The All-Around AR-15

The greatest thing about the AR-15 is its versatility.  You can build a Short barreled CQB gun or a long range SPR on the same platform. However, I believe that one rifle should be able to do it all.

By do it all, I mean that it should be able to make rapid and accurate hits from 0-400 yards, all in one rifle.

With that in mind, my list of recommendations follows. Keep in mind that I am by no means an expert, just somewhat knowledgeable. This is what I have gathered over the last two years as I researched, and my personal opinion, which does happen to be shared by more than a few.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. Buy from reputable manufacturers. Good ones, with great reputations, for good stuff. Companies you know will back their product up if you do happen to have a problem.

My personal recommendation would be to build a lower and buy a complete upper.

A lower can be put together in under an hour in your basement with no tools beyond a couple screwdrivers and some pin punches. See here for an explanation on why I recommend building the lower and not upper, with instructions (that include pictures!). http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_4/226782_Assemble_your_own_LOWER__UPPER__FREE_FLOAT__TRIGGER__GAS_BLOCK___Step_by_step_instructions_.html

(Short version for those of you too lazy to click the link: building uppers requires  special expensive tools, the lower doesn’t)

Also , building your own lower allows you to have more customization and save some serious coin. It saved me, on my build, about $150.

Now, the specific parts:

A mid-length 16” DI upper. This is a 9” gas system, two inches longer than the standard CAR/M4. Better reliability and mildly softer felt recoil.  16” because it is close to max velocity for the 5.56, but you can still maneuver in closer quarters with it.

I don’t recommend piston. I fail to see the utility of cramming an operating system that wasn’t designed for the AR into it. Also, from what I understand, the reliability advantage doesn’t come into play until after about round 100 with no cleaning.

Something really cool is the dissipater, which is a 16” barrel with a full length hand guard. I’ve liked the ones I’ve shot. You get a really long sight radius (better accuracy with irons) and a lot fo room to put your hand and whatever stuff you feel the need to hang on your gun.

Barrel. As mentioned before, 16”, because it has decent velocity but you can still use it indoors or from a vehicle if need be. I would recommend chrome lined (for use with corrosive ammo, because that may be all you can find someday). Get either a 5.56 or .223 Wylde chamber for use and accuracy with both .223 and 5.56 NATO ammo. Versatility is good.

Muzzle device: As the AR has every little recoil, but a huge (proportionately) muzzle blast, go with a flash hider instead of a muzzle brake. The standard A2 is fine, and is probably what come sstandard, but a Vortex Phantom has even less flash.

Hand guards.  Free float is really cool. It costs more. The standard handguards or Magpul MOE ones (what I’m using currently) work fine. Free frost adds accuracy, and makes it so your sling tension can’t bend the barrel  and shift point of impact (a valid concern at Appleseed). If you can afford free float, go for it, if not, not a huge loss.

Sights. You want irons, even if you run optics (which I’ll get  to in a bit). Optics are a lot easier to break. The standard A2 triangle front sight is fine. Durable, fairly easy to adjust if you need to. Yes, it gets in the way of a scope, but you really don’t notice it at all.

You want a folding rear sight. A fixed one does get in the way, especially if you have a reasonably high power scope. I personally would recommend the Matech. It’s a folding sight adjustable for range, so all you have to do, once you are zeroed, is click it over to the correct range and fire. I first saw this in the GG&G ranging MAD. which is what I run, but the Matech does the same thing for way, way, cheaper just as well. Check EBAY, you can get surplus ones that are still functional, just scratched up, for about $30.

Optics. I personally think a 1-4x scope in a good solid mount will cover all of the bases you need. An Eotech with a 3x magnifier might do the same, but a low power variable scope is much simpler. Simplicity and precision in all things, right?

Other upper stuff: Extended charging handles, VFGs, etc. Personal preference. My advice would be spend your money on the important stuff (barrels, bolts, sights, and trigger) and then add these on later if you are so inclined.

The lower. As I said before, the upper is where you want to put most of your money. Then buy the cheapest mil-spec lower you can find, stick a decent parts kit in, and put em both together.

The lower stuff:

Stock: I recommend a collapsible stock not for the reasons you would think. Not to fit everybody, or anything like that. The standard A2 stock fits most people just fine. You only have problems if you are wearing it with 2 winter coats or body armor. No, I recommend a collapsing stock because it makes the gun shorter for storage. Also, they are lighter, and ARs can get pretty heavy. For models, just get what you can afford, and upgrade later if you need to. The standard M4 works fine, but the Magpul MOE is more steady for not much more. Caveat, it’s harder to mount a sling to the MOE.

Trigger: Mil-spec triggers are fine. But, not ideal by any means. They aren’t the friendliest triggers in the world by a long shot. So, a slightly better trigger is nice. You could drop 150-300 on a great JP or Giselle, and you have that much extra lying around after buying an obscene amount of mags and ammo, go for it. But, for 50-60 bucks, you could get either a Spikes Battle trigger ( 5 pound pull) or a ALG Defence trigger (5.5-6).

Pistol grip: The standard A2 pistol grip is terrible, in my opinion. I hate that tiny profile with the stupid little finger bump. If you can use it, good for you. But, just go a gun store and grab a rifle with one of those to handle. Odds are it’ll bother you. I use the Magpul MOE grip, it’s cheap, bigger, and no bump. Again, personal preference, and with this more then anything, you’ll probably end up trying a whole bunch of em.

Accessories:

I already covered optics.

Grab as many 30rd mags you can. Aluminum GIs work fine, and are cheap. I have nothing against PMAGS or Troy Battlemags, or the other high-quality plymer/steel mags, but they’re more expensive. Also, get some 20 rounders for prone shooting.

Get a decent sling. Something you can use in tactical shooting, but still use for support in positions. The Viking VTAC, Blue Force Gear VTAC, and Ares Armor Amentum are all great.

You might want a light if you are planning on using it after dark. Actually, anyways, because you never know…. I’m currently researching this myself, and will update this post once I find some good stuff out.

That’s about it for specific parts for an AR. There’s lots of cool stuff you can add, but these are the basics, and all I think you really need. Again, just my personal opinion, gathered from way too many hours of research.

I plan on updating this post with some links and pictures once I get the chance, but I just wanted to get it up for now.

As always, comments welcomed and requested.

Remembering 9/11/2001

Eleven years ago today… Well. You know the details. It’s a moment scarred into our minds as Americans. One of the darkest  days of our generation.

I lack the words to describe it.

As much as I would like to express my feelings over this day, and what it means, eleven days later, I cannot.

Therefore I will leave with a picture, and a quote. I urge you to reflect on these.

 

“Americans should never forget that the founders of this country, like all who have served her in uniform, were willing to die defending everything its flag represents. It’s so easy to get lost in the controversies that divide us. But I believe, no matter what our race, religion, and beliefs may be, that Americas should be able to come together to keep our country rooted in what made it great: a land of opportunity, a place where people can make something of themselves, limited only by their imagination and willingness to work hard; a country where we all can come together, whatever our differences, for the greater good; a country of hand ups, not handouts, where we try to live by the meaning of the words “Love thy neighbor,” and put as much effort into helping others as we do helping ourselves. By doing these things, we can continue to live up to the idea of One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

–Marcus Luttrell

The Wedding Portrait

Another story. One that’s told by more then just myself. I’ve been told I do a decent job. Remember, once again, this is meant to be a narrated story.

This is a specific version that I’ve used for speeches in other locations, hence it has a bit more background. I don’t actually use notes when I speak anymore, just to practice. And then once I do speak, I kind of make it up as I go along.

Has anyone here heard the names of Samuel Prescott and Lydia Mullikan? No? Well, Today, you are going to hear their story. It’s a story of love and of loss, of family and country, and of war and of freedom. The time is April 19th, 1775, at about 1AM. The place is the road outside of Lexington, MA. A young, gifted, doctor by the name of Samuel Prescott is coming back along this road. He is also an accomplished horseman and marksman. You might wonder what a respectable young gentleman such as Dr. Prescott is doing out this late at night.

Turns out, he was out courting. A local beauty had caught his eye. Her name was Lydia Mullikan, and she ran a sewing shop out of her home in Lexington. He was not the only young fellow courting her, as she had more than a few admirers. However, seeing as Doctor Prescott was just coming back from her house at one o’clock in the morning, and it’s 1775 in Puritan Massachusetts,  things between them were obviously rather serious.

In fact, it’s believed that he asked her to marry him that night. She said yes. Now let’s fast forward to  this wedding,  a couple months in the future. Since Lydia’s father has already passed, her brother, Nathaniel, will walk her down the aisle. Samuel stands tall and proud as his beautiful bride walks down the aisle, guided by her brother. Standing by Samuel’s side is his brother, Abel, who is serving as best man. The reverend, William Emerson, is smiling as he sees this happy couple. Since cameras didn’t exist yet, they would paint a portrait, to preserve this moment forever.

Now let’s go back in time, to that early, early, morning of April 19th. Paul Revere and William Dawes are coming down the road, riding fast, to warn Concord that the regulars are on the march, heading to Concord to confiscate ball and powder. They stop briefly to chat with Dr. Prescott. They’ve never met before, but Revere knows of Prescott’s reputation as a high son of liberty. After hearing their mission, Dr. Prescott agrees to join them.

They are soon intercepted by a patrol of British Regulars, and Prescott is the only one to escape. He goes on to warn Concord.  Without him, the story of April 19th, the Revolutionary War, and,  indeed, our entire American history might have been different indeed.

Now, let’s go back to that wedding portrait. One figure is slowly disappearing. Rev. William Emerson provided support and fought beside the militia. He died in 1777, of camp fever.

Beside him, another man is also disappearing. Abel Prescott was another alarm rider on the 19th. He was shot while completing his mission. He died four months later, suffering a long and painful death of gangrene.

Now it’s just Lydia, her brother, and her husband to be. But other figures are also fading away. Nathaniel died in 1777.

Now, it’s just Lydia and Samuel But there is one more figure that won’t be present in this portrait.

You can see Samuel Prescott begin to fade out. Why is this? Well, after the 19th, Dr. Prescott joined the Continental Army as a medic. He served throughout most of the war. He joined the crew of a privateer later on. He was captured by the British, and died a slow death of starvation on a prison ship. After the 19th, he never saw or spoke with Lydia ever again.

Her trials are not yet over. Her home was burned by the British on the 19th, because she allowed militia to set up inside it to take the fight back to the Regulars. It can safely be assumed that she provided food and drink throughout the terribly long day, and possibly took a few shots at the redcoats herself.

Remember, her home was also her shop. So she lost her income as well.

Lydia stands in the church alone. Most of her family is dead. Her fiancée never got to speak to her again. They never got to have their wedding. This portrait was never taken.

BUT: Lydia stands there free. Not under oppression. Or British rule. But self-governed, a free woman.

She stand there free for the same reason we stand here. Because Samuel and Abel, Nathaniel, Rev. Emerson, they all stood, fought and won.

They chose country over family, so we can stand here today.

You didn’t even know who they were. We don’t know of their sacrifices. What they did for us. How said is that?

I would imagine, if they were here today, they would say that their names don’t matter. Only the story matters, that we remember what our forefathers did for us.

They didn’t do it to be thanked. But allow me to say: Thank you, Lydia. Thank you, Samuel.

Nathan Hale

I figured I’d now get to one of the original points of this blog. To share some stories from history, and ask for critique on them. Please remember as you read this that I typed it as I will present it to shooters. Any advice you can offer is more then welcome.

 

 

 

Has anyone here ever heard the quote, “I regret I have but one life to give for my country?”

Well, behind every quote, there is a story. The story of the circumstances, and the man who said it. And behind a quote like that, well, that man must be a hero.

This man, this hero, his name is Nathan Hale.

Nathan was born in 1755 to Richard and Elizabeth. He lived in Coventry, Connecticut until he was 13, at which point he was sent to the still-fledgling Yale College.  He belonged to the literary fraternity, and graduated in 1773 with full honors.

He sought a career as a teacher in New London. He soon joined a militia unit, and was elected first lieutenant.

In late April, a rider came to New London, his horse bathed in sweat. I think we all know what news he carried.

A town meeting was called. Hale was among the first to speak. His reported words at this meeting were: “Let us march immediately, and never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence.” The next morning, he gathered his students.

But not for class. He gave them counsel to make up their own minds about the war, bid them farewell, and marched with his unit to Boston.

They arrived too late for the battle of Bunker Hill, but were among those trained by Washington through the first winter.

Turns out, Hale had some talent for war, especially guerilla warfare.

He led some members of his company on an unauthorized attack on the British Frigate Phoenix. He set fire to the frigate and took some valuable equipment. The fire was stopped, but they still made off with a couple of longboats and four cannon. Washington was impressed, and instead of discipline, Hale was promoted.

It should probably be noted that the frigate sunk two weeks later, a few days before Hale left the area.

He was transferred to a special corps called Knowlton’s rangers, under the command of Colonel Knowlton. They specialized in unconventional warfare.

The rangers performed many valiant actions. However, at their first battle, a great victory against a numerically superior force (despite the loss of their commanding officer), Hale was not present.

Why, you may ask?

Well, a week previous, Washington was a desperate man. He had no information about the enemy’s plans.

It should be noted at this point the penalty for spying was hanging.

He asked Col. Knowlton, as he had some pretty decent intelligence operatives. Washington wanted volunteers only. Knowlton called upon the, all of them. He told them of the proposed mission, and asked for a volunteer. Silence.

He personally approached an NCO, a Frenchman he had a very high opinion of. This Frenchman said, “I will be shot, but not hanged”. Nathan Hale walked in at this time, having been late to the meeting due to sickness.

He said, “I will undertake it.”

After this meeting, William Hall, a college classmate of Hale’s, and then a major-general, tried to talk him out of it. Hull told him, ” that it was not in the line of his duty, and that he was of too frank and open a temper to act successfully the part of a spy, or to face its dangers, which would probably lead to a disgraceful death.” Hale replied, “I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar service, its claim to perform that service are imperious.”

He left for his mission, taking his college diploma, hoping to establish a cover as a teacher

He did pass some apparently valuable intelligence back to Washington. However, it is not known how valuable this information was.

He did this successfully for about a month. As he was making his way back to Colonial holdings, and therefore safety, he was captured by a British Patrol, who searched him and found some incriminating documents that he had left on his person.

He was sent to New York, and set to be hanged the next morning with no trial.

On the day of the execution, Hale asked for a bible, and was refused. He was given writing materials, and wrote letters to his mother and brother, which were immediately destroyed.

Despite the repeated humiliations, he was reported to compose himself with great dignity and poise thoughout.

As the noose was put around his neck, he was asked If he had any last words. He first extolled the audience to investigate further the British Cause, and make sure their commitment, and to be ready for death, in whatever form it may come. He then asked them if they would have any regrets when their time came.

Accounts vary on what he said next, as his very last words.

The version I prefer follows.

He raised his head, looked the audience in the eyes, and said:

I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service.

 

What’s in a Name?

So, most of you reading this have at some point asked why I chose the name “Roland” (as a screenname ) or “Deschain” (as a fake last name on Facebook).

I figured I’d do some explaining on that subject.

When I first joined Appleseed, I was told to pick a forum name, and make is short and cool, because people might be calling me by it. So, I thought on it for a while. Happened I was reading The Gunslinger, by Stephen King (first book of The Dark Tower series),  at the time. The main character’s name is Roland Deschain. Ta-da!

So, I picked Roland as a forum name.

As years passed, and I got through more of the series, I know regret that a bit. I originally picked Roland, because he’s a gunslinger, the last hero. But as it goes on? *Spoiler Alert* Come to find out, Roland is on an endless quest, never to find happiness unless it ends (which it doesn’t). Probably could have chosen a more fitting name! Oh well. It does still sound cool.

The other reference lies in the subtitle of my blog, “The Song of Childe Roland”. Actually, that’s about four layers of references.

The song of Roland is an epic poem about the death of medieval hero Roland, Charlemagne’s paladin. I stumbled across that a while back, and actually kind of liked it.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came is another poem, this one by Robert Browning. I believe it was the inspiration for the King series. I kind of like the poem, actually, it’s very dark and gloomy, which I like sometimes. If I may quote:

For, what with my whole world-wide wandering,

What with my search drawn out thro’ years, my hope

Dwindled into a ghost not fit to cope

With that obstreperous joy success would bring,—

I hardly tried now to rebuke the spring

My heart made, finding failure in its scope.

 

See? Gloomy, but awesome.

There is often more to a name then what lies on the surface.

Please, tell me your thoughts on what my name means…

Roland out.

Is it worth it?

Yes, this is a blog post related to Appleseed. But not really. You see, the goal of Appleseed is to wake up America, and get them to care about the future of our country. If you had asked me when I first started in the program, or even a couple years ago, I would have said that it would be possible, without a question. Not easy, by any means, but possible.

Now, I’m not so sure. I suppose the core question at this debate is, is man good or evil at heart? I am absolutely aware how cliché that is. And maybe that’s not the right question at all.

Ah. Think I got it now. The true question is, Is the country worth saving, even if we can? If the so called “citizens” of this country doesn’t even care enough to vote, much less actually care about who they are voting for, what does that say about mankind? If, according to the US Census, just a bit less than half of the population didn’t even vote for the presidential election, what does that mean? And less than 40% of US people voted for a representative in 2010.

And ya know what? These statistics have remained within the same 10% for as far back as it goes (about 80 years).

It’s not a new problem.

Allow me to digress for a minute. I’m not a philosopher. At all. But I believe I know a tiny bit about how people think.

And the fact that a majority of people haven’t cared for 80 years about what even happens to their government, and therefore their lives? That speaks to me. And it says that “Americans” don’t care.

So, I come to the question at hand.

Is it worth it?

I spend a lot of time working on this stuff. At least a weekend a month, and promotions the other days. Not counting the ridiculous amounts of research I do.

Is it worth it to spend this much time fighting the soft war?

Is it worth it to fight for a hopeless thing, something that people don’t even know, have never known?

 

 

 

The big question.

 

 

Is it worth it to fight for a lost cause?

I cannot provide those answers for you, nor would I if I could. Because that would ruin the point.

The point is you have to care enough to find out for yourself.

At this point, I wonder why I’m writing, so I’m sure you ask yourself the same thing. I’m writing to try to process my thoughts. And I figure if somebody not yet awakened stumbles across this, and it gets them slightly interested… Well.

That’s all I need to keep going.

Is it worth it to fight for a lost cause?

Well.

I agree with Ethel Lina White on this one.

“Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for”

Please, let me know what you think.

Roland out.

ISAS

This is gonna be pretty long. Couldn’t really find a point in which to break it up.

I’ve had a busy summer. Just a couple weeks after getting back from YES, I was off to Boise and then NASA/Ames for the Idaho Science and Aerospace Scholars Summer Academy. Quick explanation.  It was a semester-length class I took introducing us to a whole bunch of careers and information in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) area, mostly focused around aerospace engineering and the like.

I actually have basically no interest in engineering as a career, I just took this class cause it sounded different than the usual stuff. And it was. Anyway, they took most of the class to the summer academy this past week.

I’ll do a couple posts on it, but not as detailed as YES.

The kids from up north arrived, having flown on the same plane down but not actually talked to each other, and then proceeded to be crammed into a van very tightly. Yeah, that was awkward. We got to BSU way before anybody else, and toured the campus. highlight of that would be getting to ride a Segway, albeit briefly. Because Segways are awesome.

After everybody got there, we got in our teams.  We split up into different areas, our overall goal was to plan a manned mission to Mars. I was on Mission integration, which basically means I tried to get everybody to work together, and worried about everything overall.

Our group planning…

After some debate and getting some things figured out, off to bed.

Oh, sleep deprivation was a huge factor this week. So tired.

Next day we listened to many lectures. BSU preached to us a bit about how great they were, which was to be expected going in. Couple a NASA folks talked, and they were a bit more interesting than the rest. I felt like I already knew a lot of the stuff they were talking about.

We worked on the group projects sporadically throughout the day.

Then we heard some about robots, and then built and programmed one using BasicStamp. That was a fun experience, I’m not very good with code. Kudos to Woody Sobey for helping us out, and for being sarcastic!

Me trying to get our bot to work. Wish I’d brought my multitool!

Next day, our awaited journey to NASA/Ames (San Jose, CA) began. Early, early in the morning, we flew down, got to our hotel, and then began our visit. Ames is huge, and more like a military base then anything. I might get some pics up sooner or later. Actually, I’m going to insert some pics now, beacuase this will just be a massive wall of text otherwise.

 

Administration building

The food at Ames is awesome. If you ever go there, the NASA burger w/cheese comes highly recommended.

Then we toured some simulators (unfortunately didn’t get to fly one, although pretty much everybody else did) and a 20g centrifuge.

One of the smaller simulators

Then we listened to a lecture from a fellow involved with the MSL (that rover that’ll be landing on mars soon). Anybody else starting to see a pattern here?

After one more tour (the fluid dynamics lab, which you might have seen in Mythbusters a few times. [actually, they come to Ames a lot, apparently]) we listened to a panel of NASA folks, and asked them questions about our mars mission. Our mission began to take shape!

Fluid dynamics works on airflow for cars… among just about everything else you can imagine.

Next morning, I got up early to run with a NASA fellow. One other student joined us, out of the five or six that said they’d be there. Oh well! That run basically made me realize I need to run more.

The rest of the day was pretty much more of the same.

Couple highlights were the psychophysiological lab, which basically involved making astronauts puke (awesome!) and the world’s largest wind tunnel, where I’ll let the pictures do the talkin’.

You really need to see these full size to get the effect. The above opening is bigger then a football field turned on it’s side.

Big, isn’t it?

Then back to Boise.

We went to Micron the next day. Micron was huge.  The robots they used to ferry stuff were way cool, but you can’t take pictures in there unfortunately.

…this is getting quite repetitive. Sorry about that!

Rocket launch next. Believe this one used an I engine, which is pretty darn big. For those of us that were obsessed with Estes rockets at one point, the biggest you probably used was a C. And an I is… Um, about eight times bigger. Yep.

Launching the rather large rocket

The rest of this day, and all of the next, was mostly dedicated to our team projects.

We worked on some more robots. I was at the point where I was tinkering with the code  just to get some other problem I could try to fix. Fortunately, I mostly got it to work (OK, somebody better at BASIC then me fixed it) eventually.

Finally, we were ready for our big presentation.

My White Team. If I ever have to plan a mission to mars (which I truly, sincerely, hope I don’t) I want to do it with you guys.

It went well, for our group. There should be a video up soon enough, I’ll post the youtube link once I can.

And for some reason, there doesn’t seem to be any pics of the actual presentation.

In conclusion. (Am I the only one who types that at the end of every essay for a rough draft and then always changes it later?) I had a pretty good week, and met some pretty dang smart people.

I came into this thing knowing a lot, so I didn’t learn as much as others, but I still picked up some pretty good stuff.

I also pretty much learned that engineering is awesome, but not for me.

Roland out.

 

 

 

Y.E.S. Day Six

This is the last day, except for travel on Day Seven, and I’ll probably do a brief summary of sorts.

For those of you just now joining me, here’s the day one/intro, day two, day three, day four, and day five.

First stop, Arlington National Cemetery, which we had previously glimpsed briefly at the Iwo Jima memorial. It’s a sobering thought to see the miles upon miles of gravestones, almost all identical. Every one of these men and women died for our freedom.

That’s a lot of markers of remembrance… hope they last forever, lest we forget.

We walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Four of our members were selected to perform a ceremony here, which involved the laying of a wreath upon the tomb.

The lucky four…

A word about the Tomb. There is a soldier on guard duty, 24/7. There is a precise sequence that is followed for the circuit of the guard. The soldier stops in the exact same stop every time. There is a groove worn in the rubber upon which they walk. It is the highest honor in the U.S. military to be selected as a guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Guard at the tomb…

After the ceremony, we were to go to the Robert E. Lee house. however, I managed to talk one of the chaperones into going with me and a couple other guys up to Audie Murphy’s grave. Audie Murphy is one of my personal heroes. In my opinion, he proves that one ordinary man can make a difference in extraordinary situations.

He was the most decorated soldier in American history. During WWII, he tried to join both the Marines and the Navy, which both turned him down because he was too small. However, the Army had no such problems, probably figuring they could always use more cannon fodder or guys to build stuff.

And he did build stuff, and not much else. He finally bugged his commanders enough to send him to Italy. He must have ruffled a few feathers along the way, cause he got sent into the heaviest action. He acquitted himself quite well, in many intense battles.

I could go on and on about the battles he was in, and his heroic actions, but I’ll leave it at this, the action in which he was awarded the Congressional Medal on Honor.

At Hotlzwhir, France, his unit was reduced from around 130 men to about 20 under heavy fire. He sent all of his remaining men (being the highest ranked living officer) to the rear and covered their retreat single handedly. He ran out of ammo for his carbine, so climbed onto a burning tank destroyer and used the M2 .50 (really big gun) on top to hold off hundreds of German infantry for almost an hour, despite having many wounds, including one pretty serious one in his leg. H eonly backed off when he lost his connection to command, and they couldn’t tell him where to shoot anymore. (the smoke was so heavy around his position he had almost no vision).

So yeah. Pretty awesome guy. Proves that under the right circumstances, one ordinary man can do extraordinary things. And that’s kinda a big deal for me, the fact that individual actions matter. I’ll probably be posting about that eventually. So many things to write about, so little time.

Back on track.

After a roundabout trip and actually asking for directions (yes, guys actually do this sometimes!) We caught up with the rest of the group at the former mansion of Robert E Lee. Interestingly enough, it’s still one of the most defensible positions in D.C. General Lee knew his stuff!

We walked back down to the bus, through more miles of gravestones, and headed for the Newsuem. It’s a museum about news and the effect it’s had on the world. I figured this would be about the lamest   thing ever. I mean, a museum about news, how could that be interesting in the least?

Yeah, I was wrong. It was really, really, cool. I could have spent days in there, but of course we only had a couple hours. I’ll once again let the pictures do the talkin’.

Kinda self-explanatory, if you blow up the picture. There is a lot of random stuff there!

Section of the Berlin Wall…

Again, self-explanatory. Click to enlarge.

Place is huge!

And some of us on the skydeck with the DC skyline in the background

See? Pretty cool, huh?

Now we had a couple free hours. It’s entirely possible this actually happened on a different day. Sleep deprivation does funny things to peoples memory.

We went to the Air and Space museum, which was entirely unplanned.

More pictures, with some captions. I’d talk more, but it took so long to write this I forgot most of what I had planned to say!

Spirit of St. Louis, SpaceShipOne, and Chuck Yaeger’s X-1… three aviation greats.

The actual Wright Flyer! Pardon the tourists.

Rockets.

One of the five nozzles of the rocket that carried Apollo up, and me to give you some scale.

Then back to the hotel for the banquet. We had like two hours to get ready. Most of the guys only needed about twenty minutes, if that. Suppose I’ll move on to the banquet, and skip the next couple hours of boredom…

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of me and a couple other guys walking down in step… we looked really awesome in our spiffy suits. Needed a soundtrack and wind blowing, it was that awesome. You’ll have to take my word for it, I guess.

We had a few speeches on the week and the future, and then they gave out awards. I didn’t receive any scholarship money, unfortunately.

I did however get voted by my peers as “Most Likely to Become President of the NRA”, which is apparently basically the people’s choice award.

Receiving my award…

Pretty much everybody spoke, chaperones and students alike. I talked briefly about Appleseed, as well as doing a generic farewell speech.

It was really emotional, knowing that I might never see the people I spent the best week of my life with again. I did however hold back from crying (barely).

Apparently there might be a reunion soon, as I keep hearing rumors…

The night ended, eventually.

I got up early the next morning, to see everyone off.

And then I went to the airport, to catch my flight home.

Time for me to sum up this week in a conclusion. But I’m at a loss for words. That doesn’t happen very often.

This week changed my life. Got me headed down a good path, after I’d lost my way for a bit.

It gave me more things to believe in, to keep me going.

I met people I know I can count on, all over the country.

I still don’t want to believe it’s over.

And I have no more words.

I’ll post again later.

Roland out.

Reflections on the Tragedy in Aurora

Thought I’d write about something a bit different this time around. I’m sure you all have heard about the shooting in Aurora, CO by now. It happened at the midnight premiere showing of The Dark Knight Rises. I had a slight connection to this, as I was at a similar showing in my home city. So, I figured I’d write about this, share some thoughts, and maybe process some things.

I got tickets to the midnight premiere months ago, about a minute after they came on sale. I was incredibly excited about it, as were the friends whom I invited. The movie was incredible, without a question the best movie I have ever seen. As it ended at about 3:00 our time, I promptly went home and went to sleep, and thus didn’t hear the news of the tragedy in Aurora until morning.

I did notice one thing, during the movie. At around the time the shooting happened, some more security types (ex-cop looking guys, watching everybody, loose fitting sport coats) came in and positioned themselves at the exits.

Aurora, Colorado is around the same size as the town in which I live. Also a college or two nearby. I always saw the reports of mass shootings and the like, and thought “it couldn’t possibly happen here”. Yeah. It could have. It could have been the theater that I was in that an insane person came in and started shooting.

It could have been me.

The other thing that I’m sure most of us think when we see these news reports. I know I do, and am right now as I watch the ABC world news report. Why did nobody do anything? They say that during the breaks in the shooting, they knew he was reloading right above them, and somebody apparently felt a magazine drop on or near them.

Why did nobody tackle him where he stood, especially at the moment when he was essentially unarmed? Why did nobody do anything but hide or run?

Why?

I do suppose, those are easy questions for me to ask, having made it through my life unscathed so far, and never having faced such a life-threatening situation.

What would I do, had it been the theater in which I sat been the one that a madman walked into?

Would I have ran?

Would I have cowered beneath the seats?

Or would I have been braver, and charged him, and possibly died in the attempt?

I don’t know.

I would like to think I would have done something, anything, to at least attempt to stop the murders. But I don’t know.

As a very staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, I’ve had a thought  that I’m sure is not uncommon.

What if the theater hadn’t been a gun free zone? What if somebody had been legally carrying in the theater? What if that brave man or woman had taken down the murderer before 12 were killed, and 59 wounded?

But would that person have been able to act? If it had been a few years forward in my life, and I had been carrying, would I have been able to stop the shooter? Would I have even tried? Or would fear have overpowered me and I would have been unable to act?

I don’t know.

Again, it just as easily could have been the theater that I sat in that would be the killing ground. I like to think I have a plan of sorts for if something like that ever does happen. It’s the only thing I can do, plan for what I hope I never have to face. But hopefully I’ll never know how I’d react under then.

However, having a plan is vastly better then not having one. Maybe during that moment of crisis you or I would be able to think back to the plan we had thought about before, and if not stop the killer, then at least protect others, and if not that, get out of there and call the cops.

So form a plan, do your research. I won’t be so arrogant as to offer any advice on this. Heck, I’m just an ordinary kid. Just try to make sure that wherever you get your information is a reputable source.

I know I will, because remember:

 

It could’ve been me or you, and it could be me or you the next time.

 

Because there will be a next time. Evil lasts forever, and good must try to be prepared against it.

More than ever, your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Y.E.S. Day Five

My longest post yet, cause I got lots of good pictures this day.

Off to Quantico. One of the earlier starts, and one of the hottest days. Think it got the 120 at one point. Thankfully, we could dress in shorts this day.

Quantico is huge. It’s many times bigger across then the city where I live! Our first stop was the K-9 unit. We watched demonstrations of an obstacle course, bomb location, and, of course, somebody getting bit.

A few pictures follow.

The smallest dog and the biggest guy (never let it be said the Marines don’t have a sense of humor!) finding a “bomb”.

Never try to outrun a dog…

…It won’t end well.

One more, cause I’m kinda proud of that shot.

Now our schedule changed. I believe we were originally supposed to do some PT and then maybe an obstacle course or something.

But, this change was for the better.

We were instead sent to the marksmanship simulator. To give you an idea of how this works. There are real M16A4’s, set up for the simulator using compressed air for recoil simulation, and a laser for the “shot”. Seemed pretty realistic to me! We did some failure drills (two to the chest, one to the head), and then broke for lunch.

M16A4’s set up for the simulation.

Myself running through some failure drills… Please ignore the fact that I’m chicken winging in a tactical stance.

Some others doing the same…

One of the chairs in the mess hall.

Then the real treat. They bussed (that word/not a word again…) us out to the Combat Convoy Vehicle Simulator (CCVS). We walked in and saw a HMMV surrounded by projector screens, complete with guns. I thought, “this is going to be awesome”.

Simulator briefing…

They broke us up into 8 groups of 5 or so. I grabbed four guys I knew could shoot and hopefully be good under pressure, and we got in the front HMMV. This may have been a bad choice, because the other ones had bigger and better guns.

The crew of Rubber Ducky Actual… From L-R, Hunter’s knees, Eli, Alex, and Dillon. I’m holding the camera.

We still had a M240 mounted up top though, with 2000 simulated rounds of 7.62×51. The two front seats had M4’s and the back two (where I was the first round) had an M16A2.

The M240… “Happiness is a belt-fed weapon”

The scenarios were modeled on real ambushes,  just like those our brave troops have faced overseas. Each scenario ( we were lucky enough to go through two) was around an hour. About maybe 10 minutes of that was actual fighting. Like the saying goes, Hours and hours of absolute boredom and a few brief moments of sheer terror.

We locked and loaded, got everybody’s  Humvee’s started, and headed out.

And we waited for something to happen. Occasionally, a car would go by, or somebody would stand by the road and get a dozen mock weapons trained upon them. This went on for a while. It should be mention that it was probably above 140 degrees in there.

For some reason, our call sign was “Rubber Ducky”. Don’t blame me! So, we made it through the first one alive, and unscathed, as did the rest of the convoy. Then the programmers decided to have a bit of fun with us.

The conversation that took place:

“Rubber Ducky Actual (that’s the first vehicle, the one I was in), this is control. Be advised, there are multiple vehicles about to attempt to ram you, over.”

“Copy That, Control”

And about five minutes later:

“Rubber Ducky Actual to all Victors (vehicles), there appears to be about one thousand enemy vehicles coming towards us from all sides, be advised, over”

“Uh, this is Rubber Ducky four, confirming that. This’ll be interesting, over”

At which point our 240 gunner, who shall remain unnamed, grabbed the radio and yelled “GET SOME!” at the top of his lungs, which was echoed by some not terribly professional cheers amidst the bolts racking and mags being reinserted.

We lasted quite a while, even with our vehicle not having a .50 cal, which made it hard to take out vehicles. Eventually, however, we got very surrounded, and our driver, as good as he did, flipped us about 7 times trying to avoid the cars. Oh well. We were the last ones standing in our convoy.

The second scenario was much the same, but with a couple IEDs thrown in, along with mortars.

At one point, there was a couple a guys standing in the middle of the road alongside a dead camel… They ran off as we got closer. So, we radioed everybody to go around, but for some reason, Rubber Ducky Four apparently ran right over the dead camel, making it go BOOM!

See? Camel bomb after blowing up.

We got in a really heavy ambush, with guys shooting at us from all around, and then, after stopping and exchanging fire for a few minutes, we had to pull out or risk getting blown up. We floored it, and a few minutes later came under heavy mortar fire. We were the first to get taken out, being in the lead.

So, thus ended our awesome simulation. Best experience of my life.

Then on to the Marine Corps Museum.  Seriously cool stuff here. All about the history of the Marines, from 1775 to The War on Terror. I’ll let the pictures do the talking here.

Marine corps museum from the outside

Quotes are standard practice for museums in D.C., apparently. This’d be one of my favorites though.

Business end of an old style Gatling Gun

The actual flag to have flown over Mount Suribachi

Each one of those stars represents a Marine or Sailor killed on Iwo Jima. Semper Fi, soldiers. Thank you for my freedom.

Top looking down, and an F4  Corsair.

Our schedule once again changed for the conditions.

Original plan was to eat dinner at Iwo Jima memorial, and then head back to Quantico for an 8th & I parade. But, the chaperones made the call that sitting for three more hours in the 120 degree temperatures was probably not a good idea.

So, we went to Iwo Jima, and then on to the MLK and FDR memorials, as well as the Pentagon 9/11 memorial.

At Iwo Jima, our dinner consisted of MREs. Big whoop. I swear those things get worse every single time I have one. Especially the made-out-of-drywall crackers. It was somewhat offset be the truly awesome backdrop of the Iwo Jima memorial.

Said awesome backdrop, with the Washington monument and the Capitol looking on.

Left this near full size, because it’s potentially the greatest picture I have ever taken.

Then, after sunset, we went to a couple more memorials, specifically the Martin Luther King and Franklin Delano Roosevelt ones. They were both pretty cool, regardless of how I may feel about these two men personally.

FDR memorial.

MLK memorial.

We also went to the Pentagon 9/11 memorial. Every one of these “benches” is somebody who died here on that day. I put benches in quotes because nobody seemed to be sitting on them. Just didn’t seem right. The ones facing away were in the building, and towards, were on the plane. The oldest to die here as 82, the youngest 9. Solemn thoughts, about what it has cost us. Unfortunately, i can’t find my pictures from here.

On that grim note, I’ll move to something a bit more positive. We wore glowsticks at night, we everybody could find us. On the rather long ride back to the hotel, somebody had the brilliant idea of stringing them together to go all around the bus. As you can see, it was awesome.

We also started to sing along to Don’t Stop Believin, at the top of our lungs, and it didn’t even sound too terrible. Somebody got video, I haven’t seen it yet though. And we sang along to the Song the Shall not be Named (Call me Maybe) a few times too… Good times.

Thus ends Day Five. One more to go.