This post is for my older brother Jake who enjoyed the shit out of these He-Man castles.

The purple one had a black glove that you could put your hand through and it looked like a huge spider. Clever.

Revisionist history

Bad ass / Amazing moment of the day: My dad and a group of fellow USMC Khe Sanh veterans getting a chance to see the actual sand table President Lyndon Johnson used in the White House Situation Room during the siege of Khe Sanh.

Where: LBJ Museum in Austin, Texas.

Who: My Dad in a pink shirt for some reason.

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President Johnson had difficulties visualizing the terrain in and about Khe Sanh. In turn, he was having a hard time following the battle. An aide suggested that a 3-dimensional map might help the President better understand the situation. President Johnson agreed and had the sand table constructed. During the siege, President Johnson would make daily visits to the sand table and every time he received an update from Khe Sanh.

My dad’s take:

“The biggest surprise to all the vets was that the table was not as big as they imagined. Not me so much, because in looking up info about the table, I sensed that it was on the “small size.” That did NOT — for one second — take away the excitement and emotion of seeing “a 3-D depiction of an event that we endured 42 years ago. There were tears, smiles, jokes (I see Bill’s personal shitter over there behind that tank!), and genuine enthusiasm at seeing it. Could get as close as we wanted but were asked not to touch it. Collectively, we kinda hate rules, but we complied.”

The vineyards of Crozes-Hermitage, France

Here’s a long overdue book review from the HOTP. Black Hawk Down is one hell of a book.

It’s as insightful as it is terrifying. In the end we were lucky we didn’t lose a lot more soldiers and we killed a shit-ton of Somalians. Grim times for everyone involved.

New event poster in the works.