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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 - 2008 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
Here's our fun fact about Georgia geography for the day:
The Piedmont area is home to the red clay soil of Georgia and its rolling hills and valleys. Southwest Georgia is known for its abundant farmland. The Coastal Plains feature the tidal swamps and lowlands of the coast and the northern reaches of the Okefenokee Swamp. Georgia's beaches are popular with vacationers.The Piedmont and the Coastal Plains are separated by the Fall Line, an imaginary line marked by waterfalls and rapids, where rivers abruptly descend from the upland terrain to the lowland. This line also divides the diverse species of birds, trees, and plants found in Georgia.
Below is a picture showing that Fall Line. For further educational benefit, I've added a red circle designating the location of Ft Stewart, the sprawling home of the Third Infantry Division - the Rock of the Marne. As you can plainly see, one thing Marne Soldiers don't have to worry much about is scraping dried red clay from their boots.
Which makes this Chicago Tribune story quite (ahem) interesting...
FT. STEWART, Ga. -- In a remote area of this sprawling military base, soldiers are preparing for a mission to Iraq that has become all too familiar.Quite the dramatic start. But having spent a bit of time at Ft Stewart (in fact, later in music appreciation class I'll teach you all the Dog Face Soldier song) that highly descriptive bit explaining how the "Cracked Georgia red clay simulates the dusty deserts in Iraq" really reached out and grabbed me.Cracked Georgia red clay simulates the dusty deserts in Iraq. A make-believe village called Medina Wasl, occupied by Iraqi-Americans acting as townspeople, stands amid pine trees.
But the veteran soldiers undergoing the training know this makeshift battleground is far from the real thing. They have been to Iraq at least once already, and with each deployment, the danger of war becomes more intense and their family life at home more strained.
In fact, it reminded me of another description I read some time back - about how Jessica Lynch's father "choked up as he stood on his porch here overlooking the tobacco fields and cattle pastures..." - said tobacco fields being every bit as solid as the cracked red clay of Ft Stewart.
