notes on issues that we had run into and we both agreed that the youngsters that we are getting out of rookie school are missing a little something that most old cops have. You see, most of today's rookies have never been in a honest to goodness fight in their lives. So when they hit the street, they are like lost sheep. They have been trained by society that all violence is wrong, so they hesitate to take action to defend themselves or others until it’s too late. This fellow told me that he was thinking that there would be a sharp rise in Law Enforcement officers being killed and injured in the next few years, since the bad guys (and girls) are not taught the same thing. I had to agree, since I have trained officers who told me to my face that they would me much happier if they didn’t have to carry a weapon on duty. Now that, believe it or not, that was a uniform wearing police officer who told me that. I don’t know what the answer is, if there even is one but to be honest, I am very worried about the future…..

Armistice Day

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns on the western front fell silent after the 4 years of blood letting that was the first World War. There are estimates that there were as many as 40 million casualties military and civilian worldwide as the result of this war. The horror and unprecedented destruction that took place in these four years should never be forgotten since they molded the modern world in ways that are still being felt to this day. It was only in 1956 that the U.S. turned it into Veteran's Day, a day to commemorate it as a day that all veterans of all of America's wars should be remembered on.

This poem is dedicated to the men of 1914-1918

In Flanders Fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

And to show how interesting history is, I discovered that on this day 90 years ago, when the rest of the world was putting down their weapons, a detachment of the American 339th Infantry Regiment (supported by soldiers of the British Royal Scots regiment as well as Canadian Artillery) was engaged with multiple units of Red Guards and irregular Bolshevik partisans near the village of Toulgas in Northern Russia. At the end of the battle, it was estimated that the Bolsheviks had lost over 300 dead and unknown numbers wounded. The Americans and their allies suffered 28 killed and 70 wounded. The Americans were in Russia to protect war supplies that had been sold to the Imperial Russian Government and to keep them from falling into the hands of the communist. This turned into a 6 month intervention to try to support the white forces in the Civil War.

Happy Birthday Marines!!!!!!

On November 10th 1775 the Continental Congress resolved that two battalions of Marines be raised. From that date to this day, 233 years later, the United States Marine Corps has served the American people with honor and distinction. I have taken the liberty of attaching a few quotes from and about this organization of warriors:


The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!
Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, 1945

Gone to Florida to fight the Indians. Will be back when the war is over.
Colonel Commandant Archibald Henderson, USMC
in a note pinned to his office door, 1836



Hell, these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima. Bagdad ain't sh*t.
Marine Major General John F. Kelly


I come in peace, I didn't bring artillery. But I am pleading with you with tears in my eyes: If you f*ck with me, I'll kill you all.
Marine General James Mattis, to Iraqi tribal leaders

Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share.
Ned Dolan


The United States Marine Corps, with its fiercely proud tradition of excellence in combat, its hallowed rituals, and its unbending code of honor, is part of the fabric of American myth.
Thomas E. Ricks; Making the Corps, 1997