Reporter's Notebook: Dying for Fallujah

This is a very good article from an embedded Fox reporter.

Reporter's Notebook: Dying for Fallujah

The Top 10 Things We'd Put On al-Queda's Website If We Hacked It

by John Hawkins And Laurence Simon

10) I've just converted to Judaism. It's now your duty as a loyal al-Queda member to defend Israel from the Palestinians. -- OBL

9) You know that big valley down by the Afghanistan/Pakistan border that there's no easy way out of? I want all of you to meet there next Friday at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. Don't worry, there's no way the Americans will ever find out about this...

8) We've finally gotten that suicide bomber retirement fund we've been talking about. Please post your name, address, and next of kin for our records....

7) I have just seen a secret report from the CIA. One of our members named Muhammad has been compromised. Therefore, please terminate every member of al-Queda you know of with that name. It's the only way we can keep our operations secure...

6) From now on Friday is casual Day. Short-sleeve fatigues and handguns instead of full gear and rifles are allowed.

5) I regret to inform you that I have to resign as your leader. Yasser Arafat and I have fallen madly in love and are running away to a tropical island together. -- OBL

4) We are still appealing the recent ruling that a hijacker's frequent flier miles are invalid for the flights that they hijack...

3) Ok enough kidding around, which one of you jokers painted a huge bullseye above the cave we were hiding in at Tora Bora? My ears are STILL ringing from all the bombs.

2) Here's the new plan...everyone blow up France!

1) The latest al-Queda apparel is online featuring our new slogan, 'The United States kicked my ass in Afghanistan and all I got was this lousy T-shirt'

Email from Iraq

This email was received from The USNAAA Austin Chapter President. I am republishing it here because of my trust of the source. That said, I do have 1 or 2 doubts as to the veracity of one of the acts of heroism. Specifically, I wonder whether the act atributed to Cpl Yeager was actually performed by Cpl Yeager (I truly have no idea). Yet nevertheless, I tend to believe the "meat" of the following account.

The Austin Chapter received this letter from our Area Trustee, Len Wass, who has a direct line into the doings of the USMC in Iraq. We thought the members would like to get some first hand info on how our guys are doing over there.

Quote

Subj: A Son Reports From Fallujah


Email from Dave - Nov 19, 04

Dear Dad -

Just came out of the city and I honestly do not know where to start. I am afraid that whatever I send you will not do sufficient honor to the men who fought and took Fallujah.

Shortly before the attack, Task Force Fallujah was built. It consisted of Regimental Combat Team 1 built around 1st Marine Regiment and Regimental Combat Team 7 built around 7th Marine Regiment. Each Regiment consisted of two Marine Rifle Battalions reinforced and one Army mechanized infantry battalion.

Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) consisted of 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (3rd LAR), 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5); 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1)and 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry (2/7). RCT-7 was slightly less weighted but still a formidable for ce. Cutting a swath around the city was an Army Brigade known as Blackjack. The Marine RCT's were to assault the city while Blackjack kept the enemy off of the backs of the assault force.

The night prior to the actual invasion, we all moved out into the desert just north of the city. It was something to see. You could just feel the intensity in the Marines and Soldiers. It was all business. As the day cleared, the Task Force began striking targets and moving into final attack positions. As the invasion force commenced its movement into attack positions, 3rd LAR led off RCT-1's offensive with an attack up a peninsula formed by the Euphrates River on the west side of the city. Their mission was to secure the Fallujah Hospital and the two bridges leading out of the city. They executed there tasks like clockwork and smashed the enemy resistance holding the bridges. Simultaneous to all of this, Blackjack sealed the escape routes to the south of the city. As invasion day dawned, the net was around the city and the Marines and Soldiers knew that the enemy that failed to escape was now sealed.

3/5 began the actual attack on the city by taking an apartment complex on the northwest corner of the city. It was key terrain as the elevated positions allowed the command to look down into the attack lanes. The Marines took the apartments quickly and moved to the rooftops and began engaging enemy that were trying to move into their fighting positions. The scene on the rooftop was surreal. Machine gun teams were running boxes of ammo up 8 flights of stairs in full body armor and carrying up machine guns while snipers engaged enemy shooters. The whole time the enemy was firing mortars and rockets at the apartments. Honest to God, I don't think I saw a single Marine even distracted by the enemy fire. Their squad leaders, and platoon commanders had them prepared and they were executing their assigned tasks.

As mentioned, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry joined the Regiment just prior to the fight. In fact, they started showing up for planning a couple of weeks in advance. There is always a professional rivalry between the Army and the Marine Corps but it was obvious from the outset that these guys were the real deal. They had fought in Najaf and were eager to fight with the Regiment in Fallujah. They are exceptionally well led and supremely confident.

2/7 became our wedge. In short, they worked with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. We were limited in the amount of prep fires that we were allowed to fire on the city prior to the invasion. This was a point of some consternation to the forces actually taking the city. Our compensation was to turn to 2/7 and ask them to slash into the city and create as much turbulence as possible for 3/1 to follow. Because of the political reality, the Marine Corps was also under pressure to "get it done quickly." For this reason, 2/7 and 3/1 became the penetration force into the city.

Immediately following 3/5's attack on the apartment buildings, 3/1 took the train station on the north end of the city. While the engineers blew a breach through the train trestle, the Cavalry soldiers poured through with their tanks and Bradley's and chewed an opening in the enemy defense. 3/1 followed them through until they reached a phaseline deep in to the northern half of the city. The Marine infantry along with a few tanks then turned to the right and attacked the heart of the enemy defense. The fighting was tough as the enemy had the area dialed in with mortars. 3/5 then attacked into the northwest corner of the city. This fight continued as both Marine rifle battalions clawed their way into the city on different axis.

There is an image burned into my brain that I hope I never forget. We came up behind 3/5 one day as the lead squads were working down the Byzantine streets of the Jolan area. An assault team of two Marines ran out from behind cover and put a rocket into a wall of an enemy strongpoint. Before the smoke cleared the squad behind them was up and moving through the hole and clearing the house. Just down the block another squad was doing the same thing. The house was cleared quickly and the Marines were running down the street to the next contact. Even in the midst of that mayhem, it was an awesome site.

The fighting has been incredibly close inside the city. The enemy is willing to die and is literally waiting until they see the whites of the eyes of the Marines before they open up. Just two days ago, as a firefight raged in close quarters, one of the interpreters yelled for the enemy in the house to surrender. The enemy yelled back that it was better to die and go to heaven than to surrender to infidels. This exchange is a graphic window into the world that the Marines and Soldiers have been fighting in theselast 10 days.

I could go on and on about how the city was taken but one of the most amazing aspects to the fighting was that we saw virtually no civilians during the battle. Only after the fighting had passed did a few come out of their homes. They were provided food and water and most were evacuated out of the city. At least 90-95% of the people were gone from the city when we attacked.

I will end with a couple of stories of individual heroism that you may not have heard yet. I was told about both of these incidents shortly after they occurred. No doubt some of the facts will change slightly but I am confident that the meat is correct.

The first is a Marine from 3/5. His name is Corporal Yeager (Chuck Yeager's grandson). As the Marines cleared and apartment building, they got to the top floor and the point man kicked in the door. As he did so, an enemy grenade and a burst of gunfire came out. The explosion and enemy fire took off the point man's leg. He was then immediately shot in the arm as he lay in the doorway. Corporal Yeager tossed a grenade in the room and ran into the doorway and into the enemy fire in order to pull his buddy back to cover. As he was dragging the wounded Marine to cover, his own grenade came back through the doorway. Without pausing, he reached down and threw the grenade back through the door while he heaved his buddy to safety. The grenade went off inside the room and Cpl Yeager threw another in. He immediately entered the room following the second explosion. He gunned down three enemy all within three feet of where he stood and then let fly a third grenade as he backed out of the room to complete the evacuation of the wounded Marine. You have to understand that a grenade goes off within 5 seconds of having the pin pulled. Marines usually let them "cook off" for a second or two before tossing them in. Therefore, this entire episode took place in less than 30 seconds.

The second example comes from 3/1. Cpl Mitchell is a squad leader. He was wounded as his squad was clearing a house when some enemy threw pineapple grenades down on top of them. As he was getting triaged, the doctor told him that he had been shot through the arm. Cpl Mitchell told the doctor that he had actually been shot "a couple of days ago" and had given himself self aide on the wound. When the doctor got on him about not coming off the line, he firmly told the doctor that he was a squad leader and did not have time to get treated as his men were still fighting. There are a number of Marines who have been wounded multiple times but refuse to leave their fellow Marines.

It is incredibly humbling to walk among such men. They fought as hard as any Marines in history and deserve to be remembered as such. The enemy they fought burrowed into houses and fired through mouse holes cut in walls, lured them into houses rigged with explosives and detonated the houses on pursuing Marines, and actually hid behind surrender flags only to engage the Marines with small arms fire once they perceived that the Marines had let their guard down. I know of several instances where near dead enemy rolled grenades out on Marines who were preparing to render them aid. It was a fight to the finish in every sense and the Marines delivered.

I have called the enemy cowards many times in the past because they have never really held their ground and fought but these guys in the city did. We can call them many things but they were not cowards.

My whole life I have read about the greatest generation and sat in wonder at their accomplishments. For the first time, as I watch these Marines and Soldiers, I am eager for the future as this is just the beginning for them. Perhaps the most amazing characteristic of all is that the morale of the men is sky high. They hurt for the wounded and the dead but they are eager to continue to attack. Further, not one of them would be comfortable with being called a hero even though they clearly are.

By now the Marines and Soldiers have killed well over a thousand enemy. These were not peasants or rabble. They were reasonably well trained and entirely fanatical. Most of the enemy we have seen have chest rigs full of ammunition and are well armed are willing to fight to the death. The Marines and Soldiers are eager to close with them and the fighting at the end is inevitably close.

I will write you more the next time I come in about what we have found inside the city. All I can say is that even with everything that I knew and expected from the last nine months, the brutality and fanaticism of the enemy surprised me. The beheadings were even more common place than we thought but so were torture and summary executions. Even though it is an exaggeration, it seems as though every block in the northern part of the city has a torture chamber or execution site. There are hundreds of tons of munitions and tens of thousands of weapons that our Regiment alone has recovered. The Marines and Soldiers of the Regiment have also found over 400 IEDs already wired and ready to detonate. No doubt these numbers will grow in the days ahead.

In closing, I want to share with you a vignette about when the Marines secured the Old Bridge (the one where the Americans were mutilated and hung on March 31) this week. After the Marines had done all the work and secured the bridge, we walked across to meet up with 3rd LAR on the other side. On the Fallujah side of the bridge where the Americans were hung there is some Arabic writing on the bridge. An interpreter translated it for me as we walked through. It read: "Long Live the Mujahadeen. Fallujah is the Graveyard for Americans and the end of the Marine Corps."

As I came back across the bridge there was a squad sitting in their Amtrac smoking and watching the show. The Marines had written their own message below the enemy's. It is not something that Mom would appreciate but it fit the moment to a T. Not far from the vehicle were two dead enemy laying where they died. The Marines were sick of watching the "Dog and Pony show" and wanted to get back to work.

Dave

The Wounded Trooper

I relate this true story. None of the names are changed, but the events are heavily editorialized.

A couple of days ago one of David's friends fell on top of David's prized 16 inch robot. Me - being the ever confident fixer of everything broke - made the cursory inspection. The visible damage was a dangling arm (hanging by the wires that supplied power to the laser blaster clutched in the robot's now useless hand). Well that didn't look to hard, so David and I launched into the repair this afternoon.

The plastic collar around the arm had been snapped - So we had to glue it. Super glue seemed to be the only variety that could be found in any of the kitchen's various junk drawers. But, despite its name, the only thing super about this glue was that it didn't hold super well. Eventually, this poor trooper will need some old fashioned model glue.

After we completed our delicate shoulder surgery, David powered it up and we soon discovered that our trooper had suffered heinous injuries that now prevented him from "walking". I contemplated this new sad state of affairs as the trooper's torso spun round and round over his bottom half. All the MASH Doctors would've been proud that I rushed him immediately into the operating room and - as happens more often than not - this now crippled and dying toy became my toy and would claim the next 2 hours in a valiant attempt to resuscitate him.

After removing his lower extremities from his torso, David's poor trooper looked more like the android from Aliens after doing battle with the mother Alien. Sans legs, I switched on his power and saw first-hand the chewed up gears and bent shafts that had thus far enabled this valiant trooper to fight all of David's imaginary battles. Removal of his gearbox left me somewhat queasy and I wondered whether Dr. Frankenstien had felt this way.

The gearbox came apart easily - too easily, I feared. Now came the task of straightening out the bent and twisted shafts (soft metal) and realigning the gear meshings so that this gentle giant warrior would not walk with a limp. As the gearbox came back together - to my genuine glee, I began to have visions that I might actually have accomplished that which no dad in history had ever accomplished - Successfully raising a trash-bound toy and restoring it to perfect operating health (without the leftover parts!)

But then - horror of horrors! the one simple worm gear no larger than a pencil eraser had a split in it. The split destroyed the possibility of this courageous trooper from ever walking again-as the worm gear could not hold onto the shaft without spinning. My hopes were completely dashed. I saw no way out - David's comrade would either need a wheelchair, or a rocking chair.

My gentle daughter, seeing my utter hopelessness, placed her hand on my shoulder to comfort me, "Why don't you try some JB Weld, Daddy?"

Instantly, new hope coursed through my body and I began to feel the warmth of new life and confidence that would allow me, a mere mortal, to give this trooper another chance to be all he could be. A true "Army of One"!

Today, the brave and battle scarred trooper walks - albeit with a limp. But he walks! Thanks to the young girl's insight into the vagaries of broken robots.

Government Knows What's Best for Your Kids

Well, what else would we expect from Canada? The problem is that Canadian ideas tend to drift South...

Muslim children attending public schools in Toronto are being forced to watch videos promoting tolerance of homosexuality even though their parents object, reports the Canadian Press service.

The controversy erupted after students at Market Lane Public School in Toronto were shown videos as part of what the local school board calls “anti-homophobia education.”

Angry Muslim parents complained about the curriculum, however, saying their religious beliefs were getting less respect from the board than gay rights and demanded that their children be excluded on religious grounds from similar presentations in the future.

The board rejected their request on the grounds that allowing some students to be excluded from discussions about gay families would violate the rights of those children with same-sex parents.

''I don't think there's any harm done to parents who find their children exposed to ideas that are different than the ones they teach at home,'' Education Minister Gerard Kennedy said.

Here's the reference to the above story.

Province urges Muslims not to remove kids from 'anti-homophobia' classes

Given the socialist nature of Canada, its not surprising that this mindset seems totally natural to them.

Marines and Boy Scouts

I can't vouch for the veracity of this one, but got a kick out of it anyway.

The Interview Marine Corp.'s General Reinwald was interviewed on the radio the other day, and you have to read his reply to the lady who interviewed him concerning guns and children.

It is a portion of National Public Radio (NPR) interview between a female broadcaster and US Marine Corps General Reinwald who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military installation.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
So, General Reinwald, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base?

GENERAL REINWALD:
We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, and shooting.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?

GENERAL REINWALD:
I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the rifle range.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?

GENERAL REINWALD:
I don't see how. We will be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even touch a firearm.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
But you're equipping them to become violent killers.

GENERAL REINWALD:
Well, Ma'am, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you?

The radio went silent and the interview ended.

You gotta love the Marines!

LAWYERS, GUNS, AND BURGLARS

Very good, but long article on gun ownership and burglaries.

LAWYERS, GUNS, AND BURGLARS

This article is a well reasoned article whose basic premise is, US burglary rates are low because burglars must accept extra risk to enter a US home, because approximately 1/3 of homes in the US have guns available specifically for the defense of the home.

I tend to doubt that this number bears an accurate representation of homes where a weapon is actually available for that purpose. Specifically, 1) is a weapon either loaded or is the ammunition readily available for loading such that the weapon could be loaded in under 15 seconds? 2) have adult members of the household (those likely to be home) been trained to use the weapon?(Does mom know how to take the safety off of dad's shotgun?)

I suspect the true number of homes meeting the above criteria is closer to 10%. (This is completely anecdotal, and a SWAG on my part). Still, that's a 1 in 10 chance of a burglar coming face to face with a resident (provided that the resident is home at the time).

This leads to an interesting statistic that the author noted, in Europe, where gun ownership is nearly non-existent, burglars WANT the resident to be home, as wallets and purses are more likely to be pilferable. Note that this does not imply a European burglar wants to come face-to-face with the resident, rather only that the burglar does not fear bodily harm from the resident. In contrast, US burglars do not want to come face-to-face with the resident and hence most burglaries occur during times when residents are not home. The risk of bodily harm from a US resident is sufficient to cause a burglar to actively avoid a confrontation where he feels he will likely lose his life.

Altogether an interesting read if you have 20 extra minutes.

Zombies and Phishing

There was a story on the local Austin news about a woman who was duped by email fraud. The fraud she was victim to is known as "phishing". Here is a link to an article for those of you who want to know a bit more.

Term of the Week: Zombies and Phishing

Blue State Blues as Coastal Parents Battle Invasion of Dollywood Values

I just loved this post. It takes about 5 minutes to read but is hilarious.

Blue State Blues as Coastal Parents Battle Invasion of Dollywood Values

Hope you get an opportunity to read it.

Silica lawsuits: castles from sand

You know, its these kind of stories where I just shake my head.

Silica lawsuits: castles from sand

I wonder why we allow such ridiculous mockeries of our justice system? I guess the answer is that we do nothing to prevent it. So we deserve to be preyed upon.

Bye-Bye Blockbuster!

About a month ago we started a 2-wk trial of Netflix. I was finally tired of paying blockbuster $4 per movie(since we watch DVDs almost exclusively), and don't even mention the late-fees!!

Now after 1 month, we've watched about 18 movies (Many of them were the old Walt Disney movies). That means we are spending $1 per movie or about 25 cents per person! Not bad at all!

I am now cutting up my Blockbuster card!!

I hate it when technology wears out!

Well, I'm more than mildly miffed at my dumb laptop computer!

Its a Dell Latitude CPxJ. I had Win2K running on it for about 8 months. Then suddenly, the dumb thing started blue screening on me. I was able to salvage most of my files, then tried a new fresh install (including reformatting the disk) - but to no avail. I next tried to install linux, but everytime I try to boot, the kernel panics! I'm afraid that it means either a hard disk failure or memory problem. It may even be on the motherboard.

Either way, I'm terribly unhappy about it, because now I need to spend $35 for a diagnostic test over at Discount Electronics that is only going to tell me to spend a lot of money to fix it.

On top of all this, my SMC Barricade router is beginning to get a little flakey. It continues to let the Lan work correctly, but it loses its connectivity to the internet, and has to have a warm reset done on it in order to regain connectivity. I hate it when technology wears out!

Marines Provide News from Iraq

The following email was received from the President of the Austin Chapter of the USNA Alumni Association. I am posting it here because I know and trust the source.

Shipmates! We received this letter from our Central Area Trustee. The Col.'s letter gives some detailed information many of us can understand and appreciate about the combat activities in Iraq.

Quote


Subject: Letter from the Commanding Officer, Col. C. A. Tucker - Regimental Combat Team 7

From the Commanding Officer, Col. C. A. Tucker
- Regimental Combat Team 7 (RCT-7) - Letter to Families

Hello again, after a long hiatus.

Last 6 weeks or so have been busy as we worked to establish the new battalions in their areas of operations and worked to get the "old' battalions home. 3/7, 2/7, and 1st LAR are all safely home and on their block leave period. 1/7, 1/23, and 3d LAR have assumed their battle space and continue to perform superbly.

The enemy, as we expected, is surging as we approach the U. S. and Iraqi election period and enter Ramadan. Enemy activity in this AO has picked up, to the enemy's detriment. They are not very smart, and when they decide to come out and fight, are easily killed.

His patterns remain the same as we saw in April: move 50-150 terrorists into a city or community, use terror and intimidation to assume control, kill and maim local citizens, get his picture taken with his RPG and AK-47, then wait to see himself on the evening news. Interesting side note: ask how often you see pictures of these guys posturing and how often you see pictures of them fighting. Then compare that to how often you see pictures of U. S. servicemen fighting and how often you see pictures of them posturing. Provides a good metric for who is winning this thing: the enemy postures when the cameraman is present, but when it comes to fighting he is the most base of cowards.

You don't see many images of these guys fighting because they're too busy hiding or running once the fighting starts. They're much more comfortable beheading innocents. The Side note also demonstrates how, with the best of intentions and within the rightful bounds of our constitution, the press becomes unwitting collaborators in the enemy's information operations campaign. This is a fight for the will of the American and the Iraqi people. He targets the Iraqis through murder and intimidation; he targets you through the images.

Anyway, we have fought him well in a number of engagements over the past week or so. TF 1/23, 1/8 and 2d Force Recon Co performed magnificently in an operation in the city of Hit that killed 30 of the terrorists without harming any innocent Iraqis. We restored both security and governance to a city taken over by the bastards for a 72 hour period last week.

Of greater significance, the 503d Iraqi National Guard Bn fought as the RCT-7 main effort, were the first ones into the city, and remains there today providing security for the HIT community. The enemy chased out of Hit moved into the city of Rawah about 50 miles west, TF 1/8 and an Iraqi Army Unit hunted them down there, killed 15 more and restored that community to its citizens.

In other parts of the AO, Iraqi police and National Guard and Border Police have fought off numerous attacks on their own... in my mind the most striking example of the progress we continue to make across the AO. The enemy cannot maintain this surge for long: even the most hardened of the remaining anti-US Iraqi people are rapidly tiring of him, the Iraqi Security Forces are fighting back, and we are killing them with stunning regularity. He surges in order to influence the American and Iraqi elections; when both proceed as planned, his efforts will begin to crumble.

We now have 2 police academies, 2 ING training academies, and 2 Iraqi Border Police Training Academies operational. We continue to see the fruits of these efforts in the increasing professionalism, confidence, and competence of the Iraqi Security Forces.

Firefights are dramatic and make the news; but where we are going to win this is through the establishment of viable Iraqi Security Forces. It is a challenging road, fraught with friction, but every day we see progress. Training ISF remains our main effort and will continue to be both our main effort and our ultimate ticket home with victory.

The civil effort continues apace also. Our most significant current effort is the construction of the hospital in Ar Rutbah, a $1M effort that will provide medical services to a community currently 4 hours away from the closest medical care.

America, your Marines, Sailors and Soldiers continue to perform with courage and intellect in this most complex and ambiguous of conflicts. We are anxiously awaiting election day in the hopes that the media picture and national dialogue will transition from the subjectivity of politics to the objectivity of national interest. Building a democracy is a dirty business-has been throughout the history of democracy from ancient Greece through the present day. Regard our national effort here through the prism of that reality.

RCT-7 remembers the sacrifices of LCpls A. R. Boyles and R. Mateo, KIA 24 Sep 2004 vic Fallujah; Cpl. I. T. Zook, KIA 12 Oct 2004 vic Husaybah; Cpl W. I. Salazar KIA 15 Oct 2004 vic Husaybah; Sgt Owen, U. S. Army, KIA 15 Oct 2004 vic Husaybah; SPC J. Santos, U. S. Army, KIA 15 Oct 2004 vic Husaybah. Please remember their families in your prayers.

Share your Courage. And stand fast.

Semper Fidelis,
C. A. Tucker
Colonel,
U. S. Marine Corps
CO, RCT-7.

What is a Man?

For the past several years I've been noticing an increasing body of writings about "being a man". About 2 years ago, I read "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge.

This was really my first look at Christianity outside of the matriarchal structure that has shaped the way men are supposed to be and "tamed" them. Under the matriarchal structure, men become pets that can be fed and watered and shown off to your friends when they are "behaving" well. I immediately identified with many of the tenets of the book. But at the end of the book, I didn't feel I was any better prepared to be a real man than when I had first started.

Since then, I have been looking off and on for another book/study that might offer more practical insight into who God intends me to be as a man. Today, I think I may have found a study that will provide this direction, "What the Bible says about... Being a Man" by Richard Fugate.

Some comments from the back go like this:

• "...Christian books on manhood today tend to mimic the world's unbalanced view of masculinity. Instead of teaching men how to understand and overcome their macho, emasculated, or effeminate distortions, they encourage men to become more womanlike..."
• "...It explains systematically why real manhood has practically disappeared in our country,..."

Anyway, I look forward to beginning my study of this material tomorrow. I hope that in the ensuing weeks, my reports will show growth in answering the question, "What is a Man?"

Why "The 50 Foot Cat"

As this is the first post, I thought I might go ahead and make a few comments about my BLOG's name, "The 50 Foot Cat".

In 1991, Haydee and I made a trip to Thailand. Having been on temporary duty there several weeks earlier, I had arranged for a charter on a 50 foot catamaran, complete with a captain and his boat boy/cook. Though we were only on board for a week, this week marks the most relaxing vacation I have ever had.

There is also a small double entendre in the name. I think of myself as a very stable guy with big ideas, who runs fast before the wind if handled properly - just like a large catamaran.

One day, I would like to retire to the sea with Haydee and cruise the oceans on - you guessed it - a 50 Foot Cat!