West Virginia Blogshoot Report

Saturday bright and early we rolled out of the Lair and headed to the range.

The blogshoot was organized not just as a meet-n-greet-n-shoot, but also to raise money for a worthy cause:

After paying the range fees, we kicked in our donations to the Wounded Warrior Project. Then the range staff held a safety briefing and we got to the shooting.

20 bloggers and blog commenters attended.

It is certainly fun to meet bloggers and blog commenters that you only know from their blog personas. Some are exactly as you pictured them, some quite different.

I met Old NFO in person, and he graciously let me try his FN SCAR. We were shooting at 400 yards and with the gun and ACOG scope mounted on it I was hitting the steel very easily indeed. Awesome gun.

He then even more graciously assisted me in sighting in the new ACOG I had mounted on my AR-15 and in a few shots with his help I was hitting steel cosnsistently at 400 yards. A true gentleman and I've aded him to my blogroll accordingly.

I also met Keads in person, and much as is revealed in his writing, he is also a true gentleman. Not only did he shoot, he also volunteered as a spotter for other shooters on the 400 yard line.

Proud Hillbilly was there, and it was good to put a face to a name and to see my old M1 Carbine being used so well.

I also met AZ.mrmacs, a gregarious and humorous fellow who brought some wonderful toys to the range - an MSAR and a FAL:

Murphy's Law has a great and more detailed report of the shoot. After all, I'm busily typing this on his computer -- but he gets to use my pictures so its a fair trade. Some other great writeups of the event include New Jovian Thunderbolt's account, My Muse shanked me, with an excellent video of my UZI in action, In Search of the Tempestuous Sea, Keads, and Old NFO's, of course.

We raised $1,100.00 for a very worthy cause, and had fun and met some new friends doing so.

Last minute gift and charitable giving opportunity

If you're looking for a gift for someone who has everything already why not make a donation in their honor? Or if you're looking for a worthy charity to donate to in the spirit of the season, I'd propose giving to the Special Operations Warriors Foundation.

The Special Operations Warriors Foundation is a highly rated charity that provides college scholarships for the children of Special operations troops killed in the line of duty, and also provides asistance to wounded special operations troops and their familities.

Certainly a very worthy cause to help those who have done so much and sacrificed so greatly for us and for our country, especially in our current wars.

And if you're Jewish like me, I'd suggest a donation in multiples of 18, you'll know why.

A Worthy Cause - Michigan Friends of the IDF

On Monday the 17th, after work I volunteered at the Michigan Friends of the Israel Defense Forces fundraiser dinner.

I worked on registration, checking off and making sure the people showing up at the event were actually supposed to be there.

The event was a huge success - over 700 people showed up to participate and money was raised for the cause.

MFIDF raises funds for medical, educational and recreational needs of Israel's soldiers, providing them with essential downtime and care during their fight in the everpresent war that Israel finds itself in with the Arabs.

The honored guest was A Alfred Taubman - a very successful Jewish businessman here in Michigan, who not only was a pilot in the US Air Force in World War 2 but has done a great deal for philanthropy both here in the United States and Israel, and his honors are well deserved.

There were quite a number of very distinguished guests in attendance from Israel including:

-The second Israeli female combat fighter pilot, Lieutenant N. (Israel does not reveal Air Force officer's names and I'm not about to do so here). She is the second operational female fighter pilot and flies an F-16, aged 24 (I now feel old). In case you're wondering she had to do the same qualifiers as males to get her wings, including the famous 120 km solo land navigation escape and evasion exercise. I'm quite sure that any arab fighter jock that goes up against her will get the shock of his life. How embarrassing it will be for them to get shot down by a woman, and a Jewish one at that.

- A captain in Sayeret Matkal, arguably Israel's best spec ops unit, Captain Y. (Israel does not reveal Special Operator' s names and you guessed it I'm not about to do so here). the Captain told us about his traingin, a bit about the Unit and a brief description of the non-classified part of an operation he took place in during the second Lebanon war - ie went in to Hezballah land, accomplished the mission, was ambushed on the way to the extraction point, fought their way out and made it back.

With soldiers like these Israel is in good hands, and its good for us to help them as they're on the frontlines not just for Israel but for the West against the Islamic threat.

So I heartily endorse the organization as they are very good at getting the funds to where its needed not spending on excessive overhead and the money really makes a difference.

You can click this donation link to make a donation to the Friends of the israel Defense Forces, and I am certainly doing so. (I will post about another worthy charity to which I'm donating this year shortly).