[sandytroop]

I'm back with the 19th, trying to get into the Echo course now (I'm a Charlie, but we need Echos as always, and I figure I can contribute there...). It's always distressing to me when they drop a tool from the kit, in this case AIMC. As a Charlie, I attended ANCOC and spent plenty of time learning about NonL blasting, and enjoyed the talk about replacing all that "old" gear with nonL. Then I took my Old butt to Thailand, where our students suddenly produced a foot locker full of various demo materials. I went through the course in 80, and spent 2 years as a civilian blaster, so none of this was aproblem for me. We discovered caps, but no time fuse... oh, looky here, this looks like time fuse! I was dubious... burnt a piece... it ran 30 feet per second... that's right scouts, Quarry fuse. Hmmm.. wonder if they talk about that in their nonL classes? Not enought to work with, we found 5 kinds of electric caps, nothing military... no blasting machine, but we did have an echo, so that means we had batteries. A brilliant day of demo training ensued (including a very educational missfire...), all because I made it my rule years ago: If they don't have it where you're going, you don't need to worry bout using it THERE. Number 1, make sure you learn to use what you' WILL have not just what you DO have.

IMC is in that school. What happens when you're not making commo? Pray that some old salty like Valentine pops over and says "Hey, no sweat, I have my key in my ruck. Here's the diagram, cut me a (di-pole, / directed wave / whatever...) antenna and we'll bounce the signal off the moon, and have everything we need by BMNT..." Big smile on his face, because he knew he could do it. I appreciate and respect the technology we have now, but we should never disrespect our roots, or forget the fact that a very nice fire can be made with 2 pieces of bamboo, a little training and a lot of enthusiasm.