Greetings of the morning..

[ironglow]

  I have only this to say...

[Bob Riebe]

I would rather see Melania up there. 

I have to admit that during the inaugeration, when the choir sang: The Battle Hymn of the Republic,  it almost brought a tear to my eyes.
I loved the Black Preacher's prayer!!!

[ironglow]

I would rather see Melania up there. 

I have to admit that during the inaugeration, when the choir sang: The Battle Hymn of the Republic,  it almost brought a tear to my eyes.
I loved the Black Preacher's prayer!!!

  Even though that preacher's prayer, seemed to more represent an endorsement speech ?    

   BTW; I liked it too !

[Bob Riebe]

Listening to the band and the choir, I have to remember that to get to that point, they have to go through basic training, i.e., they have to crawl through muc, barb wire and all the things that make a soldier a soldier.

[ironglow]

 I suspect every soldier or marine remembers nthe "infiltration course"...

  It looks by this video that it has changed greatly.  I went through the basic training twice,.. 1955 and 1962. 

  In the old "brown boot" Army (1955) the machine guns swept across the field at 36 inches..enough to get a ricochet off the old M1, if some trooper
  somehow got his rifle vertical.

  Tracers in this video, look like the bullets are clearing the field at 5-6 feet.. Remember; one tracer out of every 5 rounds fired.

  By 1962, the guns were stationary, and at 42 inches...however, both had quarter pound charges  of TNT in pits, spread across the field...which
   would blow up whenever any troop got near them.  ..Don't see them in this video..

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVbWzrlZOS8

       

[ironglow]

  In th ecourse of the 1950s, some of these guys would have gotten their butts shot off.  They are way too high.

  We started under barb wire abiout a foot off the ground...necessary to slide under about 10 yuards on our backs..with our rifle oin ur belly, or beside.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKH8JFPhHRY

[ironglow]

Hery! Looky what I found..a "big picture" film from the 1950s, showing the training we did then.. At about the 9 minute mark, the old "brown boot"
  army infiltration course is shown.

  You can see clearly the pits with sand bags around..containing1/4 pound charges of TNT.. I think the guys running the show waited to see somebody
  close to a pit..an dthen cut loose the charge.

  With the sweep of guns at only 36", you can see why we had to stay low..   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfoquCG8rY

  I heard in later years that some celebrity's son came upon a rattle snake and jumped up..getting a far worse 30/06 bite, so gun height was changed.
 ...But that may have just been scuttlebutt.