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Post by plainsman on Aug 2, 2012 11:30:44 GMT -6
Fred, I actually WAS going to mention the in-person vs. web-written communication thing. And I also agree that mis-reading is probably more often at fault than mis-writing. I am not innocent, nor do I claim to be. My Irish, or whatever affliction it is, sometimes gets my dander up and I say ugly things that I almost always regret it later. Just too damn easy to push SEND. And you don't have to worry about that "Let's step outside for a moment!" response, either.
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Post by montrose on Aug 2, 2012 11:48:27 GMT -6
QC,
I resent that.
I am a sufferable bore.
William
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Post by quincannon on Aug 2, 2012 11:54:05 GMT -6
William: You are nothing of the kind, and you know it. In fact to use your words I nonconcur.
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Post by montrose on Aug 2, 2012 12:11:14 GMT -6
QC,
I spent 3 years as an action officer at USSOCOM, where I had the joy of writing hundreds of information, point, and decision papers. If you look at my early posts, I used these formats because they are useful. However, I don't think others liked it, I got many complaints.
So concur as written, or non concur with explanations is part of that language. I like it; as staff language is designed not to cause offense. Like the Godfather, it's just business.
If you want things to nonconcur on, I was the command action officer for the DACOWITS committee. So every 6 months I had to explain why women were not allowed in SF, the SEALs, Delta Force, etc.
I am working now with academics, and with local politicians. There writing style boggles my mind. Figuring out what they are saying is like Bill Belichick explaining his game plans in a news conference.
Still, I find these military formats convenient.
Of course, guys like you and Fred are a bit old fashioned. For you guys communications on a tablet involves the clay tablets you guys used in the Sumerian Army.
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Post by plainsman on Aug 2, 2012 12:20:31 GMT -6
Watch it! Cuneiform rocks!
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Post by benteen on Aug 2, 2012 13:11:54 GMT -6
Plainsman.... Thanks alot. Im on a fixed income and between you and Dark Cloud and Colonel Montrose, I had to buy a thesaurus and a book on US Army acronyms. Now I have to decide whether to give up my Carlo Rossi for a week or food...Well the wife and I could use to lose a few pounds so thats settled ;D
PS...Colonel Montrose I dont know who complained but I enjoyed your format, like to see you use it again
Be Well Dan
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Post by quincannon on Aug 2, 2012 13:48:12 GMT -6
William: I for one loved your formating, and think it gets to the point fast and gets it over quick.
I'll have you know however that when Fred and I were young pups we had a documented MTO&E with a TDA augmentation for a quill sharpener. We were in the modern action army and had redestributed our clay tablets to the SAR (Samerian Army Reserve)
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Post by Yan Taylor on Aug 2, 2012 13:54:03 GMT -6
You guys don’t know how lucky you are; we had a slate and a piece of chalk to do our School work on. When I left School we lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep we' his belt.
Ian.
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Post by plainsman on Aug 2, 2012 13:57:23 GMT -6
Up hill both ways, to and from the mill, roight?
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Post by quincannon on Aug 2, 2012 14:16:19 GMT -6
In bare feet with only a threadbare hand me down coat in the winter time. Inevitably the story carries with it drops of blood tracing your pathway in six foot deep snow, with the wind blowing Force Ten off the Irish Sea. Boy were those the days. Nothing that a good cup of tea, laced with the rum from the Spanish Main could not put right I'd wager.
Boy, has this thread taken a left turn against the traffic or what.
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Post by fred on Aug 2, 2012 14:34:24 GMT -6
Of course, guys like you and Fred are a bit old fashioned. For you guys communications on a tablet involves the clay tablets you guys used in the Sumerian Army. I keep telling people, I fought the last truly conventional war, a war without smart bombs-- except when we were smart enough to bomb-- without all these electronics-- except a transistor radio, and in the early days, without camouflage. A question I often asked but to which I never received a civil answer was, why do we have camouflage helmet covers, yet no other camouflage? To make us look shorter, like we were Vietnamese? I could never figure that out! Best wishes, Fred.
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Post by fred on Aug 2, 2012 14:37:39 GMT -6
... when Fred and I were young pups we had a documented MTO&E with a TDA augmentation for a quill sharpener. Speak for yourself. We turned those in just after we turned in the APCs with dual engines. Actually, that should be "duel" engines since they were always at odds. Best wishes, Fred.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 2, 2012 14:52:50 GMT -6
Ah, the M59. They did have a writing surface for efficient quill pen correspondence, but more often than not you could not get replacement candles so as to see what you were writing. All that changed with the M113 and the introduction of the Mark 1 ball point.
Why did you have camouflage covers. 1) So you could keep your short timers callender 2) So you could have something to wipe off with when you took a lady of ill repute bath 3) It just looks cool, and was more form fitting then the cut up burlap bag it replaced. 4) If you did not have a cover then there would be no need for the helmet cover band to keep it in place and therefore no place to carry you insect repellant. All has a purpose under God's heaven Fred. One must look hard sometimes but it is there. nontheless.
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Post by quincannon on Aug 2, 2012 15:23:36 GMT -6
Another bit of amusement that Montrose will enjoy
" Of course not all officers place the same value on reconnaissace as Custer did"
One would speculate if he placed so much value on reconnaissance then why did he end up dead? Now I will grant that those officers who do not place a hell of a lot of emphasis on reconnaissance do usually end up dead. So it would seem on the surface of the thing to be a great big unpluged discoonect. Maybe the answer is in Chapter 2 of a forthcoming treatise on cavalry mindset
I am at a great loss to understand why, even stipulatiing that Custer was the greatest thing since tactical sliced bread (which I don't believe but will stipulate to for the sake of argument), why those who tend to worship heroes, cannot understand that at this one time, on this one day, in this one place, he was having carnal knowledge of Fido.
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Post by rosebud on Aug 3, 2012 8:00:06 GMT -6
Don't waste your time and mine. They wouldn't like it; it deals only with the truth without patting anyone on the back for their brilliance.
Besides, it is a military and timing analysis only. That should keep its audience in single digits.
Best wishes, Fred.
I was talking about your first book. I am kind of amused when you say it only deals with the truth. When in reality it only deals with the truth as you see it. Another point that caught my eye is the comment that due to the fact that its military, it would bore all but a ( single digit) few Indians.
Just so you know, Custer was in the marines and is fully capable of understanding your book. In fact when I gave him the book the first thing he did was look up the name Yellowrobe. The reasons, I will keep to myself.
It does make me curious why input from the Indians would be a waste of your time when so much wasted time is spent on these boards trying to learn what the Indians know. How much time have you wasted with Clair and Keogh? And I guess me.
Rosebud
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