Memorial Day 2023

So for this Memorial Day,  we honor and remember all those who lost their lives in service to our country. I felt it fitting to specifically remember the sacrifice of some of our best within recent and living memory.

On October 3, 2009 beginning at 6 am, the Battle of Kamdesh took place in Afghanistan. Over 350 Taliban armed with heavy machine guns, RPGs, rockets, and numerous small arms, attacked the 79 soldiers at Combat Outpost Keating and Observation Post Fritsche.

Located at the bottom of a valley surrounded and dominated by Taliban-occupied mountains, the placement of the base was almost a deliberate affront to sound military tactics, and an insult to the realities of basic geography.

The base was quite simply dominated from the higher terrain, and fire could be poured down onto and into it from the surrounding heights. On top of that, there were no usable roads to the base, and the helicopter landing zone was across a river from the base and also massively exposed to enemy fire from the surrounding mountainous terrain.

Combine this with some bad leadership prior to the attack, and a stalled plan to shut down the base, resulting in defenses not being enhanced, and it went from horrendously bad to worse.

The battle and the events leading up to it are well recounted in both the book and the movie The Outpost, and the book Red Platoon by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha (the Audible audio book is narrated by Clinton Romesha and it's worth a credit if you like audio books).  If you haven't read both these books, you really should. The movie is also worth a watch. More than worth your time to learn about some incredible Americans in a horrendous situation.

Thanks to the professionalism and incredible heroism of the American soldiers on the ground (and two Latvians there as well), and the heroism and professionalism of US Army and US Air Force aviators,  the outpost was retaken after being initially partially overrun and the attack repelled.  To say it was a close-run thing, barely preventing the complete destruction of the outpost and the massacre of all within it, would be an understatement.

Eight American soldiers were killed in the battle that day, 14 years gone by now:

SSG Justin Timothy Gallegos, 27;

SGT Christopher Todd Griffin, 24;

SGT Joshua Mitchell Hardt, 23;

SGT Joshua John Kirk, 30;

SPC Stephan Lee Mace, 21;

SSG Vernon William Martin, 25;

SGT Michael Patrick Scusa, 23; and

PFC Kevin Christopher Thomson, 22.

Today, we take the time to remember them, and all those who died while serving in the US military.

Memorial Day Range Trip

So for the morning of Memorial Day I headed to the range.

Met up with Tosh and his buddy Timo.  A good time was then had by all.

Had the Turknelli out and it ran like a top - even ran the lower powered 7.5 birdshot and the Federal Flite Control 8 pellet 00 Buck that it had choked on during its first time out.

 

In short no failures, fed everything it was given and seems good to go, and cleaning the pistons fixed the issue nicely.  

When I got it home, I took it down to clean it and  there was some solid carbon buildup on the pistons yet again, but not nearly as much this time, so hopefully the gunk is working itself out. Will need to keep an eye on it and I expect to make it a regular bit of maintenance to clean the pistons after each use.

Shot the Tavor as well out to 100 yards (longest range they've got at the range sadly)  and no issues. Did decided to give it a cleaning as it had not been cleaned in quite some time, and I think it appreciated it. Got a lot of build up out of it and it is nice and clean now.

Also shot my Glock and IWI Masada.  Definitely need to practice more as my draw is pretty slow and could use some work.  Accuracy with both is good and I'm hitting an A Zone at 7 yards on Bill Drills pretty consistently, but need to speed it up, especially the draw.

This means some regular dry fire practice which I keep telling myself I'm going to do, so might as well do it.  From now on it's 15 minutes of leg stretches for the hip rehab followed by 15 minutes of dry-fire a day.  Let's see if I can stick to this.

Memorial Day Monday Range Trip

This morning I got up early and joined Tosh and Jason at the range.

A fun time was had by all. We shot the Tavor, Galil, FAL, and their AR15s.

The Tavor is nicely dialed in for a 100 yard zero, so that the 4 line in the scope is dead on at 25 yards

Tosh had brought some rifle-rated steel to the range so shooting the rifles and ringing the steel was fun.

They really liked shooting the FAL.

We also did a lot of pistol practice - battle dots, dot torture, and 5x5 drills.

Running a timer on the 5x5 drill adds to the pressure, along with not wanting to mess up in front of your friends.  Add a friend videotaping your performance and it gets even more of a "please don't let me goof this up" pressure.

The 5x5 drill is 5 shots in the circle , at 5 yards,  in under 5 seconds par time from concealment.

I shot it clean and within the time at 4.71, which was nice.  Now to work on getting that time down.

That's 350 more rounds through the Masada with zero failures, and some 50 through my Glock shooting  and 100 rounds through the P99, shooting with zero failures as well.

It was a great morning out with some great people.

Now I'm home for a cleaning and prep of the house.  We have a few friends coming over for Memorial Day now that Gov Haf-Whit has graciously and arbitrarily allowed gatherings of up to 10 people.  So time to make the place spic and span.

I had the smoker going all yesterday, smoking some goodness, and it was in the oven all night stalled out and now getting to its final temp before pulling and serving.  Should be tasty and smells great already.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day, no matter how locked down you may be out there.

Memorial Day 2016 - Visiting A Hero

Today I took the family to the Machpelah Cemetary in Ferndale, Michigan.

Section 6 is the Veterans' Section.

Veterans lie there who have served and died in World War 1, World War 2, Korea and Vietnam.

There was one in particular to whom I wanted to pay respect to this day.

2nd Lieutenant Raymond Zussman, Born July 23, 1917 Died September 21, 1944. A tank commander in the 756th Tank Battalion he had first earned the Purple Heart after being wounded at Monte Cassino. Declining a headquarters position after recovering from the wound and requesting a combat command, he took part in Operation Dragoon.

For his actions on September 12, 1944 at Noroy-le-Bourg, France he was awarded the Medal of honor. His citation reads:

On 12 September 1944, 2d Lt. Zussman was in command of 2 tanks operating with an infantry company in the attack on enemy forces occupying the town of Noroy le Bourg, France. At 7 p.m., his command tank bogged down. Throughout the ensuing action, armed only with a carbine, he reconnoitered alone on foot far in advance of his remaining tank and the infantry. Returning only from time to time to designate targets, he directed the action of the tank and turned over to the infantry the numerous German soldiers he had caused to surrender. He located a road block and directed his tanks to destroy it. Fully exposed to fire from enemy positions only 50 yards distant, he stood by his tank directing its fire. Three Germans were killed and 8 surrendered. Again he walked before his tank, leading it against an enemy-held group of houses, machinegun and small arms fire kicking up dust at his feet. The tank fire broke the resistance and 20 enemy surrendered. Going forward again alone he passed an enemy-occupied house from which Germans fired on him and threw grenades in his path. After a brief fire fight, he signaled his tank to come up and fire on the house. Eleven German soldiers were killed and 15 surrendered. Going on alone, he disappeared around a street corner. The fire of his carbine could be heard and in a few minutes he reappeared driving 30 prisoners before him. Under 2d Lt. Zussman's heroic and inspiring leadership, 18 enemy soldiers were killed and 92 captured.

The 756 Tank Battalion Website has an except from the book, The History of the Third Infantry Division in World War II, that fills in more details of this series of heroic acts:

Lieut. Raymond Zussman, 0-1014997, Cavalry, Company A, 756th Tank Battalion, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual combat. On 12 September 1944, at 1900 hours, Lieutenant Zussman dismounted from his command tank and proceeded on foot, armed only with a carbine and followed by a lone M-4 tank, and assaulted Nory-le-Bourg, France. Forging ahead on the tank into blazing small-arms fire, he located and neutralized an improvised roadblock which had been booby trapped. Although intense enemy machine-gun and small-arms fire from a German position only 50 yards distant ricocheted off the hull and turret of the tank, Lieutenant Zussman stood beside it, fully exposed, firing on the enemy with his carbine and directing the tank's fire. When three Germans fell dead, the remaining eight surrendered to Lieutenant Zussman, who immediately proceeded to direct the fire of the tank on another center of resistance, killing three and compelling an additional seven to surrender. Having already exhausted his carbine ammunition, he seized a Thompson submachine gun from a member of the tank crew and advanced well in front of the tank, toward a group of houses occupied by the enemy. machine-gun and small-arms fire opened up on him from another enemy strongpoint 75 yards to his right front. Disregarding bullets which kicked up the dirt at his feet, he again stood in an exposed position and directed the fire of his tank until resistance was broken and 20 Germans surrendered. Leaving the tank behind, he rushed toward and enemy strongpoint in a house, firing his submachine gun as he ran, while the Germans tried to stop him with small-arms fire and threw hand grenades in his path. After a brief fire exchange, he brought up the tank and directed its fire on the house, forcing 11 more Germans to give up. His submachine gun blazing, Lieutenant Zussman again dashed forward into rifle and automatic weapons fire to another German held house, emerging after a short exchange of fire with 15 more prisoners. As the Germans fled before his whirlwind attack accurate tank fire accounted for 11 more killed. Noting an ideal antitank position, he plunged forward alone to reconnoiter. His submachine gun fired; his voice was heard above the tumult, shouting "Hände hoch!" and in a few minutes 30 prisoners, including the crews of two AT guns, filed around the corner. As night fell, he again went forward alone, to a truck; there was a hand grenade explosion, but when the smoke cleared Lieutenant Zussman returned with another prisoner. With lightning rapidity, Lieutenant Zussman had overwhelmed one enemy position after another. Fighting against all odds and on his own volition, he had blasted his way into and through the strongly defended town ahead of the infantry, killing 17 and capturing 92 soldiers, and capturing 2 antitank guns, one 20mm flak gun, two machine guns, and two trucks.

11 days after the incredible series of actions in Noroy-le-Bourg for which Raymond Zussman was recognized with the Medal of Honor, he was killed by a German mortar shell.

We said a prayer and we each left a stone to mark our visit to a fallen hero on this day.

Memorial Day 2014

As we take this Monday off to enjoy the first long weekend after the retreat of winter, we should remember why it's called Memorial Day.

The following quote is from a speech made by James A. Garfield, an Ohio Congressman and future President of the United States, on the very first Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) at Arlington Cemetery on May 30, 1868:

"We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue."

May they be forever remembered for their bravery and sacrifice on behalf of this great nation, and indeed for their spreading freedom and lifting the veil of darkness that without their sacrifice would have descended and enveloped the world.