President Biden’s first address was the most boring political speech I have ever listened to – it was just gibberish.
I really believe that Joe Biden doesn’t understand what he is saying. He actually believes that spending $6 trillion and allow the government to take over the private economy is going to lead to prosperity. This frightens me.
This address was a communication to the American people that said, if you vote Democrat, we’re going to give you stuff. We’re going to take away from affluent Americans and provide for you. That is how socialists get elected. That is what the promise was.
I hate to say it, but the only thing that can save the country is if the economy goes into decline late this year. Because if the economy tanks and people are feeling insecure about it, they will vote Democrats out in the 2022 midterm elections.
The Democratic party wants to run everything - and if the American people continue to vote for them, individual freedom is going to go right down the drain. They want you to be dependent on them - that is the endgame.
For those of us that recall history, we know the dangers of reliving it. Instead of some foreign country, it is starting to happen here, and it is the cancel culture. if you don't toe the party line, you are doxxed, silenced, or fired from your job. This is a frightening time as an American, what happened to our ability to have an opinion? I snagged this from Bill O Reilly.
While individual Americans are trying to figure out if they are as racist as the corporate media believes, California has already reached its conclusion. The United States and its Caucasian citizens are, indeed, purveyors of bigotry and oppression.
So, Golden State educators are damn well going to do something about it.
According to reporting by City Journal, California’s Department of Education has approved an “ethnic studies model.” This curriculum contains programs that advocate “decolonizing” the USA (open borders) and “liberating” students from capitalism, patriarchy, and “settler colonialism.”
Wow. That’s quite a lift for Middle School.
The California vision is not new. In fact it is directly cribbed from that old rascal Mao Zedong. Back in 1966, the Chinese Communist dictator, whose hobby was mass murder, stood in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square waving to hundreds of thousands of “Red Guards,” students who were rooting out all cultural opposition to Mao’s reign of terror.
The young people destroyed books and art deemed not to be red enough. They renamed streets and destroyed statues. They burned anything religious. About seven thousand pieces of private property were demolished because China had outlawed private property.
In just two months, August and September 1966, fanatical members of the Red Guards murdered nearly 1,800 people in Beijing alone. Many of the victims were designated as “capitalists.”
Back in California, Jorge Pacheco is doing his best to resurrect the non-lethal spirit of the Red Guards. Jorge is the radical left president of the California Latino School Boards Association and a top advisor to the state’s ethnic studies vision.
Jorge Pacheco is not a shy guy. He openly admits the curriculum is based ona Marxist tenet called “pedagogy of the oppressed.” That line of study calls for students to “understand” their oppression and eventually “overthrow” their oppressors.
The taxpayers of California are funding this hateful campaign and I have heard little public dissent from politicians and the media.
Does Governor Newsome oppose?
Does George Clooney see the danger here?
Has the local California media condemned this? Anyone?
With little opposition, the nation’s largest state is embarking on a mass “re-education” campaign in some public schools; a curriculum that will surely lead to intense confrontation on the part of students who embrace it.
Somewhere, in a very warm place, Mao Zedong is waving.
I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs. This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", back in November of 2019? it is a Facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia. We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....
One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines set up the Tannerite Rover, turn on the water irrigation system and fill it with gasoline instead of water and prepare yourself.
I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song about people standing for their beliefs and willing to fight for them no matter the cost, Good Music unlike that crap they listen to now. What can I say, My humor is warped....just a bit. Next week will be "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, Now that should really cause some psych evals., hehehe, some poor ATF guy trying to explain the attraction to his mother because he is imaging himself as The savior of the American way rather than working for an agency that have the initials of a convenience store. Now because we ain't gonna answer that door. They can kick it in and start "the Dance" I figured I would use this song because they should have "Run Like Hell".
The song is written from the narrative point of view of antihero Pink, an alienated and bitter rock star, during a hallucination in which he becomes a fascist dictator and turns a concert audience into an angry mob.
In the film adaptation, Pink directs his jackbooted thugs to attack the "riff-raff" mentioned in the previous song, in which he ordered them to raid and destroy the homes of queers, Jews, and black people. One scene depicts an interracial couple cuddling in the back seat of a car when a group of neo-Nazis accost them, beating the boy and raping the girl.
The Wall director Alan Parker hired the Tilbury Skins, a skinhead gang from Essex, for a scene in which Pink's "hammer guard" (in black, militaristic uniforms designed by the film's animator, Gerald Scarfe) smashes up a Pakistani diner; Parker recalled how the action "always seemed to continue long after I had yelled out 'Cut!'.
The music was solely written by David Gilmour (one of three songs on The Wall for which Gilmour is credited as a co-writer), and the lyrics were written by Roger Waters. Waters provides the vocals (except for Gilmour's multitracked harmonies singing "Run, run, run, run,"). The first version of the song had music written by Waters (which appears on the Immersion box set of The Wall) with the lyrics as on the album but then Waters's music was scrapped in favour of Gilmour's music during the recording of the band demos (which too appears on the Immersion box set). The song features the only keyboard solo on The Wall by Richard Wright (although on live performances, "Young Lust" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" would also feature keyboard solos); after the last line of lyrics, a synthesizer solo is played over the verse sequence, in place of vocals. Following the solo, the arrangement "empties out" and becomes sparse, with the guitar only playing an ostinato with rhythmic echoes, and brief variations every other bar. Sound effects are used to create a sense of paranoia, with the sound of cruel laughter, running footsteps, car tyres skidding, and a loud scream. The original 7" single version and Pink Floyd The Wall -- Special Radio Construction promotional EP both contain a clean guitar intro, without the live crowd effects. The EP version also contains an extended, 32-beat intro and an extended 64-beat outro where David Gilmour's main guitar phrase repeats before the track ends.
As with "Comfortably Numb", also from The Wall, the music to "Run Like Hell" has its roots in Gilmour's first solo album. "Short and Sweet" can be seen as this song's precursor. "Yes," Gilmour told Musician magazine, "it's a guitar with the bottom string tuned down to a D, and thrashing around on the chord shapes over a D root. Which is the same in both [songs]. [Smiling] It's part of my musical repertoire, yes."
After the previous song, "In The Flesh", the crowd continues to chant, "Pink! Floyd! Pink! Floyd!" The guitar intro begins with the scratching of strings dampened with left-hand muting, before settling on an open D string dampened by palm muting. As heard earlier on the album in "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1", the muted D is treated with a specific delay setting, providing three to four loud but gradually decaying repeats, one dotted-eighth note apart, with the result that simply playing quarter notes (at 116 beats per minute) will produce a strict rhythm of one eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes, with rhythmic echoes overlapping. Over this pedal tone of D, Gilmour plays descending triads in D major (mostly D, A, and G), down to the open chord position (a quieter, second overdubbed guitar plays open chords only). Some of the guitar tracks are also treated with a heavy flanging effect.
The verses are in E minor, with pedal tones of the guitar's open E, B, and G strings (a full E minor triad) ringing out over a sequence of power chords, resulting in the chords E minor, Fmaj7sus2(♯11), C major seventh, and Bsus4(add♭6). Providing contrast, another guitar, equally treated with delay, plays a low-pitched riff on the roots and minor sevenths of each chord, although the E♭ (minor seventh of F) and B♭ (minor seventh of C) do not match the sustaining open E and B strings an octave above.[7][8]
Aside from the added tones in each chord, the basic verse sequence of E minor, F major, E minor, C major, and B major is reprised later in "The Trial", the conceptual climax of The Wall. However, David Gilmour is not credited as a co-writer of "The Trial", which is credited to Waters and producer Bob Ezrin.
Before the final riff ends the song, a piercing shriek by Roger Waters can be heard, not unlike one heard between "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2". At the conclusion of the song, the crowd begins chanting, "Hammer! Hammer!" as the sound of soldiers marching is heard before segueing into the next song, "Waiting for the Worms".
The movie version of the song is considerably shorter than the album version, likely done for the sake of pacing. The second guitar refrain between the first and second verses was taken out, with the verse's last line, "You better run", leading directly to Gilmour's harmonized chant ("Run, run, run, run"), which now echoed back and forth between the left and right channels. Also, Richard Wright's synth solo was superimposed over the second verse, and the long instrumental break between the end of the synth solo and Waters' scream was removed.
I added the "In the Flesh, Run Like Hell and "Waiting for the Worms" all part of the movie. I remembered the movie was really off the wall in 1982(Pardon the Pun).
I being a good Dad woke my kid up and drug him up to Hapeville to the Original Chickfila Dwarf house. They are closing the location to do a "Scrape and Rebuild" Basically tearing it totally down and making it 4 times larger. Well I had called and made reservations and got there and they gave us a menu....I wanted to go there because I used to go there all the time when I was at Ford Motor Company at Atlanta Assembly Plant (AAP), Was one of my good memories. We gave Truett Cathy our Last Taurus to roll off the assembly lines.
I got them subsequently signed by the Manager who is a friend of mine, we went through Woodbadge together. I found out that this was literally "The Last Day". Dang, I timed it right.
My Son looked totally excited to be there, he wasn't awake yet. teenagers unless they get 20 hours of sleep a day, are incapable of functioning properly, LOL. Truth be told, he goes to school, maintains an A&B average and is a kitchen supervisor at a restaurant that is a subsidiary of Chick-fil-a, and works 40+ hours a week, and is set to graduate high school in less than a month, then he is off to college for a technical degree. Not bad for an 18 year old.
Our food, was very good and the grits were the way I like it, thick! I had to take the waffle home with me, I was too full to eat it.
I got a pic of him outside the restaurant right before we left, in between the rainstorms blanketing the area.
We even got a couple of mugs
I am looking forward to them opening up in December. According to my friend, the new capacity will be 260 people.
Well Last Weekend I went to "Itchy Paws" Texas to Meet a certain larger than life character who had organized an unofficial get together, he had planned this last year and sent out the invites to various ner do well, LOL.This was my first flight since Covid and having to wear that damm face diaper the entire time at the airport and on the plane bit the big one, it was a different experience. Well I landed in Texas and the face diaper came off and I had made arrangements with "Hertz" to rent a car, they tried to get me into a Kia, well I was definitely not excited about that and the guy running the lot then asked me if I had a preference because he saw my facial expressions and I commented ""Well I am a Ford guy, Y'all have any Fords?' Well they did and I got this little SUV, for the same price for a compact car,
A 2020 Ford "EcoSport AWD Limited, and it even had the Sirius/XM turned on, so I got my "80's music fix the entire way from Dallas/Fort Worth to "Ichy Paws". I had rented a cabin at the resort where the event was planned.
The cabin was pretty nice, better than I expected
This was the Interior past the Bathroom,
it also had a little Kitchenette, and I didn't even use the coffeemaker.(The Horror)
This was the meeting room where everyone was getting together at.
This was the View I saw.
While I was there, I met an eclectic group of people, some that I had met at NRAAM and others that I have only known in cyberspace. it was a really good time and I enjoyed myself immensely. We talked about books, current event, possible futures and many other things, it really was a blast.
Even "Wendall" the Manatee" and the Ring tailed Lemur were having a good time.
Yeah, I had turned on the Lights so when I walked back to my cabin, I had something cheerful waiting for me.
I hated to pack up and leave but I had to leave to return Home.
Hopefully next year the Larger than life Gentleman will host the event again, if so, than I will return, but this time I might drive, LOL.....BTW Who brought the Winter, it was Cold, if I hadn't decided to bring my Leather Jacket and Knitted Hat as a last minute addition, it would have been rough.
I had gotten a call from my son on Tuesday late moning, exclaiming "Your blog is Gone!" I was in a state of shock after I used my phone browser while I was at work and confirmed that my blog was "Gone".
I was pissed and angry. and looked in my emails and saw that Blogger had removed my blog because it was reported as a "Spam" site. I was thinking, "Well crap, there went almost 11 years of postings, research,historical posts general happenings in my life and the occasional rant." It gave me the option of an appeal and after I formulated my thoughts I submitted my appeal.
They reinstated my blog the next day rather than the several weeks I was expected. I felt lost, This blog had become a part of my identity, I have meet many people on account of this blog and to have it ripped away a week after my Dad passing. I know, no comparison compared to losing my Dad, but it was something else I had to deal with, a certainty that was no longer there. Now that the blog is back, I will be backing the material up and shopping for a backup platform in case blogger decides to nail me again.
On a different note, I got some ammo for a pistol I got...at a really good price, Academy had them in stock, for less than $20 bucks a box, but there was a 2 box limit.
I am the proud owner of my Dads Glock, I am now a Glock owner to the amusement of Old NFO and our favorite Merchant of Death both whom cackled with glee.
Glock Model 17 with the holographic sight, and the retention holster. I gotta buy a couple of magazines, the pistol had one with it. According to our favorite Merchant of Death, go spend the extra money for the OEM magazines, I was looking at a Magpul magazine and he said "Nope", I trust Mack inplicity, especially with items related to his bailiwick, and Glocks are his bread and butter.
I will post about my past weekend activity probably Friday. Gotta finish the Post about Foolzcon.
I wanted to say "Thank you for the many readers who left condolences on the passing of my Dad, it was much appreciated by me and my family.
Man the meme is still rolling along.....
I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs. This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", back in November of 2019? it is a Facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia. We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....
One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines set up the Tannerite Rover, turn on the water irrigation system and fill it with gasoline instead of water and prepare yourself.
I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song about people standing for their beliefs and willing to fight for them no matter the cost, Good Music unlike that crap they listen to now. What can I say, My humor is warped....just a bit. Next week will be "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd, Now that should really cause some psych evals., hehehe, some poor ATF guy trying to explain the attraction to his mother because he is imaging himself as The savior of the American way rather than working for an agency that have the initials of a convenience store. Now because we ain't gonna answer that door. They can kick it in and start "the Dance" I figured I would use this sing because we could use some Brilliant disguise against them.
I was on the way to "Itchy Paws" Texas This weekend,and I was listening to Sirius/XM on the 80's channel and they were playing some songs from 1987 on it and this song was popular back in 1987 and it turned into an "earworm" I remembered this song. I bought the album on LP when I had returned to the states on leave before I started my 2nd tour in Germany. I considered the "Tunnel of Love" album almost as good as his "Born in the U.S.A." album. I would play the songs from this album on a cassette mix that I made with some other songs for my car and barracks room. I would later buy the CD when I got my first CD player , it was a "Marantz" single tray and it was a big step up in quality for the music vs LP and cassette. I wouldn't get a CD player for my car until I bought my 2001 Sport Trac back in 2001. But back to the Music, even now I would hear this song and it would take me back to my time in Germany in 1988 and driving near Echterdingen and Esslingen. It still was during the cold war and speaking of that I am reading a book I downloaded on my tablet called "Red Storm Rising"again... by Tom Clancy. I have read this book many times and it still is a good read and it still gives me a bit of a chill because I remember the times back in the 80's when I patrolled the 1 K zone between East and West Germany. Scary but I never felt more alive.....funny how that works out.
I like Bruce Springsteen, but I don't care for his politics, I kinda wish that musicians would stay out of politics, but perhaps this is an unrealistic expectation, but alienating half of your customer base to prove how "woke" you are is getting tiresome. "Brilliant Disguise" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 album Tunnel of Love. It was released as the first single from the album, reaching the #5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The follow-up single, "Tunnel of Love", also reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, giving Springsteen two consecutive #1's. The single had less commercial success in other countries.
Like much of the Tunnel of Love album, "Brilliant Disguise" was recorded in Springsteen's home studio, called Thrill Hill East, between January and May 1987 with several members of the E Street Band. On this song, Springsteen played several instruments and is backed by Roy Bittan on keyboards, Danny Federici on organ and Max Weinberg on drums. The lyrics of "Brilliant Disguise" represent a confession of self-doubt on the part of the singer. The emotions expressed in the song include confusion, jealousy and anxiety about whether the singer's wife has become a stranger to him. The song deals with the masks people wear and the bitterness that can ensue when we realize the darkness that may lie behind those masks. The analogies to Springsteen's personal life at the time are evident: he had recently married then-model and actress Julianne Phillips, and the two would divorce in 1988. The references to marital problems are quite direct, as in the lyrics, "We stood at the alter [sic]/the gypsy swore our future was bright/but come the wee wee hours/Well maybe baby the gypsy lied." The song's quiet power builds slowly. The sound is scaled back from the typical E Street Band sound. The singer struggles to do things right, but it doesn't help. He can't trust either himself or his wife. Both he and his wife continue to play their roles - he of a "faithful man", she of a "loving woman", but the singer is nonetheless wracked with self-doubt. A key line towards the end of the song: "I wanna know if it's you I don't trust/Because I damn sure don't trust myself." sums up the emotions that resonate throughout the song, and indeed the entire second side of the Tunnel of Love album. Springsteen himself wrote about the song "after '85 I'd had enough and turned inward to write about men, women and love, things that have previously been on the periphery of my work." The song was later released on the compilation album The Essential Bruce Springsteen. "Brilliant Disguise" has been ranked as the #1192 best song of all time, as well as the #27 song of 1987 and the #214 song of the 1980s, in an aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net The song has also been listed as one of the all time great songs in Toby Creswell's "1001 songs" and as one of the 7500 most important songs from 1944 through 2000 by Bruce Pollock.It was also ranked as the #6 single of 1987 by the Village Voice and the #51 single of 1987 by the New Musical Express. The photograph on the original release picture sleeve was taken by Springsteen's sister Pamela Springsteen.
Like several other music videos from the Tunnel of Love album, including "Tunnel of Love", "One Step Up" and "Tougher Than the Rest", the video for "Brilliant Disguise" was directed by Meiert Avis. The video of the song, shot in black and white, effectively reflects its emotions. The singer sits uncomfortably on the edge of a chair. He plays his guitar as he sings the lyrics about what it means to try to trust someone looking straight into the camera, never flinching. This very personal performance can make it difficult to watch, but it effectively reflects the themes of the song. The video was later released on the VHS and DVD Video Anthology / 1978-88
I got some really bad news yesterday, My Dad passed away and I am still in shock. He had some health issues relating to his Agent Orange, but it was his heart that failed, not his lungs. I had some post lined up, but it will be a a few days before I will post, my creativity is zapped.
I am going out of town to Foolzcon to visit Old NFO and many other characters and will not return until Sunday Night. If there is internet access, I will post some pics while I am there.
I knew a little about the Krag, What I knew was that it was a very nice bolt action rifle, but the Mauser was superior to it in the Spanish American War, and if the Spanish were not so ineptly led, their superior equipment could have caused major problems for the United States.
The Spanish-American War of 1898 was America’s last war of the 19th century and began the ascent of the United States toward world power. It also marked the first major combat use of the U.S. Army’s new .30-40 Krag-Jorgensen service rifle. Adopted in 1892, and placed into production at the venerable Springfield Armory in 1894, the Norwegian-designed Krag-Jorgensen was intended to replace the ponderous and obsolete single-shot, blackpowder .45-70 Gov’t Trapdoor Springfield.
U.S. Model 1892 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle. The M1892 shown is documented to have been used by the 16th Infantry at the Battle of Santiago.
The Krag was chambered for the first small-caliber (.30), smokeless-powder cartridge in U.S. military service, the .30-40. The rifle featured an extremely smooth bolt-action and a rather unusual five-round magazine on the right side of the receiver. A knife bayonet, the Model 1892, was adopted for the new rifle and represented a notable departure from the triangular blade socket bayonets previously used. The Krag was manufactured in rifle versions for the infantry and carbine versions for the cavalry. There were eventually three rifle variants (the Model 1892, Model 1896 and Model 1898) and three carbine variants (the Model 1896, Model 1898 and Model 1899) of the U.S. Krag.
U.S. Model 1896 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle. uring the Spanish-American War, most Krag rifles available to regular infantry units were Model 1892s, although a small number of Model 1896 rifles were also on hand.
Even though the Krag was the standard U.S. service rifle in 1898 at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, there were only some 30,000 available. This was barely sufficient to equip the U.S. Army regular infantry units. In order to meet the manpower requirements of the war, the small regular army was augmented by many volunteer units.
There were differences in the actions between Model 1898 (top) and earlier Krags. The receivers on Model 1892 and 1896 (bottom) had a locking recess machined for the bolt handle at the right rear of the action, while the Model 1898 did not.
There were not enough Krags in inventory to equip these rapidly mobilized outfits, and most were armed with old .45-70 Trapdoors. The most famous volunteer outfit of the war was the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the “Rough Riders.” Due in large measure to the efforts of the unit’s second-in-command, Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders were equipped with the latest Model 1896 Krag carbine, but the unit did not receive them until a few days before departing for Cuba.
Receiver markings (above) are found on the left side, and included the model, maker-—the U.S. Springfield Armory—and the gun’s serial number. The gun depicted is an M1899 carbine.
Most Krag rifles available to regular infantry units were Model 1892s. A relatively small number of Model 1896 Krag rifles were also on hand, but the majority of Spanish-American War combat photos taken in Cuba depict only unaltered Model 1892 rifles. None of the Model 1898 rifles, or carbines, were manufactured in time for duty in the war. The U.S. Marine Corps, which participated in combat operations in Cuba and the Philippines, was primarily armed with the Winchester Model 1895 6 mm Lee Navy straight-pull rifle.
Receiver markings on an M1896 carbine.
The United States was ill-prepared for the war, and our troops in Cuba were faced with shortages of all types of supplies and equipment, including basic rifle cleaning implements. Some soldiers are reported to have cut off part of their shirt tails for use as improvised cleaning patches.
The Krags, unlike the Trapdoors, utilized knife bayonets. The “Bowie” (above) was experimental, while the -standard-issue Model 1892 bayonet (below) is mounted on a Constabulary Carbine.
The climactic problems encountered in Cuba paled in comparison with those faced by our troops in the Philippines where they fought the Spanish occupiers of the islands after Admiral Dewey’s defeat of the enemy fleet in Manila Bay. Perhaps surprisingly, the supply issue was not as critical in the Philippines as it was in Cuba, but the harsher conditions made care and maintenance of the Krags equally difficult. It is reported that: “The bright blue and case-hardened (Krag) rifle steel gradually changed to brown mahogany color in spite of a plentiful supply of gun oil.”
Unlike most U.S. volunteer units in the Spanish-American War, the “Rough Riders” did not receive Trapdoors. Thanks to its second in command, Theodore Roosevelt, the unit was issued .30-40 U.S. Model 1896 Krag carbines.
The Krag was initially popular with most of its users due to its flawlessly smooth bolt action and overall reliability. The design, however, was found to be lacking when compared to the Model 1893 Mauser utilized by the Spanish. Unlike the Krag, the Mauser could be rapidly loaded by means of a five-round charger (stripper clip) and its double locking lug bolt enabled the use of a cartridge with greater power than the .30-40.
U.S. Model 1896 carbine.
Fortunately, due to the short duration of combat in Cuba, American troops did not have to pay an inordinately high price for the Krag’s deficiencies as compared to the relative superiority of the Mauser. The problems encountered with the Krag resulted in the search for a new service rifle that incorporated many of the desirable features of the Mauser. This search culminated in the adoption of the famed Model of 1903 Springfield just five years after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War.
U.S. Model 1898 carbine.
Although the fighting was over in Cuba in just a matter of a few weeks, the situation was totally different in the Philippines. Even though the Spanish Army in the Philippines surrendered on August 13, 1898—less than a month after hostilities had ceased in Cuba—the Americans essentially traded one enemy for another. Although many Filipinos were relieved to be rid of their oppressive Spanish occupiers, there was a strong nationalist movement in the Philippines that demanded total independence.
U.S. Model 1899 carbine.
But the United States was not prepared to grant independence at that time. On January 4, 1899, a proclamation was issued that the American government had obtained possession of the Philippines during the war and intended to extend its control to all the islands in the archipelago. This policy caused immediate outrage among some in the United States. An article in the November 1898 issue of Harper’s Weekly stated, in part: “[A] war that has discovered the unworthiness of its cause … and gross mismanagement of which has filled thousands of graves with victims … demonstrates nothing more clearly than our unpreparedness for it … and has launched us on a career of empire.”
This U.S. Model 1898 carbine has an unaltered cavalry ring and bar arrangement for attachment of a sling.
While the American occupation of the Philippines was unpopular with a segment of the domestic population, it was met with fury by many nationalist Filipinos. Among the most virulent opponents of the new American occupiers were the Moslem Moros (Spanish for Moslem) tribesmen, also known as Juarmentados, who had ferociously battled for decades the Spanish troops garrisoning the Philippines.
The stock cartouche and inspector’s mark of this unmodified Model 1892 rifle denotes 1894 as the rifle’s year or production.
As soon as the U.S. Army replaced the Spaniards, our troops met the full fury of the Moros, who wreaked much havoc with their razor-sharp bolos, barongs and krises. The insurgents also attempted to capture as many modern military rifles from their adversaries as possible. As related by Col. Philip Shockley in his interesting historical monograph, The Krag-Jorgensen Rifle in the Service: “The insurgent government offered rewards for captured Krags which the Filipino esteemed as much as he did a Mauser.”
The .45-70 Gov't. (left) cartridge shown next to the smokeless .30-40 Krag.
During the Philippine Insurrection, a number of Model 1898 Krag rifles saw action, but many of the earlier Model 1892 and Model 1896 variants remained in use as well. The standard M1892 Krag bayonet saw widespread use, but some experimental Krag Bolo and Bowie bayonets were fabricated and field-tested in the Philippines during this era. None of these experimental bayonets were standardized or issued in any appreciable numbers.
“The Krag is today—as it was in all its yesterdays—a grand weapon. No American military arm was ever employed in more diversified purposes in so short a span of years.” —Col. Philip M. Shockley
The U.S. Army troops garrisoning the Philippines were well aware of the animosity felt by the nationalist Filipino insurgents. Krags were always kept fully loaded during guard duty and many bayonets were honed to a razor-edge. Suspicious activity by unknown Filipinos lurking around army posts was often met by rifle fire. An oft-repeated saying among American troops during this period was “ … Krag ’em and bag ’em.”
There were numerous small-scale, but very bloody, engagements between American soldiers and the insurgents, especially the fierce Moros. Like present-day Islamic extremists, the Moros believed they would be granted carnal rewards in the afterlife if they shed the blood of infidels on Earth.
Some Moros reportedly bound their limbs with cords to inhibit blood loss if wounded and worked themselves into a religious frenzy before “going Juarmentado.” There were many instances where mortally wounded Moros hacked American soldiers to death before themselves dying. As correctly stated by Shockley: “A crazed Moro, imbued with the spirit of killing, just couldn’t be stopped by a leg or chest shot from a Krag.”
Our troops sought ways to increase the Krag’s stopping power including filing the tip of the bullet to create “dum-dum” ammunition (as it was termed at the time) or pulling out the bullet and reinserting it with the flat base forward. These modifications were, at best, only marginally helpful. A gruesomely illustrative example was related by Col. Shockley:
“During the American occupation a corporal and two privates were on guard … .Three Juarmentados (Moros), disguised as hucksters, approached the three guards. Suddenly throwing their bundles to the ground, each with raised kris, which had been sharpened and polished for the occasion, dashed toward the alert guards. Three Krag rifles with bayonets affixed, came up, and three shots shattered the stillness. The first Moro, hit in the face, dived into the coral sand. He had been shot between the eyes and the bullet tore out the back of his head. The second Moro, hit in the mid-section, doubled-up, and then sat down, but the third, shot through the chest, continues his rush. The corporal thrust with his bayonet, and the Moro Moslem frenzy forced his body to receive the whole of it, clear to the muzzle. The downward swing of the kris split the corporal’s skull to the teeth. The cartridges had been dum-dum.”
In order to arm our troops with more effective firearms for such fierce close-quarter combat, obsolescent M1873 .45 Colt Single Action Army revolvers were taken out of retirement and issued in order to have handguns with more power than the anemic, standard-issue Colt .38 Long Colt military revolvers. The U.S. Army also procured and issued a quantity (estimated at 200) Winchester Model 1897 short-barreled 12-ga. shotguns (riot guns) loaded with 00 buckshot. These proved to be formidable close-quarter combat arms.
The American government organized and equipped the Philippine Constabulary and gradually turned the problem of putting down the insurrectionists over to our Filipino allies. Interestingly, some Moros served with distinction in the Constabulary as well. The Constabulary, trained and led by American military officers, was initially armed with .45-70 Trapdoor carbines since the smaller statured Filipinos were not comfortable with full-length rifles.
After the turn of the century, a number of M1899 Krag carbines, along with a few M1898 carbines, were altered for Constabulary use by the fitting them with cut-down M1898 Krag rifle stocks equipped with sling swivels and bayonet lugs. The ends of the larger diameter carbine barrels were lathe-turned down in order to permit the use of the standard bayonet. These modified Krag carbines resembled miniature rifles and are typically known today as Philippine Constabulary Rifles. After circa 1914, the task of pacifying the Philippines was almost solely carried out by the Philippine Constabulary, and U.S. Army combat operations in the archipelago were largely a thing of the past.
Combat use of the American Krag around the turn of the century was not restricted to the Philippines. Unrest in China during this period led the rise of the Boxers who saw foreign devils as the reason for that nation’s ills. The Boxers embarked on a rampage of murder against foreigners in China, and a number of nations sent military contingents to the mainland in order to protect their respective citizens.
One of the most famous incidents was the siege at the International Legation at Peking in 1900 where a number of foreigners, including some Americans, were trapped behind the legation walls by Boxers intent on massacring everyone inside. Foremost among the defenders of the legation was a contingent of U.S. Marines armed with Lee Navy rifles. In order to raise the siege, several nations dispatched troops and the legation was eventually rescued.
American units that participated in the international relief column included the U.S. Army’s 9th and 14th Infantry Regiments and a contingent of U.S. Marines, all armed with Krag rifles. The Boxer Rebellion marked the end of the M1895 Lee Navy’s tenure as a first-line U.S. military arm as it was replaced in U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps service during this period by the Krag.
The Krag remained the standard U.S. military service rifle until the introduction of the “U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, Model of 1903,” which was designed to replace both the Krag rifle and carbine. Even after adoption of the ’03, Krags remained in service until the end of the first decade of the 20th century, by which time it was fully replaced in front-line service by the new Springfield.
A number of Krag rifles lingered on in the military’s arsenal and some saw supplemental service well into the First World War. For all intents and purposes, however, the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection, along with the short interlude of the Boxer Rebellion relief expedition, marked the Krag’s glory days.
The Krag’s tenure of service was very brief as compared to some other U.S. military rifles, such as the M1903 Springfield and M1 Garand. Nevertheless, the Krag was our nation’s standard service rifle at the time of the United States’ transformation into an international power and the period of American overseas expansionism. As aptly stated by Col. Shockley: “The Krag is today—as it was in all its yesterdays—a grand weapon. No American military arm was ever employed in more diversified purposes in so short a span of years.”
The feelings of many American soldiers during the Krag’s short-lived, but tumultuous, period of service were summed up in the concluding words of a popular Army song of the day: “Underneath the starry flag, Civilize ’em with a Krag, And return us to our own beloved homes!”
