no text : ( [it would be great if podcast teasers are announced in the headline]
but the headline reminds me of this great story: US Marines brutally ambushed and defeated by Norwegian kids
I have recently been looking up Actors & Actresses that were in WWII. Sterling Hayden was a Cpt. in the Marines. His semi autobiography “The Wanderer” touches on it, but I went digging for more info, it’s all very interesting, to me.
I was mentioning this to somebody the other day, but I was a little confused and thought that it was during the later Carolina Maneuvers.
We’ll also rhapsodize on guinea pigs and puzzle over some praiseworthy incompetence.
We get that daily at my place of work / slave / worship.
Mark Twain had a relevant experience during our most recent domestic unpleasantness.
“The question was which way to retreat; but all were so flurried that nobody seemed to have even a guess to offer. Except Lyman. He explained in a few calm words, that inasmuch as the enemy were approaching from over Hyde’s prairie, our course was simple: all we had to do was not to retreat toward him; any other direction would answer our needs perfectly.”
One suspects that it was a carbide gun, something like this. http://cowanauctions.com/itemImages/mm5612.jpg
They managed to take out the local ferris wheel with it too!
I’m going to have to give this a look. It dawned on me as soon as I read your comment that I only konw Sterling Hayden for one thing.
I mean…okay, yes, I’ve seen The Godfather, but aside from that, the only thing I’m conscious of him being in is Doctor Strangelove, and that’s a shame since he’s so good in that.
Ambrose Bierce also covered this situation in “The Devil’s Dictionary”:
VALOR, n. A soldierly compound of vanity, duty and the gambler’s hope.
“Why have you halted?” roared the commander of a division at Chickamauga, who had ordered a charge; “move forward, sir, at once.”
“General,” said the commander of the delinquent brigade, “I am persuaded that any further display of valor by my troops will bring them into collision with the enemy.”
Accomplished Mariner, and decent author too.
An acquaintance of mine’s uncle served with Jonathan Winters in the USMC. Apparently he was a cut up even then, doing thing like using an invisible yoyo while waiting dockside…
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