I am getting this installment of my Monday Music early on Monday...rather than late monday or even Tuesday Morning. I will not have time tonight to post. My son is getting his Arrow of Light from his Pack.
The Arrow of Light award is the highest award available to Cub Scouts. It requires the Scout to have earned the Webelos Scout badge and eight activity badges. In addition to the skill and activity requirements of the preceding ranks, the Arrow of Light requires Scouts to learn the Scout Promise and Scout Law, and visit one meeting and one activity of a Boy Scout troop, in preparation for advancing to the Boy Scouts. Earning the Arrow of Light will help earn many of the requirements for the lower ranks of the Boy Scouts. The Arrow of Light award is the only Cub Scout award that can be worn on a Boy Scout uniform. Both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts wear the badge below the left pocket. Adults wear the square-knot version of the badge above the left pocket. Cub Scouts who earn the Arrow of Light are eligible to join a Boy Scout Troop prior to turning the normally-required age of eleven. I will be coming in later tonight on account of that.
I decided to go with "Chris De Burgh" and his song "Don't pay the Ferryman" This is from Wiki: "Don't Pay the Ferryman" is a single by Chris de Burgh from the album The Getaway. It was produced in 1982. In 1983, the single reached #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.[1]
The song tells the story of a man who boards a ferryboat and sets off. A storm approaches and the ferryman demands payment from the patron. The song's narrator warns the passenger not to pay the ferryman until the boat arrives at its destination on the other side.
The repetitive lyrics are believed to have a connection with mythology. The song describes the ferryman as "the hooded old man at the rudder," and seems to connect to the classic image of the Grim Reaper, a hooded being (usually a skeleton) who leads lost souls to "the other side," also a lyric in the song. The ferryman demanding his payment is also similar to the Greek ferryman of the dead, Charon. He demanded an obolus (coin) to ferry dead souls across the River Styx. Those who did not pay were doomed to remain as ghosts, remaining on the plane of the mare, the restless dead. Therefore in former cultures coins were laid below the tongues of dead persons.
In the bridge of the song, lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest can be heard, spoken very low by British actor Anthony Head. Also Tom Baker from Dr Who fame played the ferryman. He is uncredited
I was pulling this off Breitbart. Well since Obama failed through the legislature, now he is using his his crony capitalist pals with GE, Bank of America and others to run gun manufacturers out of business.
This is the definition of
Fascism...its official. The merger between state and corporation. How
else do you describe a company like GE, that took a $183 Billion
bailout, that has now decided not to finance an industry that
economically is successful. The laws of economics right now would
oblige GE to fund a business that can so obviously return a profit
because demand is high. Regardless of what Obama and his minions have
said about the "majority" of America ready to give up their
guns....economics say he is lying.
GE's decision is not one based on finances or business, it is a
political decision. What is GE Capital doing in the world of politics?
Is there a list of companies that we need to not support besides GE, Bank of America and Comcast?
From Breitbart:
Gun Control Advocates Revel in Obama's Economic War on Guns
As gun control advocates cheered GE Captial's decision to cease business with gun stores, President Obama's economic war on the gun industry came into full view.
While Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) supports legislation to dry up the
supply of firearms in this country, Obama and company are working
behind the scenes to dry up the capital needed to make firearms and
operate firearms related businesses.
We began seeing this in January when
Obama's right hand man, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, began pressuring
Bank of America (BA) and TD Bank to quit doing business with gun
manufacturers.
Band of America was so eager to comply that they froze the account of Arizona AR-15 manufacturer Spirit Arms before Emanuel even put his request in writing.
Bank of America defended their action by pointing out that Spirit
Arms allows customers to order guns over the internet without conducting
a background check. BA missed the fact that the guns are not shipped to
the customers directly but to a FFL near the customer, where a
background check on the buyer is performed before the gun is handed to
him or her.
Although BA was eventually shamed into reversing course, the impetus
for their action was clear. Now that GE Capital has followed suit, gun
control advocates are cheering their victory.
But other businesses are feeling the pressure as Obama, Democrats,
and gun-control advocates attempt to turn Smith & Wesson and Glock
into the equivalent of Marlboro or Winston cigarette manufacturers.
Comcast Cable, for example, announced a ban on all firearm and ammunition advertisers in March.
Because
his fellow traveler Sarah Brady is a socialist, JUST LIKE HE IS! Thank
GOD for Owl Gore's Internet. Note the little blurb in the lower right
hand corner. How 'bout that....? This isn't about guns...it is about CONTROL.
The
small print reads: "from remarks made to liberal U.S. Senator Howard
Metzenbaum (he was actually a communist) as she lobbied in support of a
ban on semi-automatic firearms.
How
odd that this surfaces now. Sarah Brady trots out her useful idiot
husband, to champion their gun grabbing cause when in reality, she, like
all Democrats, wants total control over the population.
This is soo politically incorrect....and since I am not political correct I will use it. One of my friends pulled this picture off the internet and showed it around. Well we all got chuckle out of everybody so I had him email it to me and I am posting it here.
If you are offended......Good, if this offends you than you are too thin skinned anyway.
This ties in with my previous post about the talking heads wishing that the Boston Bombers were white dudes so it would support the narrative that is being pushed. It sucks to be wrong.....again! The bombers were.....wait for it.........Muslim. You know the religion of Peace...you know..the ones that flew planes into buildings. The religion that is intolerant of others......You doubt that...? Ask how any Christians are doing on Sharia controlled countries.....The Copts in Egypt....In Iraq...any country where Islam is a majority. We are expected to be tolerant, but they get a free pass. Everybody don't hold Islam to the same standards like the other religions...They pat Islam on the head and say " there, there..." and excuse the latest barbarism. When will the world treat Islam like all other religion? Wait..they might get a Jihad called on them and have people blow themselves and your citizens up in bombs....gotta placate the Muslims...can't offend them....they might self destruct...and take you with them Wait I can't say that...I might get a fatwa against me....Mustn't offend the Muslims.....
Now if it had been anybody else..they will get investigated...but not Muslims Don't support the political correctness coming out of the government....
We also took a shuttle boat to the Fort Sumter National park, the place where the War against Yankee aggression started, er the war between the states, er..the Civil War started. The trip is also a worthwhile trip. You can see how strategic the location was. They upgraded the fort after the war, and installed some of the disappearing rifles as part of coastal defence back in the day before the advent of airplanes and missiles made such defences obsolete.
Now a bit about the Boston Bomber..you know the jerks that paralized a city for 2 days and had people hiding in their house, I cribbed this from Boortz:
"The people directly responsible for the bombings in Boston are either dead, in the case of the older bomber, or shot all to hell and in custody, in the case of the younger bomber. (I don’t particularly like giving these people the publicity they want by naming them). So, is it over? With the death of one, and the arrest of the other brother, is this case pretty much closed? If they acted alone and absent outside coaching or influence, yes. If not … no. It is most certainly not over.
So there we have the Mayor of Boston yesterday telling America that these two bombers acted alone. That’s it. It’s over. We killed on, the other is in custody. Case closed. Nobody else was involved We have them, and there’s nothing more to see here.
Here’s an oddity for you to consider. When there is a violent incident; a mass shooting, a bombing, a political assassination; the media seems to be instantly posed to blame it on right wingers. This happened all the way back with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I lived in Texas at the time, and immediately the national media was blaming right wing elements for Kennedy’s death. In some areas of the country offices of right wing organizations such as The John Birch Society were being vandalized. In California cars with Texas license plates were being vandalized as well. Then … well what do you know? … the assassin turned out to be a communist? Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
The man show shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and killed several people? That was Sarah Palin’s fault, you know. In no time at all DailyKos and Think Progress, left wing websites, were blaming this on Palin because she posted a map “targeting” certain congressmen for defeat in the upcoming election. It was shown that the “targets” she used on that map were really surveyors marks obtained from the Internet – marks used to indicate geographic locations, like congressional districts – but to the left they were telescopic sights – Palin’s message that these people needed to be shot. The shooter turned out to be a complete lunatic with no discernable political leanings.
The man who killed those folks in the Aurora, Colorado theater? In no time at all he was identified as a Tea Party member because Brian Ross at ABC, operating under an assumption that the shooter simply must be a conservative, found a Colorado Tea Party member with the same (quite common) name.
This is common behavior for the left and the 0bamaMedia. There’s been an act of violence. Blame the right. After the Boston bombings CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was saying that due to the fact it was Patriot’s Day, and Tax Day, perhaps anti-government right wing groups are to blame. Looney old Chris Matthews was also blaming the right, saying that normally domestic terrorism comes from the right. We had a Salon Magazine columnist begging for the bombes to be white males. CNN had a so-called counter-terrorism expert on the air who said that pressure cooker bombs were a signature of the right wing, though there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever for that statement. MSNBC puts a Harvard Professor on the air to suggest that the “far right” might be responsible. An NPR “journalist” said that the attack could have been right-wingers celebrating Columbine or Hitler’s birthday. Can you believe this stuff? Well, believe it. It’s the normal course of conduct after an incident such as this … right up until the time when it’s discovered that the perps aren’t right-wingers, as is normally the case.
So then did you see the Mayor of Boston yesterday? After the identity and political and religious leanings fo the bombers became known the whole incident suddenly morphed from being caused by some evil right-wing political movement to two men out on their own..Sure enough the Boston mayor, a Democrat (of course) was telling America that the bombers acted alone. It was just them. Case pretty much closed.
The needs of political correctness dictate the “acted alone” conclusion. If government, particularly the Feds and Homeland Security, do not use the “acted alone” approach then the follow-up question will naturally be: “Well, what are you doing to find out who was involved with the bombers? Who influenced them? What happened on that trip to Russia? What about the Mosques the brothers attended? Are there other known radicals involved with that Mosque? Have known radicals who could have had influence on the members visited Mosque? You cannot address these questions without focusing on Muslims – on the wonderful, serene, peaceful, loving religion of Islam. And of course as soon as you start focusing on Muslims, on Mosques, and on the associates of the two bombing brothers --- you’re then engaging in the hideous, horrible practice of profiling! OMG! It might even be racial profiling! After all, the vast majority of Muslim radicals are from the Middle East!
Of course as long as you think that right wing militias committed some heinous act, or the Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party or white supremacists – you can blame groups and movements and investigate to your heart’s content. After all … these people are perceived as predominantly white, and to make things worse, they’re largely believed to be white (ugh) males! But if a protected religious or racial minority might have been involved … be careful! You don’t want to profile!"
This is also an installment of my Monday Music, I am going to pull this from the "Born in the U.S.A." album from Bruce Springstein. I don't like his politics but his older albums are good where they spoke from the blue collar workers point of view. This song is "I'm on fire" it is a short song and a real cool video with a 57 T-bird.
I'm on Fire" was recorded in February 1982 during the first wave of Born in the U.S.A. sessions. This took place in impromptu fashion when Springsteen started making up a slow tune on guitar for some lyrics he had, some of which had been written for Spanish Eyes, which would later surface on The Promise, and drummer Max Weinberg and keyboardist Roy Bittan, hearing it for the first time, created an accompaniment on the spot. The result was a moody number that merges a soft rockabilly beat, lyrics built around sexual tension, and synthesizers into an effective whole; it was one of the first uses of that instrument in Springsteen's music.
The song peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts in early 1985. It was the fourth of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A. It is also remarkable that the single reached #1 in the Netherlands for 3 weeks in August 1985, at the same time as 2 other Springsteen singles ("Dancing in the Dark" and "Born in the U.S.A.") were occupying the Top 12.
Unlike the first three singles from the album, no remixes were made for "I'm on Fire" (nor were any made for any of the subsequent singles released).
The music video for the song was shot in March 1985 in Los Angeles, and was directed by filmmaker John Sayles. Unlike the previous videos from the album, this video was not a performance clip but rather portrayed a dramatic storyline that alluded to some of the song's emotions.
In it, Springsteen plays a working classautomobile mechanic with an attractive, married, very well-to-do, mostly unseen female customer who brings her vintage Ford Thunderbird in for frequent servicing, always requesting that he does the work. She leaves a small bunch of keys with him when she leaves in her car, possibly including house keys, but declines his offer to bring the car out to her house when it's ready. Later that night, he drives the car up to her mansion high in the hills above the city. He looks to a second floor window with the light on and is about to ring the bell, when he thinks better of it and drops her keys in the mailbox next to the door. He smiles wistfully and walks away down towards the city lights below.[4]
The video began airing in mid-April, received extensive MTV airplay, and later in the year won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
My Apologies for not posting anything for several days. I have been very busy and finding time to post was difficult...unless I want to cut myself of sleep for a couple of hours.
I saw the campaigner in chief President Obama meltdown where he berated the senate for not going along with the gun grab...you know when the rat bastards communist assholes danced on the bodies of the innocents to push a major wet dream of the liberal elitist...the belief that they the betters know what is best for the great unwashed...but we the citizens or the "hoi palloi" as they refer to us when they are amongst themselves and talk disparaging about the clingers to guns or the bible. that we are unworthy of them and by their benevolent grace that they are here to lead us to the socialist promised land if we would just do what they want us to.
The latest dancing on the bodies of the innocents happened after the shooting of Sandy Hook where a person killed his mom, took her guns and used them to shoot 26 people in an elementary school. The rat bastards liberals democrats who believe in the mantra " never let a crisis go to waste" immediately jumped on the gun control bandwagon to push an agenda that floundered the first time because of the "fast and Furious" gun runners into Mexico where the government let guns walk to Mexico to bolster the spurious claim that most of the weapons used in the drug wars come from the United States to support an assault on the 2nd amendment. The funny thing is that the laws being proposed would not have prevented the shooting because the slime that did the shooting got his weapons illegally. This would have affected the law abiding gun owners, since we obey the law, criminals by definition disobey the law...that is why they are called "Criminals."
The rat bastard commie's democrats overreached on this proposal. They were primed had the talking points ready for a sympathetic media and the talking heads and ready for a tragedy to hit so they were hoping to overwhelm the opposition before we had a chance to mount a defense. They were mostly unsuccessful, several states did screw over their citizens, notably New York, and Colorado. We have had several gun companies pull out of there for greener pastures in other states due to the political climate in those "blue" states. I swear that Obama and crew is hoping to force a fight with the gun owners to further an agenda that Saul Alensky had stated to fundamentally change the United States you would have to kill 10% of the population and a bunch of gun owners would fit the bill nicely.
Now President Obama in support of his latest agenda trotted out a bunch of people like meat shields for example Congresswomen Gifford whose husband tried to purchase an AR-15 like what they tried to ban others from buying. who was shot by a demented Democratic supporter that is conveniently glossed over by the media that is overwhelmingly democrats. He also flew a bunch of parents of the murdered children to try to influence the senate to support the gun grab that was proposed by senator Dianne Feinstein.
All this latest issue did was polarized the American electorate, the attitude among most of the gun owners are:
This is not the time to let off, we gotta remind the congress who they work for. A congressman main priority is to get re-elected. We have to remain vigilant and know that the liberal shitbirds will immediately crap over any new tragedy to push an agenda.
I have been working a lot of overtime.12 on and 12 off..I am tired but not complaining. Between the overtime and Cub Scouts, I haven't had the opportunity to post much. The Pollen season has hit GA really hard as my toolbox will attest to. This is at the taildock and the pollen gets that far inside the hanger. I wiped it a day earlier and this is what it looked like the next day...
I do read my blogroll but I haven't had a chance to post anything due to my schedule.
Well anyway I am going to post my Monday Music while I try to dig into my schedule to post something more substantial;)
This song made the dance club rounds, I remember it getting a lot of airplay, it was the height of the Disco era. It is a bit corny, but I do like the beat. The original video I had selected for this song to me screamed the feel-good disco scene with the Studio 54 era where anything goes. But it was borderline porn and my son does read my blog occasionally. Go to Youtube and type in "Lets all Chant Uncensored" and you will see what I mean. I liked the video but I engaged in self-censorship....so there....
I have had several references made to "Moscow Rules" so I googled them and this is what I came up with. It is a good rule of thumb kinda like my "Gibbs Rules" that I had posted a couple of months ago. The Pictures are compliments of "Bing" The Rules are compliments of Wikiuniversity
Whether fiction or fact, the Moscow Rules are often referenced and seldom printed. Said to have been developed by CIA for making sure their operatives were not sent like lambs to the slaughter to tough spots like Moscow,
the Moscow Rules are an incredibly profound set of pragmatic guidelines
for effective tradecraft. They are exceptionally difficult to find
online in their entirety. Here, all 40 of the Moscow Rules are
preserved. This page provides an opportunity to seminar students to
elaborate upon and give examples of the rules in operation.
I read this on Yahoo News. I remember Margaret Thatcher going toe to toe with the Soviets and she was known as the "Iron Lady". The Iron Lady would support Ronald Reagan when he was making points against the Soviets. I also remember that she went to war to get the Falklands back from Argentina who had horrible timing, if they had waited several more months the Ark Royal the aircraft carrier used by the British to great effect would have been decomissioned as part of the austerity measures as the conservatives were trying to cut cost to repair the damage done by decades of labour rules to the economy. The resulting war gave the British their pride as a nation back from the doldrums of the 60's and 70's. To make the call to recapture the Falklands was gutsy because Britain almost didn't have the force projection to make the mission successful. She made it despite the various naysayers that said that Britain should accept the inevitable decline in its empire and the associated prestige and national pride. I still think it was her finest hour.
From Yahoo News:
Margaret Thatcher, the first woman ever to serve as prime minister of Great Britain and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century has died at age 87.
"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that
their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this
morning," Lord Timothy Bell said today. "A further statement will be
made later."
Thatcher had significant health problems in her later years, suffering several small strokes and, according to her daughter, struggling with dementia.
In Dec. 2012, she was underwent an operation to remove a bladder growth, longtime adviser Tim Bell told The Associated Press.
But during her long career on the political stage, Thatcher was known as
the Iron Lady. She led Great Britain as Prime Minister from 1979 to
1990, a champion of free-market policies and adversary of the Soviet
Union.
Many considered her Britain's Ronald Reagan.
In fact, Reagan and Thatcher were political soul mates. Reagan called
her the "best man in England" and she called him "the second most
important man in my life." The two shared a hatred of communism and a
passion for small government. What America knew as "Reaganomics" is
still called "Thatcherism" in Britain.
Like Reagan, Thatcher was an outsider in the old boys' club. Just as it
was unlikely for an actor to lead the Republicans, the party of Lincoln,
it was unthinkable that a grocer's daughter could lead the
Conservatives, the party of Churchill and William Pitt -- that is, until
Thatcher. She led the Conservatives from 1975 to 1990, the only woman
ever to do so.
Personal Life
Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts on Oct. 13, 1925 in Grantham,
England. She attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied
chemistry, and later, in 1953, qualified as a barrister, specializing in
tax issues.
She married Denis Thatcher on Dec. 13, 1951, and their marriage lasted
for nearly 52 years until his death in June 2003. The couple had twins,
Mark and Carol, in 1953.
When Thatcher was elected to Britain's House of Commons in 1959, she was
its youngest female member. In 1970, when the Conservatives took power,
she was made Britain's secretary of state for education and science. In
1975, she was chosen to lead the Conservatives, and she became the
prime minister in 1979.
WATCH: May 4, 1979: Margaret Thatcher Becomes Prime Minister
Her policies were controversial. She took on the nation's labor unions,
forcing coal miners to return to work after a year on strike.
"We should back the workers and not the shirkers," she said in May 1978.
She pushed for privatization, lower taxes, and deregulation. And she
sought to keep Britain from surrendering any of its sovereignty to the
European Union.
FULL COVERAGE: Margaret Thatcher Thatcher receives standing ovation at Conservative Party Conference in October 1989. REUTERS/Stringer/FilesThatcher's admirers say she rejuvenated Britain's faltering economy.
Her critics say the rich got richer and the poor were left behind.
In the inner cities, Thatcherism brought a violent backlash. There were calls from her own party to change course.
But Thatcher resisted.
"You turn if you want to," she said in October 1980. "The lady's not for turning."
She had courage in abundance. In 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, she took Britain to war -- and won.
In 1984, she narrowly escaped being killed when the IRA bombed her hotel
during a party conference. The morning after, she convened the
conference on schedule -- undaunted.
She recognized Mikhail Gorbachev as a man who could help to end the Cold War, commenting famously, "I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together."
Ronald Reagan
thought so, too. Together, Thatcher and Reagan savored victory in the
Cold War as their proudest achievement. But while Alzheimer's forced
Reagan to retire from public life, Thatcher kept on long after leaving
Downing Street.
She became Baroness Thatcher, a symbolic leader for a party that struggled to find a worthy successor.
By the time of President Reagan's funeral in 2004, Lady Thatcher had
already suffered several strokes. She was a silent witness at her
friend's farewell, but she had the foresight to record a eulogy for
Reagan several months earlier.
"As the last journey of this faithful pilgrim took him beyond the
sunset, and as heaven's morning broke, I like to think -- in the words
of Bunyan -- that 'all the trumpets sounded on the other side," she
said
They think with the feelingThey vote with their emotionsThey vote for a gimmecrats who gimmedatThey are the LootersTo offend one, you tell them the truth.
CONSERVATIVES:
They think with logicThey work for a living.They think with their brains.They are the producersTo offend one, you lie to them.
I heard this song on and off for many years and i would catch it on "Sirius". Andrew Stewart was the main singer and composer for this song with Stevie Nicks providing background. It is a very good song and somewhat haunting.
Bombs Away Dream Babies is an album released by John Stewart on the RSO label in 1979. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard album chart. Despite selling over a million US copies, the disc never received a Gold or Platinum award from the RIAA.
While Stewart had performed and recorded as a solo act and as the member of various groups for nearly 20 years, Bombs Away Dream Babies represented his first, and only, major commercial success.
The album is a fairly straightforward rock-pop album with tinges of the folk that had been Stewart's staple genre.
The appearance of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks
added to the commercial success of the album as well as contributing
greatly to the overall sound of the album. Buckingham's guitar work is
understated by his usual standards but integral to the sound achieved
while his vocals are a solid counter-point to Stewart's rugged baritone.
Nicks' recognisable vocals add weight to the hits "Gold" and "Midnight
Wind".
"Gold" reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while "Midnight Wind" and "Lost Her in the Sun" made #28 and #34 respectively
This is a bittersweet moment for me..I remembered going to Graf or Hohenfels in the 1980's then seeing the tanks in action during the first Gulf War and seeing what they did to the Iraqi Army. I remembered seeing the M60 then the M-1 tanks do gunnery. There is something about a tank, Despite the advances of antitank weapons, nothing stops a tank like another tank. I remembered another place that needed tanks and we had none due to political considerations and that was Somalia. Remember Black Hawk Down...We were told that if we needed tank support, the allies would provide it. Well the Indians and Pakistani's that had tanks/APC's stayed in garrison and would not ride out to assist. That is why we had to use HUMMV's and 5 ton trucks to get the soldiers out.
US Army's last tanks depart from Germany
German
railway loadmasters with the Theater Logistics Support Center Europe
help load an Abrams main battle tank at the railhead in Kaisersalutern.
The tank was one of 22 bound for South Carolina, marking the end of an
Army tank presence in Germany.
U.S.
Army soldiers of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion 66th Armor Regiment, Task
Force 1-2, 172nd Infantry Brigade conduct a live fire training exercise
using M1 Abrams tanks at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany in this
Oct. 2010 photo.
Markus Rauchenberger/U.S. Army
U.S.
Army soldiers of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion 66th Armor Regiment, Task
Force 1-2, 172nd Infantry Brigade conduct a live fire training exercise
with M1 Abrams tanks at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany in this Oct.
2010 photo.
Markus Rauchenberger/U.S. Army
STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S. Army’s 69-year history of basing main
battle tanks on German soil quietly ended last month when 22 Abrams
tanks, a main feature of armored combat units throughout the Cold War,
embarked for the U.S.
The departure of the last M-1 Abrams tanks coincides with the
inactivation of two of the Army’s Germany-based heavy brigades. Last
year, the 170th Infantry out of Baumholder disbanded. And the 172nd
Separate Infantry Brigade at Grafenwöhr is in the process of doing the
same.
On March 18, the remaining tanks were loaded up at the 21st Theater
Sustainment Command’s railhead in Kaiserslautern where they then made
the journey to the shipping port in Bremerhaven, Germany. There they
boarded a ship bound for South Carolina.
The tanks belonged to the 172nd along with a mix that were leftover from other units, according to the 21st TSC.
“It is an honor to be one of the soldiers escorting the last battle
tanks out of Germany,” said Sgt. Jeremy Jordan of the 529th Military
Police Company, in an Army story about the journey. “As these tanks sail
back to the U.S., we are closing a chapter in history.”
From World War II on through the Cold War, tanker units were a heavy
presence in Germany. At its peak, Germany was home to 20 NATO armored
divisions, or about 6,000 tanks, according to the 21st TSC.
“There is no [U.S.] tank on German soil. It’s a historic moment,” said Lt. Col. Wayne Marotto, 21st TSC spokesman.
