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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! November 1, 2004 Chow RunnerBy GreyhawkAhhh.. basic training... "Anyone here like water sports?" Yeah, every time the question was asked some hands went up. Every one I knew who had been there before me warned me about that one. The nice man in the Smokey Bear hat was looking for the Latrine Queen and his court - those watersports fans would spend the better part of the next several weeks making sure everything in the great big bathroom sparkled There were other less desirable jobs though. Chow Runner was one. I don't even know if the practice is still used. Back in the day the smallest, youngest, quietest member of the group was chosen for this duty; to enter the chowhall in advance of the hungry half hundred, executing perfect facing movements and reporting from a memorized script to a table full of those Smokey Bear hat wearing gorillas, requesting permission to bring the crowd in to feed... And woe be upon the poor bastard should any aspect of his appearance or performance fail to meet their standards. One stutter would be all it would take. After rising as one to chew him into small pieces they would send him back outside to try again. The folks standing at attention in formation waiting knew one thing for certain: though the start of their lunch hour might be delayed the end of it would not. The sight of the chow runner returning to report failure was not a good sign. But that was years ago, and now I see the need for chow runners, the need to ensure that the little guy was a tough guy, that he could could take it, and perhaps to earn him so much empathy from the rest of the gang that they couldn't in a million years do anything to hurt him. No one wanted to inherit Chow Runner duties. Honestly I hadn't thought of the Chow Runner in years. Then I met a young guy here, Hometown High class of '03 (I'm not sure if the class of '04 is represented yet) and if they still have Chow Runners this guy was it. Or someone even smaller, and that's hard to imagine. Anyway, Chow Runner or not the guy survived basic and now he's here in Iraq serving God and country and proving himself in more ways daily then the average young American will in their life. So when I saw him yesterday he looked down and beat, like he was bearing the weight of the world along with that heavy armor that each and every one of us wears here. I asked why. Whats wrong hero? Nothing. Well, I'm in Iraq... You're making history son. Yeah, but its an unpopular war. People at home don't want us here... I like tidy endings to my stories, but I'm not writing the end of this one. You are, on Nov 2nd. 
Posted by Greyhawk / November 1, 2004 10:07 PM | Permalink 1 TrackBack[T]he guy survived basic and now he's here in Iraq serving God and country and proving himself in more ways daily then the average young American will in their life.So when I saw him yesterday he looked down and beat,... Read More 12 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Ain't that the truth!....VOTE!!!
just watched world news with peter jennings.
lead in was "how do the american soldiers and iraqi citizens feel about the elections?"
there's a soldier saying they don't care. the war just needs to end now.
then there's a short clip that says iraqi's don't care either way. they don't think it will make a difference. they want water and electricity.
that's it. that's the world news tonight's coverage of what the american soldier in Iraq and the iraqii citizens think about the election here. and that's all the american people see.
any comments?
Yeah I have one.
Why am I not surprised that Jennings only interviewed one soldier, and from his nice cushy office stateside?
Ah, the chow runner!!! 6 years ago when I was going through zoomie basic we still used them... Only ours weren't typically little guys, it was always some guy with a very think accent (ours was one of the New York variety) so that the TIs could dig into them for speaking funny and/or not getting it right...
Hawk,
Send an email to Fran Dobson over at Adopt-A-Platoon (fran@adoptaplatoon.org) with that young man's details and get him signed up. Just stick in a note that he's down in the dumps and they will get him signed up immediatly and he could start receiving some positive support from home within a couple weeks time depending on mail travel time.
AAP will shower that young man with so much love and support he'll need to dig his way up for fresh air :)
Take care of yourself!!!
Angel
OT
Good poll for undecided voters;
Since 1956, Weekly Reader students in grades 1-12 have correctly picked the president
http://www.weeklyreader.com/election_vote.asp
Weekly Reader kids select Bush in Presidential Poll
The students who read Weekly Reader’s magazines have made their preference for President known: they want to send President Bush back to the White House.
The results of this year’s Weekly Reader poll have just been announced, and the winner is President Bush. Hundreds of thousands of students participated, giving the Republican President more than 60% of the votes cast and making him a decisive choice over Democratic Senator John Kerry.
Since 1956, Weekly Reader students in grades 1-12 have correctly picked the president, making the Weekly Reader poll one of the most accurate predictors of presidential outcomes in history.
As an Australian (who has served alongside US forces and spent some time in the US) I only hope you have learned the lesson to VOTE. In this country we cannot understand why so few Americans care about their democracy, why a 60% turn out is considered a good result.
As they learnt in Florida last time around; every vote counts.
Dauntless
FLTLT Phil Smith
Brisbane
War itself ought always to be unpopular, but the things you guys are fighting for are worthwhile.
Thanks for standing for what's right.
Wife of a retired military man
*bang bang bang* "Chow runner go!"
Well... they still exist. I spent sixth week as a water monitor, and got to have fun watching the rainbows screwup. More fun was being a fire monitor at the same time. I got to be last out of the bays, while having to be first in line to get inside.
For those of you paying attention, yes, I'm a Zoomie.
Tell Chow Runner that he's wrong. We want you there. We want you there to shore up a nascent democracy in the Middle East until they can stand on their own two feet. We want you there to find, fight, and kill the terrorists on their home turf.
Because, God help us, if we don't fight them over there with Greyhawk and Chow Runner and M1A1s and Apaches, we'll have to fight them over here with cops and fire trucks.
God bless our troops.
Vote for Bush - bring the troops home victorious.
About the Children…
The other day on TV I heard a recording of a 911 call from a 5 year old boy. His father had attacked his mother and him with a knife. I don't think his mother made it, but he did.
He told the 911 operator (and I quote exactly): "Send an ambulance or the Army Men. I've been killed."
This was the most touching thing I've ever heard, even though it is one of the most tragic.
If I'm ever in trouble I'm calling for the Army Men, too. Just to be on the 'safe' side.
Southern, Strong and Safe in Chattanooga, TN
I posted that under another thread. Sorry, sometimes my cerebral connections follow strange paths. The thread was about children and how they were so into the election. It reminded me of another election during my childhood in which I was truly interested.
This made me think that children now aren’t so different from children thirtysomething years ago. I don’t have children, but others in my family do. Watching them reminds me of my own childhood; my own wonderful, playful, challenging, joyful, sorrowful, enlightening, priceless childhood.
I loved policeman and fireman (and still do). Men in my family have been both. I loved the military (and still do). My father, my grand father, my great grand father, etc, etc back to the Revolution, they all Stood Up.
When the war started I worried about my 9 year old niece. When Mom said it was OK that she listen and watch the news, I worried, the violence, you know.
Then just recently I heard that 911 tape. That precious little soul must have been subjected to so much violence. I thought about all the other kids listening and watching. I worried about how the press was influencing them.
“… or the Army Men.” Those four words hold so much faith, so much need and so much hope. I knew then that they had been watching, but not necessarily listening. They watched the other children and they knew. The children in Afghanistan and Iraq are just children, too, no matter how much violence they have seen.
Just like that little boy who knew what an ambulance was for. He also knew what the “Army Men” are for. So all you "Army Men" out there remember this:
We’re watching. All of us, young and old, are watching. And we have seen what there is to see. We know we can call for the Army Men when we are in need. Because we have seen each and every one of them STAND UP under all the weight, under all the criticism, under what must be a torrent of conflicting feelings on a personal level.
So next time you feel like “us back home” don't understand, think of these words from a seriously wounded (by his own father) five year old boy:
“Send an ambulance or the Army Men…”
God I’m proud of you guys. And so thankful there are rough men (and women) who know the value of Liberty. Now I need a tissue…
Even two years later they still have chow runner I may have not been the smallest one in my squadron (319th TRS) But I was the only one during my time there willing to be the chow runner...Good times