Family

 Merry Christmas all Y'all!  Hope you are having an enjoyable, peaceful celebration of Our Lord's Birth.  You'll be happy to note that the various portions of the juvat clan arrived safely and are exchanging war stories left and right.  

 Brother Peter hadn't arrived yet in the above picture.  Got in to AUS at about midnight, decided to drive here instead of staying at the hotel.  Successfully managed to avoid the 4 legged roadblocks on the highway and arrived about 0200.

The next day we decided to visit our favorite Winery and introduce my brother (lives in California) to the blessings of Texas Wine.

After a brief tasting, we bought a bottle of one of their Gold Medal Syrah's (took the gold in CA, yeah, they’re proud of that accomplishment).

For those in the know, there is considerable interest in buying the winery and the conditions of the sale are pretty favorable.  No contract yet, but hopefully soon.  Will relieve a whole lot of stress on the surviving winemaker. (pictured above)

I also enjoyed walking around the tasting room and looking at the stuff.  This rang a bell for me.

Might need to get this towel also.

An enjoyable afternoon was had by all.  

Saturday night we had a pleasant and very much needed surprise.

3 inches of liquid gold will do wonders for the hay field as well as reducing the amount of dust therein.  The latter will also do wonders for my sinuses, so again "Thank you, Lord!"

Finally, I've discovered one of the finest sleep inducing products known to man.

Me and the Grandson got about an hour long nap in.  Both are better off for it.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.

I promise, bigger, better, longer post next week after things settle down a bit around here.  Got to run to HEB right now for the "Aw S417!" stuff I forgot for dinner tonight.

Peace Out, y'all!

John Blackshoe Sends: Holiday Greetings!

Holiday Lighting traditions

Sarge shared a view of Chant Headquarters, with its tasteful Yuletide décor. Very traditional, dignified and festive. A wonderful view of how his tribe rolls.

Well, “Sailors have more fun,” as we used to say before being told to shut up and “Be a world force for good.” But, we still have fun at Christmas time, despite the need for folks with ships to keep the lights on and pumps running, sounding and security watches, and a team on the quarterdeck guarding access and welcoming crew and visitors 24 hours a day, every day, fair weather or foul, rain or shine, and holiday or not.

As a sample of sailor funnery, remember, we are an easily amused lot, we traditionally decorated the ships for Christmas, but probably tolerate it for unspecified non-offensive wintertime events these days. Back in the old days, say Vietnam era and earlier, options were limited, funding non-existent, and pretty bland. Remember that was before there were LED lights, so everything was a regular old incandescent bulb, one each, white. Sometimes the supply guys, or electricians came up with red or green lights via creative means, and some greenery were acquired and red bunting provided by the “skivvy waver” signalmen. Usually some junior officer was stuck with pulling all this together, with more or less enthusiasm by him and the guys helping. (Sorry for the non-inclusive sexist descriptors, but this was back before girls were assigned to ships.)

Here is a shot from just down the road from Sarge’s place on 22 December 1960, back when the Navy had a large base in Newport, Little Rhody, and the fleet was 812 ships including 23 carriers. (Today we have 11 carriers and fewer than 300 ships total)

(Uh oh, someone put a CROSS atop the mast on DE-1016!)

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It’s not always snowy at Christmas, at least not in Havana, Cuba.

Officers make up a Christmas band on the afterdeck of USS LOUISIANA (BB-19) , while the ship was at Havana, Cuba, 1906. Among those present are Assistant Surgeon Richard A. Warner; Joseph O. Foster; Joseph Evans; Ensign Harold E. Clark; Lieutenant Robert W. McNeeley; Marine Captain John W. Wadleigh; and Ensign Richard Wainwright, Jr. Name of the mascot dog is not recorded. (Note that liquor was not prohibited aboard ships until 1 July 1914 under General Order 99 from SECNAV Josephus Daniels, just a gratuitous fact, although demon rum may be hiding in this photo.)

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The U.S. Navy ship which has seen the most Christmases is of course USS CONSTITUTION (IX-21). Here she is, decorated for her 223rd Christmas 17 December 2020:

Illuminated tops, gun ports and the Captain’s stern cabin is lit up, and there are colored lights in the shrouds. Most of the yards are struck down.

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And that is so pretty it deserves another:

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Of course, even newer ships celebrate the season. For good little boys and girls, there is the USS IOWA (BB-61) at Norfolk in 1986 with USS SCOTT (DDG-995).

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Just so our winged friends don’t feel left out, remember, Santa can also be a “shooter,” delivering presents to bad people.

Aboard USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72) with a F/A-18E from VFA-143 (Pukin’ Dogs) on 24 December 2019.

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And, since we know Sarge is homesick for “his” ship, here is the winner of the “Best Navy Spirit” Award in Sandy Eggo in 2020, USS MICHAEL MANSOOR (DDG-1001).

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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Remember Them ...

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If you would, spare a thought for those serving far from home.

God bless them all.

On the Road Again

Midnight High Mass on Christmas Eve in the chapel at the 410th Bomb Group base in France.
Date: December 24th, 1944 Photo ID: 342-FH-3A-17906-73015AC 
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On the road today, heading down to Maryland to spend Christmas with The Nuke and her tribe. I rather wish the entire clan could gather on the 25th, but with everyone spread hither and yon, that takes some doing.

I don't really recall the year when last the bairns, their spouses, and their kids were all in the same house for Christmas. I do remember it was our house and there were only two grandchildren. That tells me that it was sometime after 2010.

We tend to head down to Maryland at this time of year more often than not, every year since 2018, that's for sure. (Not sure if we went down there in 2019, I think we did, and though we went down there at this time of year last year, it was after Christmas for The Nuke's birthday which falls on New Year's Eve.) If we're not there we head up to New Hampshire to my Mom's house.

I think The Missus Herself and I have stayed home, by ourselves, only once or twice since the kids all grew up and moved out. We always had one or more cats in residence as well. This year will be strange, our first without a feline presence in thirty years. I don't like it but I'm getting used to it.

I like a full house for Christmas, one of the best was when The Nuke's canines were in attendance, my granddogs Bear and Kodi¹, along with our feline staff Sasha and Anya.² I remember well when Anya ventured downstairs, for one reason or another, and took cover beneath the Christmas tree. She did not go unnoticed by Bear.

Now Bear is a big friendly shepherd-chow mix and she really wanted to make Anya's acquaintance. So she stuck her nose under the tree. Whereupon Anya greeted her with a carefully delivered blow to the nose, claws out just enough to get Bear's attention. Which she did.

Bear went yelping to the kitchen to report the affront to her canine dignity, Anya retreated upstairs to the feline Fortress of Solitude to report that invaders were present within the Homeland. 

We tried to keep them separate the remainder of the visit.

Don't expect a lot of posting over the holidays, I'm going to try and stay in the game, but I have grandkids and granddogs to entertain (and be entertained by) and I willingly devote lots of time to them.

I expect it will be fun, I expect it will be magical, and, in short, I expect it will be the kind of Christmas that I love. Time spent with family is never wasted.

John Blackshoe will be up on Christmas Eve, not sure if Juvat wants to post on Christmas Day which is, after all, a Monday, a Juvat Day, if you will. But he too has friends and family and he too will be celebrating with family, so I won't hold him to posting on that day. (I suppose he'll want the entire day off, but I expect him to be in all the earlier on Boxing Day. Just kidding, Juvat, call off the air strike. Please.)

Anyhoo, I'll make sure we have something up for Christmas (JB gave me a little something to post if needed, short, very Navy, but very nice. If you don't see it Christmas Day, I'll put it up on Boxing Day, or the Second Day of Christmas as they call it in Deutschland.)

Be seeing you, wish me a good trip. We're driving as I like the drive, also I'm getting older and don't know how much longer I'll be able to make that drive. Father Time keeps pointing out that I'm an old f**t now, feeling the years I am. Not really a lot of years (70), but a few bad roads driven in my time, not all of it has been "highway miles," if'n you know what I mean.

Tschuss³, and enjoy the holidays.

¹ Which is short for Kodiak Bear, not her full name, as I gather, but she chose Kodi based on that. The Nuke always added "bear" to the names of our cats, so when she grew up and got a dog, of course she named her Bear. Kodi followed a year or so later.

² Who The Nuke, of course, called "Sasha Bear" and "An-Bear."

³ Bye, auf Deutsch.

The Fourth Rail, So to Speak ...

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All young officers learned that there were three subjects not appropriate to discuss in the wardroom: anything to do with religion, politics or sex.

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I'll add a fourth - Any and all events leading up to the conflict which took place on American soil from 1861 to 1865 and the conflict itself.¹

What you believe and what you'll argue for are based almost completely on where you were born and raised.

Just sayin' ...

¹ You could argue that that's politics, but it encompasses so much more.

Editor's Note: Yes, I turned off commenting on the earlier post, shit was getting out of hand.

Controversial? Moi?

Infantry regiment in camp. [Probably 96th Pennsylvania Infantry at Camp Northumberland near Washington, DC, ca. 1861] Mathew Brady Collection. (Army)¹

Again my thoughts drift back to the ACW², no doubt because of what I've been reading lately. Not because of the current state of politics in this country, which is a completely separate topic which I don't care to get into here. (Everything you read/see/hear in the media is overblown, overhyped, and over-exaggerated. That's when they're not just making things up. All media, both sides, they're all trying to sell you something, otherwise why are they screaming about this shit? Pardon my French.)

Anyhoo ...

One of the blogs I like to read is The Angry Staff Officer (the title drew me in, the content kept me going back), there's the main guy and a number of contributors. You can always find something interesting to read over there. You might not agree with it (I don't always) but it tends to be well-written and interesting. Again, YMMV.

The latest post (as of this writing, natürlich) was very interesting, which led me to another, then another, then ... Well, you get my drift.

With all the controversy about statues being pulled down, history being erased, ad nauseum, there was a post I found very interesting having to do with a certain general who resigned his commission and went South. You probably know who I mean.

But embedded in that post, was this video, which I reproduce for you here ...

The officer in the video, Brigadier General Seidule (the rank he retired at), taught history at the United States Military Academy for a time, among his other accomplishments.

No doubt some of y'all will have your own thoughts on the topic and I'm keen to hear 'em. Just keep it nice and cite sources if you can, if you can't, well okay, I suppose I can look it up myself.

An interesting topic and controversial to some. But have at it.

Not the first time I've written about this fellow, probably won't be the last. I've not much else to write about today.

¹ And for those who wouldn't know, that picture shows to great effect what a regiment in column looked like, in the ACW, in Napoléon's time, and all the wars since Frederick the Great's up until 1863-ish. Bayonets fixed, one company behind another, though the men seemed to be faced to the right oblique, the formation should look familiar to those who know such things. But I won't talk about that movie, not today.

² The American Civil War, I have settled upon that as the Chant's "official" name for the conflict. YMMV, but I just don't care enough to argue the point.

This is How you Austerlitz!

Exploits of the Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805¹
Bogdan Pavlovich Willewalde (PD)

Why yes, I am still ranting about the movie.

I was driven to look up who was the military consultant for Ridley Scott's Napoleon. Who to blame for this abject departure from history? Turns out he had a British military consultant and a French historical advisor. I read this about his military consultant, the title of this article ...

Critics of Napoleon epic have fallen for emperor’s fibs, says film’s military expert

... pretty much told me all I needed to know, but I read the article anyway. One word, poppycock. (Though in The Guardian's defense, they do look at both sides of the argument, the last line in the article struck a chord with me.)

Want to know how to do warfare in the Napoleonic era? Hire a British ex-paratrooper? I'm sure the guy knows modern warfare, but he sucks at history. He's the kind of guy I would hire to teach actors and extras how to act like soldiers. From what I saw, he did okay at that. He's done some excellent work on other films, check out his demo reel from his LinkedIn page.

So he knows the small bits, but if he was responsible for setting up the battle scenes (particularly Austerlitz and Waterloo) then Sir Ridley should have hired someone else. Which is where I assume the French historian was relied upon. I'm not seeing any expertise on his LinkedIn page to support hiring him as a consultant on the wars of Napoléon.

Sir Ridley could probably have hired the guys who do the Austerlitz and Waterloo reenactments and gotten a lot more bang for his buck (literally).

The reenactment of these battles are held periodically, Austerlitz is reenacted once a year and from what I have read is always on the anniversary of the battle, the 2nd of December and takes place on the ground where the battle was actually fought. Waterloo is reenacted every five years on the actual ground but is on a weekend near the anniversary of the battle. (I had the extreme fortune to have attended the reenactment on the 18th of June 1995, a Sunday, the 180th anniversary of that battle. Same day of the year, same day of the week, and, wonder of wonders, the weather was damned near identical to what it was like in 1815!)

The Waterloo reenactment is a much larger affair (after all it's within spitting distance of Brussels and its international airport) whereas the Austerlitz reenactment is smaller but seems to be growing every year. (I suppose when your reenactment is in the wilds of Czechia, sixty plus miles from Vienna, you have to be happy that you get as many reenactors as you do. I will say this, the guys who do Austerlitz do it very well.)

So why do I keep going on and on about this? Other than my obsession with the Napoleonic period, well, I hate seeing Hollywood make a hash of history. If they do it, at least make it entertaining (and here I'll cite Sir Ridley's Kingdom of Heaven and The Last Duel for being ripping good yarns and well-made films, in terms of history, meh, not real accurate). I have friends who found Napoleon very entertaining, perhaps I make too much of the film's mistakes. But I also found it to be a very boring movie, it wasn't edited well and it seemed to drift from one scene to the next without a lot of context.

I know, I know, "You want history, read a book!" That I have read so many books on this era is probably why I dislike the film as much as I do.

Now the title of the post "This is How you Austerlitz!" is because I wanted to expose you to a few short videos. The first is by a guy who toured the area of Austerlitz. (It's not called that anymore, now it's Slavkov u Brna, Austerlitz is the name of the place in German. Remember, back in the day this was part of the Austrian Empire, and what language do Austrians speak?) I show you this to illustrate how far off the location Sir Ridley chose for the film was.

The following clip is from this year's (2023) reenactment of Austerlitz. Note that Sir Ridley's film is mentioned as well.

The rest of the clips are all of the reenactments at Austerlitz. Take my word for it, the reenactments gave me a far better flavor for this sort of thing than Sir Ridley's film.

Also from the 2023 reenactment. (There wasn't nearly as much snow there in 1805, if you believe the paintings of the battle. Yeah take those with a grain of salt as well.)

This is from an earlier reenactment, though the text accompanying the video didn't make it all that clear (note the lack of snow!)

And last (and perhaps least, though the cinematography is better, the historical accuracy isn't) here's the scene from Ridley Scott's Napoleon:

For anyone looking to make a film about Napoléon, call me, I'm available.

I'm still a fan of Ridley Scott's films but ...

Now I'll get down off my soapbox.

For now ...

¹ I rather wish I could have found the original title of this painting. It's in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg, no, not the one in Florida. The painting depicts the capture of the Eagle of the 4ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne by the cavalry of the Russian guard at Austerlitz. The French lost only one eagle at the battle of Austerlitz.