Shrap & Frags: keep your helmet close

Guns Magazine, July, 2009 by John Connor

If universities offered degrees in some subjects I've done advanced studies in, I figure I could easily pick up a handful of PhDs. One might be "Manual Excavation in Varied Soils." I've dug fighting holes, "ranger graves," cat-holes, slit trenches and supply caches in just about every kinda dirt, mud, permafrost, rocks, sand and loam imaginable.

It's more than just digging, y'know. There's a lot of math and psychology involved. Did you know the speed of excavation can quadruple and the desire to excavate can multiply geometrically depending on the frequency and proximity of incoming rounds?

I think I've already earned a doctorate in "Shrap & Frags *" too. Over a 100 have taken up temporary or permanent residence in my body; thank God, most of them very small.

I generally divide 'em into two categories: whacks an' zings. The "whacks" were kinda like gettin' hit with a fungo bat. Imagine bein' hit by a red-hot Mach-2 wasp--stinger first--and you got a "zinger." I've taken a few I could almost shrug off, while others prompted a still, small voice in my gourd whispering, "dude ... you think this is bad now? It's gonna get worse ..." Lately, I get the same reactions from the news--just shrap and frags of a different variety--especially news our lamestream media ain't giving you.

A Taste Of Things To Come

From a little newspaper in Iowa, we learned in February of an "Urban Military Operations" training exercise scheduled for early April. The Carroll National Guard unit planned a company-size search for a "suspected arms dealer" operating from a residential area in Arcadia. First, troops would begin "patrolling the streets and conducting reconnaissance operations." Photos of the arms dealer would be passed out and people asked if they had seen him. Then soldiers would commence door-to-door searches.

A Guard spokesman explained troops would only knock on the doors of homes where residents were voluntary participants. A town meeting would be held before the drill to seek volunteers.

"Portions of the town" the spokesman said, "will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted ..." As soldiers watch, he said, people would be asked to "... open doors and cupboards."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A Blackhawk helicopter would be employed for overhead command and control, and to simulate medevacs. Finally, the spokesman said, the exercise would "Culminate in the apprehension of the suspected arms dealer."

There was no mention in the article of what manner of hypothetical arms were being dealt to whom, or, absent a qualifying declared "state of emergency," by what authority American troops would, m any real incident, patrol a city's streets and conduct house-to-house searches for what sort of "arms dealer."

I wonder what the response might be of people who "don't get the word" on such an exercise, seeing military roadblocks and troops knocking on doors while a Blackhawk circles overhead ....

To me, folks, this is so wrong on so many levels ... I'll leave it to you to identify and consider them. If I were of a suspicious mind, I might think this is a model "conditioning" exercise; conditioning both citizens and troops to having armed soldiers patrolling in military vehicles, going door to door, enjoying the unquestioning support of the citizenry, searching for--firearms? And by all means, let's deliver a subliminal smear over people who deal in arms....

The exercise was rather quietly cancelled. It's still too soon for that scenario, I guess--but watch for it... Whack!

Across The Pond

A recently discharged British soldier, bearing high evaluations and honorable combat service in Iraq, applied for an appointment to the Manchester Police. Craig Briggs, 22, said he had wanted to be a policeman all his life. A police official urged him to join the Army and get some experience first.

He got the experience--and a tattoo on his right forearm. It reads "ENGLAND" in inch-high Gothic letters. Craig was notified he was disqualified for police service because his tattoo could be "offensive" or "intimidating" to "people who aren't of English origin." He didn't have to be told which people it might offend. Zing!

In Scotland, the Tayside Police announced their new phone number to the public with a printed card to be displayed in store windows. It featured Rebel, a cute black puppy slated for K-9 training at maturity. Rebel was shown sitting in a police hat. TPD folks thought it was just an eye-catching attention-getter. Of course, it sparked furious response from the Muslim community. Didn't they know dogs are ritually unclean and offensive to Muslims?

The cards were pulled and destroyed, and profuse apologies made. Scots will just have to get over their silly affection for dogs ... Zing!

The Archbishop of Canterbury--head of the Church of England--stunned his flock with a speech suggesting Sharia law courts be legitimized for Muslims in Britain. Zing! Then, while England's Christians were still reeling, Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, admitted that five Sharia courts were already quietly but officially operating in Britain, handling civil cases for Muslims. Whack!