Since Wednesday I’ve done the semi-annual weapons qualification; the night-fire qualification; and driven a 1400 mile round trip on Official Business.
Ye tap-dancing gods.
Things I have learned over the last three days:
Over the last several years I have — all unknowing — simplified my pistol manipulation drills. Which is, I think, a topic worthy of an expanded blog post.
Non-SERPA Level II holsters still suck. Only worse.
The old boy who opined, “You can never have enough light” probably never hit a retro-reflective panel in the pitch-dark at ten feet with a brand-new SureFire G2LED.
Did you know that if your dark-adapted eyeballs do jump out of your skull, you can locate the corner they’re hiding in by following the tiny whimpers? Me, neither. Good information to have, though.
If you have to drive 1400 miles, try to find a travel partner who isn’t addicted to AM radio. Some of that stuff on Ye Olde Amplitude Modulation will cause your head to explode.
Border Patrol troopies have No Sense of Humour.
I’m for bed. More later.
LawDog
Okay, the “Border Patrol troopies” comment has me wondering…
Are we gonna get a story out of this?
Re the reflective, been there, screwed that up, had a headache for THREE days, after I got the eyeballs to quit whining… sigh…
Back in 19 hundred an 81, four of us decided to rent a car and drive from the Presidio of Monterey, California, to Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo, TX.
Stopped at a road block somewhere in I 10 and asked our nationality, three of us answered in Korean, and one in German. The “Green Cards” presented were, of course, issued by the Army, not Immigration.
Yeah, they had little sense of humor back then, either…
“Okay, the “Border Patrol troopies” comment has me wondering…Are we gonna get a story out of this?”
Probably a reference to the brutal beating and tasing torture of a Baptist minister by the border patrol.
Some more “bad apples” we’re told are few and far between.
That Surefire G2 LED is an awesome booger. So awesome in fact that I have a second one on the way that will be mounted to the AR-15 via a VLTOR attachment piece.
“no baño no baño federales” Was what we always want to say.
We have 18 B.P. here in the NE. corner of Wa.
It takes awhile for them to aclimate to an area where people actually wave and talk to them, then their sense of humour comes out.
We’re glad to have them here.
Gunsmoke45441
Hey LD, I heard a nasty rumor that You, AS, and another blogger had a new group effort piece in the works. . . . When will we see that????
What the Border Patrol troopies comment got me wondering was…
How does one pull off Officially Having No Sense Of Humo(u)r when you do, in fact, have a sense of humo(u)r? Are there any tricks for keeping a straight face and not even cracking a twitch of a smile?
The media should be required to present the facts in all matters, leaving the public to decide for themselves. Like that’s going to happen.
One should know that the Border Patrol, at least in Texas, is often one man, out with a horse, cut off from all semblance of civilization for weeks at a time, speaking, if at all, Spanish, and having no one near enough to come to his rescue should he need it.
Most illegal aliens (no, they are not ‘undocumented foreign nationals’) from Mexico aren’t inclined to violence, but the coyotes who frequently bring them in certainly are.
Our Border Patrol people live lives of constant tension.
The person in question appears to have decided to brace a few of these people, then stand on his “rights” which is just plain dumb and stupid.
Having had generations of Baptist ministers in my family (including one who was a Sergeant, Regimental Color Bearer, AND SURVIVED, in the Civil War) I can tell you that they tend to be a mouthy lot, very much inclined to stand upon “their rights,” and not averse to involking religious privilege. The idea that “I’m a preacher and can do no wrong” is not an uncommon mindset.
The idea of Shut Up, Do What the Officer Says, and Get On With It, is totally without their ken. However, using any and all publicity to their advantage, exaggeration notwithstanding, is not in the least bit onerous to them.
Why is the fact that this guy is white and a Baptist minister of any consequence?
How much hoo-hah would have been raised had this person been a Mexican ‘wetback?’
ON the other hand, a Mexican ‘wetback’ is smart enough to do what the man with the gun says to do, and not dare him.
LawMom
bp troopies get to torture baptist ministers? where do I sign up?
Robin: Look at Tommy Lee Jones in MiB. “No, ma’am, the FBI does not have a sense of humour that we are aware of.”. Then adjust for Border Patrol….
AM radio? Conserative talk radio not your cup of tea these days? Now if it involved Coast to Coast after midnight……..yo have a point.
You have to practice in front of a mirror. Control your breathing, let your jaw go slack. Let all the muscles in your face relax. Your mantra is, “heard it all, seen it all.” You also practice your approach. You must not walk up quickly or dwadle. You do kind of a Queen Victoria approach slow but steady. When you get close you lean down and say, “Turn all the way around in your seat Tommy and face the front of the class.”
“AM radio? Conserative talk radio not your cup of tea these days?”
Go out where the buses don’t run and spin the ol’ AM dial some fine evening. There is still plenty of genuine Children of the Corn weirdness in those parts of the country where zip codes are bigger than the state of Connecticut.
Please – more Border Patrol info…
Hell, get up in north Mississippi and even the 3 Meter band gets a little squirrely. I can understand hearing preaching on the FM dial on a Sunday morning. Mid-afternoon on a Thursday, not so much.
Hold on – you have personal radios in your patrol vehicles?
Jealous doesn’t even come close.