foxhole mystique

When I start thinking of friends, I usually wonder why.
The other day I was considering how I came to gain some of the friends I have. One way, I have decided, is the Foxhole Mystique.
I don't just chose any friend. I take acquaintances at face value, then I'll wonder about them a bit. I didn't realize what I was doing until it became clear to me recently. I am a former Marine. That means I was a warrior 56 years ago. I left warrior and became a civilian through and through. However, that warrior thing remained inside me and kept me in a comfort mode all those years and I never recognized it until recently. Why do I have the friends I do? It appears I have kept that warrior spirit alive somehow, sort of like the embers of a hearth after the fire has dwindled. It's been warming me all this time and I only recently realized it.
What made me chose my friends. Some are not sophisticated, some aren't well educated, some are more intelligent than I (with an IQ of 135 it's difficult to tell intelligence from intellect), some are more talented, some have well developed senses of responsibility, some are just better than I in so many ways. But, there is one thing in common with all of them, they have the Foxhole Mystique about them.
What's that? you ask.
Well, think of combat as a battle with evil. I'm in a foxhole. There is one person next to me. The battle isn't going well. Would this person next to me be willing to take my life as one of importance to them? Would I be willing to "fall on the grenade" for them? Would there be any of that in either of us?
I think that's what drives my feeling of friendship with Jim, Johnny, Allen, Crab, even Melissa and Lisa. Well, there's also the person in my life with me for 44 years + and I feel that person would not hesitate to "fall on the grenade" nor would I even hesitate a mere nano-second to do the same for her. And one more. This is as important to me as almost anyone I know besides the last person, grandson Roy. I don't hesitate to think I would for him and I don't think he would hesitate for me either.
So, that, in a nutshell is the Foxhole Mystique. What would I do for them and would I trust them in a tough time to be there and be counted when it came to that defining moment?
The decision is theirs as much as mine would be toward them, but the feeling I have for all of the above and another 10, well, there is no question in my mind. None. They would as well as I would.
There are those for whom I would sacrifice, but not sure they would, though I would hope so. Those are stand-by me friends and they are always there. Always. Sort of like shadows making me wonder. I think about them and wonder.
Are they part of the Foxhole Mystique? Maybe not completely. Maybe not totally. But, for me, I'll stay close to them and see what happens. Not much time left, but I'm here and they are still in that purgatory of maybe yes and maybe no. Time will tell. But, do any of us have time left?
Foxhole Mystique. To me it's as real as it gets.

My thinking has been moving in that direction for quite a long time -- 40 years? The Marine Corps has a tradition of having Lts take platoons and not enlisted. Seems the ONLY difference between a 2dLt and a StaffNCO taking a platoon is about 6 years experience. That and a SgtMajor with 23 years +/- and a 2-3 star general, the difference is about 200 conferences and meetings. There is NO freakin' reason a senior enlisted with that much experience ought be shut out of the system. The army is no better and the words I hear from the navy is the Chiefs run the boats, but the admirals give the laying on of hands. Excuse me, but it ought be the other way around. Chiefs run the freakin' navy and allow admirals to sit in those fancy assed chairs.
NO EXCUSE for Marine Officers to be so snotty with enlisted. From E-1 up they have begun a long climb and they need to be nourished along or they'll leave; the kind of O they have will be the major reason they stay or go.
There is no reason, either, for a Sgt Major, hell, even a First Sargeant to be left out of highest level conferences and meetings with the general officers. It's a shame to let someone like 1st Sgt Pat Tracey leave the MC after 22 years and go teach school to a bunch of ass wipes when he could just as easily be a Bn Cdr as an E-8 or 9. The guy has the training, experience, and the natural authority and he'd do his job very well.
I don't know if it would have made any difference, but E-5 can just as efficiently run a "staff" office -- S-1, S-2, etc. -- as wasting some O-4 in that chair. The schools the Os attend for some of those staff positions would let a kindergardner have an A for finger painting. They are boredom and ennui led with people who have no talent for teaching or leading. I was left alone in the S-1 of a MAG for days at a time and the only questions asked by others were, "When's the major coming back? We have a golf (poker, party, whatever) on Friday." I assigned young aviators to squadrons and my Cpl would type up the orders and I would sign them like a doctor and put scrawly maj USMC at the end. No one EVER questioned them.
Reminds me of the time a police officer came to me (I was a civilian retired senior volunteer with silver bars as staff) and asked if I would sign a "detention order" for a DUI in his car. I scrawled my name and put down, for the badge, 711.
He took it, they locked the bozo up, and no one ever questioned it.
Back to NCOs. They have lots more experience at E-4 and above than any O-2 and most O-3s. They could easily be appointed to staff and let run the joint.
No reason why not.Maybe due to that old time theory, college and connections make the officer -- from the old Brit "good ole boy networking." If you didn't go to Eton, then you weren't qualified to lead troops.
Well, who ever said that Psych major going through PLC was any hoot and holler better than the E-4 who just came out of combat and had time, experience, and training behind him.
Just another of my half-baked fucking opinions no one gives a shit about.

Rockers and Stripes

I've often thought of the relationship between enlisted and officers, but recently it's become clear there is a problem in the military. When I graduated from high school I went to college for a year, clearly not ready for higher education. After some thinking of what to do, I enlisted in the Marine Corps. Good choice. I love my Marines and the Marine Corps. I don't agree with a lot of decisions made, but I'll stick with my Marines no matter where or what they do. In any case, the problem of the services, all of them, is they seem to think a college education means the person has something special to offer. I'm sure it's the ability to learn and and apply that learning. However, when I was in boot camp I was asked if I would like to go into aviation, but upon learning I had visual accuity in the damn near blind range, the offer was withdrawn. Nothing special about me with the exception of my test scores. Later, invited to OCS/PLC, the same results, the offer was withdrawn "upon further review." I spent years in the Corps and was discharged after 6+ years with a rocker and an education to be admired.
The idea came to me recently when I learned the Coast Guard has assigned many BM1s as OICs of stations. Those men are E-7 or above.
The military obviously faces new challenges every day, but leadership ought not be one.
A college degree is important stuff. A bachelor's degree in almost any field is a basic qualification for any potential member of the military to enter to OCS/PLC.
Having a degee Is, as I said, important, but if you think that little yellow bar is some sort of honorary "I got smarts" on the collar, then it's there for the wrong reason. The basic's classes teach How to, but not HOW to. They teach leadership, but often it's the bar or the leaf or the eagle which stands out, not the man behind those symbols.
I know many with rockers instead of flashy little pins who have Master's Degrees in warfare and warrior and leadership abilities far beyond many with stars on their shoulders.
Those warriors ought be given leadership positions and decision making positions which are now given to some who don't deserve them or have never earned the positions.
I associate with former enlisted men whose careers are/were cut short because of lack of confidence in the officers over them. These men left a hole in the military which could have been well served to retain them for their post-graduate expertise.
Military has, from the beginning, relied on rockers and stripes to lead in battle, but the decisions at the rear -- they called that REMF in VN -- were often highly overrated.
My suggestions are not new, but they are mine and I'm convinced a rocker indicates a degree of experience not likely to be recovered when that person is discharged or retires earlier than necessary due to lack of support by those who ought to know better.
Just my personal fucking opinion.
K?
OooRah!
Semper Fi!

Concepts of time

I wrote a comment about climate change and while sleeping I woke with another thought. Seems I wrote the comment because someone said climate change periods are based on 1000 year cycles. My response was based on a scientific writing I'd read somewhere which indicated all of the inventions in the history of the Earth happened in the last 200 years. The beginning part of that is the Industrial Revolution which began in the mid-1800s. From then the largest and most dynamic expansion of thought and ideas blossomed into what we now have and that is, my conclusion, the cause of global warming. I have not seen Inconvenient Truth because I don't need to be convinced. I knew it long before AG made his impassioned statement. I wasn't sure how servere it was, but I knew there had to be a time to make the payments on what we'd done. "We" being the operative word here -- we are all responsible for it. We buy the goods and toss the trash and don't recycle properly. It's not just a fault of our neighbors, but all of us. Even the Greenies, the tree huggers, all of them are helping cause the GW problem.
SO, how about that 1000 year person?
Seems to me he has no concept of how long a 1000 years is. Can any of us? It's a long damn time! Really long time. 1000 years ago it was 1008 (from the time of this writing) and that was a period of very little activity, however Mohammed was busy fellow then and had gained power and standing in the Muslim world.
The idea of 1000 years befuddles many and they don't see how long it really is. Most people, I'm sure, consider 100 years as quite a long time as they likely know someone, or heard of someone, who lived to be 100 years old and that person was REALLY old.
1000 years is a long time ago. 2000 years is pretty old too. But, in terms of the Earth, those years aren't even close to the time humans have lived on Earth, or the time from which the Earth began.
Think long.
LONG long ago.
For instance, think of this: Take 20 long strides. Make them about 30" strides. 30 times 20 = 600. That's inches, of course. Take those 20 strides and think in terms of years. 600 inches = the time Earth has been around. Don't extapolate too much out of that, just think in terms of relative time for now.
Started as an almost accident during a huge cataclysmic nuclear reaction in the solar system, just OUR solar system, by the way, and for a few of those inchs it was a birthing process.
A super nova collapsed and the result was the formation of a cluster of stars, one of which was the Sun, as we call it. The fusion of many chemicals and gasses have made the planet into the ball which it nearly resembles today.
I won't go into the technical or scientific terms related to the collision with another mass which, about 4.5 billion years ago created the Moon.
The Earth could not have been in this rotation around the Sun and formed as it is today without the Moon.
Why? It's one of those cause and effect things. The Moon seems to keep the Earth in the shape it is and the rotation it has.
Okay, now about oxygen to sustain life? During the time the Earth was forming and the Moon was bouncing out of the Earth (not a collision with a former star's remnant enough to destroy the Earth, but enough to throw off debris to form the Moon) the nuclear reactions within the Earth caused vapors and storms of huge proportions, ie., lightening and violence was all around. The electricity of these storms with the prevalence of helium and hydrogen made possible the combination to create what we call Water, or H2O.
Thus, it appears the simplest of answers for the simplest of minds is to ignore the science and go with the half assed opinions of those who seem to be stuck in the 1008 time period, so just think of this. If that life cycle is 600 inches and you want to determine when life of man started, from Lucy, for instance, take a pencil and draw a line at the furthest end and that's about where man has been on Earth.
So, forget that 1000 year cycle and think currently, this global warming is serious and we need to take our part in it as seriously.

WOW! This is awesome

Found the ultimate today.
There was a recommendation for a Mexican restaurant, but it was much more than what we were thinking of trying for a burrito.
They make them, they are big, but the one recommended is a "corporation" and we were determined to find one of the smaller independent types.
The day was getting on, so we headed to Old Town, knowing full well there had to be something close by. About the 1800-1900 block of San Diego Avenue, there is a little place called Dos Brasos. It is everything we had in mind. Small. Just an independent little guy serving tradesmen and neighborhood people.
Didn't make any judgments, but this place looked promising.
I ordered the rolled tacos with guacamole since I didn't want to intrude on the searcher's special tastes.
First bite into the carne asada burrito promted a bit of a statement which indicated we'd hit the mother lode. "This is incredible." Just enough of the pico to make it really special. The burrito is huge and the taste was very good.
So, for the money and the taste and the location, this is, so far the best in San Diego. Of course there are another hundred; i.e., so many burritos and so little time, but we think we have found the best burrito in San Diego.
We'll continue tomorrow to locate others for comparison. There is, on the other hand, the "maybe" we'll be distracted to Phil's for barbeque. Now that's a mean place for a meal.
Drooling already.

Ahhh, the thrill of the burrito trail

Today was the next trip out on the trail of the elusive best burrito.
Yesterday we thought about a foray to a really nice Mexican restaurant and did it. Betty's in the 1400 block of University. Grandson Roy and I had just had an ice cream cone and were pretty much not very hungry, so when we picked up Sam, my publisher, we headed to Betty's for lunch - it was early afternoon and we decided to get something, even if it was just a little bite. Sam ordered the chicken burrito, but Roy and I had quesadillas. His was a 'shroom and mine was shredded chicken. Both were excellent. Sam said his chicken burrito was very good, but huge!, so he took half of it home for a meal later or today.
This afternoon Roy and I were a little hungrier than we'd been for a while, so off we went. Had to drop off a pair of sandals to get them repaired at John's shoes on Clairemont Drive. Across the street is a Cotijan fast Mexican food place. Wasn't sure, but at least I knew they had burritos and Roy was really hungry. I ordered my usual, a variety on the nacho plate. The chips were crispy and the guacamole was abundant. They put a lot of cheese on top. I would have preferred if they would have broiled the cheese to melting, but it was fine as they served it.
Roy's burrito was gigantic and he said, "It's a 9. Damn good." WOW! High praise. When we left he said it was the best burrito he'd had since we started the search. It was full to overflowing and he had a leak in the tortilla and carne asada dripped enough to split the side; he had to use a fork to finish, but that made little difference in the quality. Damn good.

Ahhh, the search continues

Talked with our nephew yesterday and had a long conversation regarding several things. He has advised the Sombrero has a good burrito. When grandson and I are hungry mid-afternoon, he sleeps late and gets up to the bright light of day about 11ish, the burrito does sound interesting to him. Me? Still a favorite with the nacho crowd. We know right where the Sombrero is: corner of Hwy 52 and Convoy at the Shell station. Usually crowded since, as nephew suggests, the food is pretty good. We wandered up that way and were waited on by a nice cashier, ordered the carne asada burrito pico.
I ordered, oh how I ached and drooled for this one, french fries with carne asada, cheese, guacamole, and sour cream. The burrito and the fries came in pretty short order. I dug in to the fries and knew quickly that I would not be able to finish them. Mmmphing along, I got about 1/2 through and went to the lady and asked for a take-out box. Whew, that was good stuff.
Back to the burrito. "How is this one?" Roy nodded while chomping away at a mouthful. When he paused I asked, "One to ten?" He smiled and said, "Good 9." However, he did it mostly because of the pico. However, he added, "They put it only on one side."
Okay, so one side. Is that a problem? He said he felt it ought to have been put on the burrito so he got some with each bite -- he eats a bit from the left side, then the right side, then the center, since they are usually so big you can't get the whole thing in one bite.
That's the day. We waddled out of the Sombrero and went shopping. Not grocery shopping, I'm afraid, since full is not a good way to scout for menu items.

Third day testing

Grandson and I have many many choices to attend to before we declare a best burrito in San Diego. There were several recommendations which we intend to follow up and those include some which are quite a distance away. Oh, no, nothing like Phoenix or El Paso, but south to San Ysidro and even as far away as Spring Valley. Makes a burrito cost a lot of money when you think of how much gasoline costs and distance involved in the search.
The one we devoured yesterday was really quite good. When grandson was small, somewhere between 5 and 7 years old, we used to go to Don Mario's at Mt. Etna and Genesee. The restaurant then was quite "intimate" (read: a hole in the wall), but Don increased the size quite a bit and the food was excellent. Grandson did like that place and even asked if he could have one of the Don Mario tee shirts. Don got sick and sold the place though; the lady who ran the new place was quite nice, but both grandson and we moved and lost contact.
I had thought this might be a good place to re-visit in any case.
Now, it's Nieto's Mexican Food and though recently opened he's working hard to make it successful.
We introduced ourselves and grandson ordered the test burrito: Carne Asada.
Tavo Carrillo, the owner, brought it to the table and was very cordial. Grandson began his meal. I had ordered a carne asada tostada.
When the burrito looked to have been about 1/2 finished I asked, "Okay, how's this one." Grandson, with a mouth full of the dripping giant thing, nodded. When he got the opportunity to speak, he indicated this was the best so far. "I'd give it a 10 just for the service, but a 9 was for the food, the extra was because the guy is so nice," he said.
The tostada was great too.
So, this one is the best at this point. I did say, 9.5 would be a good number for the burrito.
Today we foray again. There are so many Mexican food places and so little time.
We eschew the corporate places as they have very little personal attitudes about their portions. They mete out the lettuce, there are a certain number of diced tomatoes, the chicken or beef is pre-set at 3 oz., and the staff only smiles because the food is often not taste specific, ie., they get the "average" and serve to that level and not to the best they can do.
Therefore, only small and lively Mexican restaurants or those on the corner will do.
OB next? We'll try them either today or maybe Thursday. Friday we have a LOT to do and likely won't be on the trail of the best burrito again until Saturday.