The Golden BB

Most people are familiar with the idea of the "Golden BB." In modern terms it means that even a nearsighted, syphilitic, old villager can fire up into the air and shoot down a stealth fighter, IF he just happens to point it in the right direction and pull the trigger at the right time.

In other words, while the odds of some improbable things happening are pretty low, there's always that one chance.

With fewer and fewer really well documented items coming onto the market, I keep seeing collectors look for the "Golden BB" in items they buy. They will find something and go to any length trying to justify how it is rare, or cool, even when some common sense should tell you to be very, very suspicious.

You can always tell these tales as they generally start with "well, he COULD have … (done such and so)." If you have to bend over backwards and come up with improbable scenarios to try and justify something, maybe you should take a big step back, take a deep breath, and think.

A lot of these tall tales revolve around so called secret or operations. Well, he COULD have been sent on a secret mission into occupied Germany, but his records say he was at cook and baker's school as a cover. Well, he COULD have been issued old obsolete material and taken care of it so he came home from WW2 with all WW1 webbing. Well, he COULD have been transferred from the Marines to this Army unit due to his training in amphibious landings.

Yes, it is possible someone COULD have served in the Army in WW1, the Marines in WW2, The Air Force in Korea, and maybe the Naval reserves during Viet Nam, but it's not bloody likely. Yes, it's possible that the Smokey the Bear patch found in a Nam Vets lot COULD have been adopted by his unit as they kept starting up forest fires by their artillery strikes. Yes, a guy COULD have been issued with a gizmo that was made in the last week of the war and flown over especially to see if it could get tested out in combat. Yes, it's possible that Marine ended up with a rare prototype Army helmet cover on Iwo Jima (and was able to hang onto it after he was wounded and evacuated).

By the way- one of the above is a real example claimed by a fairly well known museum. The rest are variations I have heard over the years.

You know the people who do this. No matter what evidence you point out, they always have a work around for how it COULD have happened. They always claim no records were kept for some obscure reason. They will never listen to reason. They will always deep in their heart believe that maybe this German badge was made by a small Czech company that used a different technique that every other manufacture which just happens to look like a modern copy, and thus no one has ever documented it.

And yes, there are always the Golden BB's that seem highly improbable, but might actually turn out to be true. I've learned my lesson though. After pointing out one major problem with something, if the person immediately comes back with a "he COULD have…" in that tone of voice where you know they just have to believe.. it's not worth my time trying to set them straight.

film props

With the recent show of film/TV props now on the air, I am sure a lot of people will think of cashing in on their "iconic" (insert name of any film item) that "will bring $100,000."

I have a box of props from Saving Private Ryan. I was given some by the crew, and picked up a few others when they first came on sale. The only reason I got them was as examples of reproductions - not so much a film souvenier.

So many items were stolen during the filming of SPR that when they made Band of Brothers they had to install video security on the storage rooms. That still did not stop people from taking a plain old (insert some generic webbing item) and claiming it had been used in the film. Some of the crew themselves that knew where reproductions were being sourved privatly bought extra for themselves and then flogged it off as an actual prop.

So for the Pacific they were careful and made lost of extra stuff for sale after the film. Just look at how much is now out there, and the relative low prices. My bet is they will never really climb too high as there's so much, it is too easily faked, and the show did not touch the same nerves that SPR and BOB did.

Anyway, back to this new auction show. I have a number of friends that are involved with film props, and from what they tell me this show is one of the greatest "non-reality" reality shows ever. Its almost all staged.To the point where they sometimes move a collectors props to a storage area so they can claim they "discovered them."

It also seems that anyone considering buying from this guy should do some reading on his background in terms of complaints about authenticity. I'm not saying anything, but there appear to have been some problems. Lots of them.

However, on the bright side. I don't drink, but if I did I'd have anew drinking game. Take a sip every time he uses the word ICONIC, and toss it all back when he says something will bring $100,000 grand.

Are authors all idiots?

Why do so many people assume authors are idiots?

Case in point. As happens all to often to me, I got a call from a "freelance writer" the other day who was doing an article for a well known military magazine on a subject I had spent years working on a book about. Now clearly this person had no clue what they were doing (as in thinking the work "ETO" was pronouned "E-Toe" and meant an actual location).

But what they wanted was for me to give them them some photos for their work. Of which they would be paid additonal for. (I checked that mags writerss guideline: between $20 and $80 per photo).

So here I am. Having spent a very long time digging up rare photos that they cannot find, and them wanting me to give them to the writer so they can get paid for them.

I told this freelancer to have the editor call me direct. And actually, the editor did not call me, but their creative director did, who pretty much bitched me out for not just given them what they wanted, and for having the gaul to think that maybe, just maybe, they might want someone that atually knows the subject to go over what they were going to print so as to get it right.

She did not exactly say "we really don't care if we get it wrong, as no one will know and we just want to fill space." but it was pretty damn close.

There was a lot more to it, including her using the age old myth that anyone that who has ever had any connection to the military instantly knows everythign there is to know about militarry patterns past, present and future (even doctors specialize you know).

So I did say, sure, you want to pay me for the photos and I will get them to you. But no, as they had money to pay the staff, and anyone they assigned for the article no matter how incompetant, but not for someone who had wrtten the book they were basing the article on! Can I have one of those jobs?

But I have decided there is a new ring in hell. For writers who do not do their own photo/illo research work. If you wonder why photos in most books are horrendously lame, it is because most authors just write text, and then leave it up to some one else to find "X" photos to put in the book. Seriously, many have no connection at all to the photos work or selection. And if they did it probably would not matter as they would not know if the photo was mis-captioned or anything.

Photo research is a skill and a developed talent. If you find photos no one has ever seen, people take notice. If then everyone else starts using those photos their value decreases.

This is why, (truie story) when one guy sent me a manuscript to look at which had all the photos be copied out of my books with my original captions included... I got a bit upset.
His excuse was "you did such a wonderful job finding the perfect photos that I figured why bother redoing that!" Seriously. And I mean they were photocpied form my book with including the original captions!

And he still doesn't understand why I got pissed.

Sad thing is, this kind of crap happens to me about every 2-3 months.

Ebay

I've noticed a trend on ebay recently. Average stuff is just not selling. High end stuff goes for stupid prices. In trying to make some room in my house I have been putting some really decent stuff on ebay. I often do not even get a minimum bid. This has made me start selling the items at fixed price in the collector's world.

At this tells me is that the field is not growing. Probably due to lack of money. If people are not buying, they are not collecting, and if not collecting they may fall out of that habit and into another that is cheaper.

Yes, blame the economy. Only a wealthy society can afford to collect. We know the Romans (well, the rich ones) collected coins. However collecting pretty much stopped for a while, until the very rich started it up again. Small wonder that the USA pretty much led the world in collecting stuff.

So what I wonder is: if someone is not collecting now due to money problems, will they start collecting when money returns? Or will they have developed a "depression" outlook and stock away that money for a rainy day (as those who lived through the depression did).

Actually, in some respects ebay is a little bit more like it was in the early days when you could find real bargains. I've seen some very good buys tucked in around the items from E/5906th. Of course, now that everything costs $10 to ship, those inexpensive items need to be worth a lot more to make it worthwhile.

Victory over the moths

Well, enough time has passed without anything new getting in the traps, so I will declare victory!

I did invent a kind of neat device though. I have a number of footlockers and boxes that contain wool items. I was worried that a moth might get in their and lay eggs.

So what I did was tale one of the no pest strips, and cut it into little 1" chunks. You can't just toss these in as if they touch cloth they can discolor it. So I took two plastic cups from some desert, poked a bunch of holes in the bottom of one, put the chunk in the solid one and slid the holed one into it.

This gives me a device which the gas will slowly bleed off, but nothing can come in touch with it due to the shape of the cups. The small chunk is enough to fill the footlocker with gas, and nuke ANY insect in it. Should work for 3-4 months.

Missing WWII Soldier is Identified in Germany

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Sgt. Edward T. Jones, of West Pawlet, Vt., will be buried on Sept. 25 in Saratoga, N.Y. In November 1944, the 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division was traveling east through the Hürtgen Forest in an attempt to capture the German towns of Vossenack and Schmidt. On Nov. 6, Jones and five other members of A Company, 112th Infantry Regiment, were killed in the town of Kommerscheidt when a German tank fired point-blank on their position.

In 2008, a German explosive ordnance disposal team, working at a construction site in the town of Kommerscheidt, found fragments of a World War II-era U.S. military boot. The team notified the German War Graves Commission who recovered remains of two individuals at the site and military equipment including two identification tags. The items were turned over to a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team in the area for further analysis.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the JPAC used dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

why don't I write more

In case you wonder. Just as an example, today I get a letter from the county saying I have to fill out two ten page forms regarding my mother's estate within a week or get hauled into court. I thought this is why I was paying a lawyer...

damn jeeps

If someone had walked by with a wad of money yesterday I would have happily sold them my jeep. I had just fixed sonmething on it, and turned out it wasn't really fixed. Some people actually have fun getting greasy and fooling around with car parts. I just want them to work.

I am now thinking what I could do with all the garage space the jeep and all its many associated items are taking up.

Moths round two

So after fumigating the house, everything was stable for a few days. Then I started to pick up moths on the second floor - which due to the numbers seemed to be coming from my office. A few turned up in the wife's sewing room.

So, I suspect a new genration was hatched after the gas. I then fumigated those rooms and sealed the doors. Now I have to keep watching the pheremone traops to see if a new batch hatches. In theory I should not have to wait more than 10 days for an all clear, but all it takes is one egg laying moth and I have to start all over again.

This is why it is really great to be able to seal off rooms and check them seperatly.

cheaper moth pheremone traps

I normally buy my traps from Insects Limited,

However I just noticed that there are a lot more on the market that seem to be cheaper. Go to Amazon and search "clothes moth trap" and there are a few. I have no idea if these are as good or the same as the IL brand.

I'll have to ask a preservation expert I know. BUt it means not having to buy in amounts of 10.

At last! A.E.F. photographs.

Just as I finally find a copy of the 950 page WW1 Signal Corps photography caption book, It gets scanned and placed online.

While maybe not of great import to many, this is a major deal to those working with AEF photos. Its now free and avaiable to donload from the internet archives.

I can now keep it on my computer for rapid access, although it is a tad hard to work with as a pdf. However, this was almost the tipping point for my buying a kindle DX to be able to read pdf's on.

The Great Moth war

Using the pheremone moth lures I figured out that the main infestation seems to be coming from my wifes upstairs sewing room. However as most of my collectible wool is in a basement room I hit that right away with some of the yellow no pest strips. Better known as Gulf no pest strips, these slowley release a version of permethrin.

Permethrin is toxic to cats, but not dogs and humans. The permethrin vapor coming off the yellow strips settles to the ground, where most moths live, and acts as a neuro-agent. Its safe to use as long as people, or dogs, don't spedn a lot of time (like sleeping) in the area. Within a day after starting that I picked up no more moths in my basement traps.

I then nuked the house using aresol permethrin spayers. These are cmmonly found in hardware stores, and you seal the house, turn them on, and leave for 2 hours, then come back and ventilate. Now this is going to kill all the living moths, but probably not touch the eggs, which can hatch in a few to ten days. So I am going to have to do it again in 10 days.

One thing I had just never connected with, is that if you have a dog (or cat), they make you more suspectable to clothes moths. They shed and leave hair on the floor. Moths eat wool as it is an animal hair- just like pet fur. So if you have pet fur sitting around under the sofa or whatever, a moth flitting in has a greater chance of finding food for the babies.

And as moths are crappy flyers and like to stay low on the ground, it makes the best preventative measure against them is to vacuum.

Now I feel like I am fighting a guerilla war aginst them.

more on moths

Well, I spoke too soon. Checking the traps found good numbers (like 10) in both the spare bedrom and wife's sewing room. Which would let me blame her, except I then turned up some in the basement. Thankfully not in the actual collection room, so far.

At this point if it were possible I would bomb the house, but for various reasons I don't really have a place to relocate for a few days and with a small dog you have to be very careful.

So, more pheremone traps everywhere. Try and vacuum as much as possible (this really does help) and I may have to get some DDVP (no pest strips). These slowly give off a toxic gas that sinks to the ground (where moths love to be) and kilsl them The downside is that there is a potential of them causing cancer. Which is why they should only be used in places people don't hang around a lot. Like a sealed basement collection room.

I use them in a large sealed container to fumigate all the wool that enters my collection (is some weird old NASA airtight container I found years ago). But I think now I need to be a bit proactive.

An infestation

Well, it's a moth infestation.

Luckily nothing has shown up on the traps ine the basement where most fo the old wool is. And only one on teh 1st floor (right by the stairway), but 7 male moths on the 2nd floor.

So I am now moving the traps between all the 2nd floor rooms with the doors shut to see if one seems to have a greater number than the rest.

Then I have to figure out the life cycle of the clothing moth so as to make sure I try and nail all the next batch of males before they fertilize the females.

There is somethign to be said for collecting modern stuff- moths do not eat cotton or nylon.

damn politics

Korean War Battalion Awaits MIA Decision
July 19, 2010
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea -- Trapped by two Chinese divisions, troops of the 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment were left to die in far northern Korea, abandoned by the U.S. command in a Korean War episode viewed as one of the most troubling in American military history.
Sixty years later, those fallen Soldiers, the lost battalion of Unsan, are stranded anew.

North Korea is offering fresh clues to their remains. American teams are ready to re-enter the north to dig for them. But for five years, the U.S. government has refused to work with North Korea to recover the men of Unsan and others among more than 8,000 U.S. missing in action from the 1950-53 war.

Now, under pressure from MIA family groups, the Obama administration is said to be moving slowly to reverse the Bush administration's suspension of the joint recovery program, a step taken in 2005 as the North Korean nuclear crisis dragged on.

"If I had a direct line in to the president, I would say, `Please reinstitute this program. There are families that need closure,' " said Ruth Davis, 61, of Palestine, Texas, whose uncle, Sgt. 1st Class Benny Don Rogers, has been listed as MIA since Chinese attackers overran his company -- I Company, 8th Cavalry -- at Unsan in late 1950.
It was one of Rogers' I Company comrades, Pfc. Philip W. Ackley of Hillsboro, N.H., whose identifying dog tag appeared in a photo the North Koreans handed over at Korea's Panmunjom truce village in January of this 60th year since the war started. The North Koreans also delivered photos of remains, a stark reminder that Unsan's dead still wait to come home.
The U.S. "has developed the humanitarian issue into a political problem," complained a North Korean statement urging resumption of the MIA search project, which earned hard currency for the Pyongyang government.

The devastating losses at Unsan, in early November 1950, came as China intervened to fend off a final North Korean defeat. In a last letter home, dated Oct. 30, Rogers told his parents, "It is a lot better over here, but it's not over yet."
The U.S. command had ignored intelligence reports that China's army was moving south, and Rogers and the 8th Cavalry had been sent too far north, just 80 kilometers (50 miles) from China, where they stumbled into a closing enemy vise.

Higher headquarters rejected requests for a pullback, then refused to send artillery forward to support a rescue effort. Finally, it ordered the rescue force withdrawn.
Two of the 8th Cavalry's three battalions managed to escape, with heavy losses. But only small bands from the five companies of the doomed 3rd Battalion made it out as waves of Chinese infantry attacked their 200-meter-wide (200-yard-wide) defense perimeter.
The 8th Cavalry's abandonment at Unsan became an infamous chapter in Army annals -- "one of the most shameful and little-known incidents in U.S. military history," wrote Korean War historian Jack J. Gifford.

Some 600 of the 3rd Battalion's 800 men were lost, about half believed killed and half captured, many of whom died in Chinese-run prison camps.

The U.S. and North Korea established the MIA search in 1996 after lengthy negotiations. Over nine years, working across North Korea, the joint teams recovered 229 sets of remains believed to be those of Americans, including 14 subsequently identified as 3rd Battalion men.
But an estimated 260 U.S. dead are still unaccounted for at Unsan, among almost 4,600 U.S. MIAs in North Korea, the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Office says. When then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suspended the program in 2005, officials cited what they said were concerns about the security of American personnel working on the territory of a longtime U.S. adversary.

Richard Lawless, the former Pentagon official who recommended the move, defends it today, telling The Associated Press it was a "prudent decision" because the U.S. field teams "were potential high-value hostages as the North Korean nuclear crisis deepened."
The MIA support groups rejected that rationale, saying they suspected President George W. Bush's administration instead wanted to break the lone working link with North Korea and pressure Pyongyang in the nuclear showdown.

"This safety aspect from the Pentagon sounds like so much hogwash," said former 3rd Battalion sergeant Robert J. Earl, 82, of Federal Way, Wash. Earl was not at Unsan, having been wounded earlier, and for years he has sought information on his 8th Cavalry mortar platoon, all of whom may have perished.

Stepping up their lobbying in Washington last year, the MIA families appear to have made headway with the new administration.

"I'm in touch with everyone there, and they all support restoring the program," said Frank Metersky, 77, a Marine veteran of the war and longtime MIA campaigner.

Larry Greer, spokesman for the Defense POW/MIA Office, said officials are "evaluating" a possible resumption. Other administration officials have pointedly referred to the recovery program as a humanitarian mission unrelated to political considerations. But the recent furor over North Korea's alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship "has stopped everything in its tracks for now," Metersky said.

Nevertheless, U.S. specialists sound ready.

"We are prepared to resume operations in [North Korea] and will request access to the Unsan area," the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii, home to the field teams, said in its latest annual report.

Its forensic experts, meanwhile, continue the laborious work of DNA identification of remains returned years ago, like those of Master Sgt. Roy Earl Head of the 7th Infantry Division, finally identified, brought home and buried June 5 in a family cemetery in Grit Hill, Va.

"It's remarkable, after 59 years," said brother David Head, 71, of Kingsport, Tenn.
All his life, he thought daily about Roy, he said. His mind turned sympathetically to others.

"There are still a lot more families out there who might not ever find out, or get the closure we will get," Head said.

A Moth, oh crap!

I found a moth in my basement today. Even with strict quarantine procedures for bringing new stuff in, I got a moth. A single male moth.

I have been lax on my anti-insect prevention for a while. But as I just received a WW1 uniform for a friend in France and re mailed it, I started to get nervous. It was supposed to be mint, but there were two small moth holes on it. It spent its time in the freezer while it was at my house, but it kicked me to replace my moth pheromone traps.

These are expensive (about $10@), but they lure the male clothes moth onto their sticky goodness. Now it is possible the moth was just a random type of non-wool eating pest that stumbled onto the sticky pad, but the probability of that is pretty low.

So within 12 hours I got a moth. Crap.

I have set some more traps on other floors to see if any have gone up. Now in theory the male moths will all get stuck and die in these, so there is no one to mate with the females. Although technically they should serve only as an early warning device that there is an infestation.

You can buy the traps from Insects Unlimited- but sadly only in packs of ten.

http://www.insectslimited.com/

Hitler's Holy Relics

Hitler, the gift that keeps on giving. It seems there is always one more way to package this guy. Most fo them are pure crap, such as the stuff shown on the History Channel, or people that claim he was an occult master.

I've read some scholarly stuff looking into the whole Hilter occult matter, and its actualyl really interesting as its seems good old Adolf was not as wacked in this way as some cvlaim, but was really doing some interesting things to psychologically manipluate people, and form a base to built the legends of Germany on.

So I picked up this book, Hitler's Holy Relics, more as a joke, as I like to read all the junky Hitler and occult/flying saucers/antarctica bases etc.

Minor note. I blew my 4.0 GPA in my history program when the prof got mad at me for for making an obvious joking mention of Hitler developing atomic zombies in a secret antarctica base. Seriously. He gave me a bad grade even though the rest of the work was really good, as he felt I did not take the paper seriously enough. Yeah, I came back with a "but how can you prove he wasn't? I can cite numerous books saying he was."

Anyway, this book was a good surprise. It is easy to read, and I detected very few thigns that made me feel the guy had not done his homework. It had a good ring of truth.

It covers the investigation of on of the US Army Art people trackig down the missing relics of the Holy Roman Emperor that vanished from a Nuremburg vault just before the town was captured. It dies a good portrayal of what the immediate post war period was like, and brings up some reaqlly intereting possibilities for some of the things Hitler had in mind to confirm his grasp on Europe- like have himself corronated the Holy Roman Emperor, and also convnce people that Jessu was actually born in a different Bethlehem where the population was of aryan (not jewish) stock.

I would love to hear what some serious experts have to say on all this, but just the story of dealing with all the ex-nazi's ( who now were no longer nazi's) trying to get jobs in postwar Germany is interesting by itelf. I take some of the claims with a grain of salt, but yeah, I enjoyed it.

The Dogs of Kabul...

One of the forgotten victims of war are pets. There are many agencies ready to try and help humans, but dogs and cats come in last when there are limited resources. I know that often military units adopt a stray dog (unofficially of course), who is always there when a patrol comes back. I have been told that this is a major boost to morale, and everyone knows the therapeutic value of dogs. If it was up to me I would allow every platoon that wants one, to have a dog that just hangs out in the area. I would be willing to bet money that the amount of PTSD in unit with a dog around to pet or play with from time to time would be lower than the average rate The problem is, these unit dogs get left behind. And it costs about $2500 to ship a dog to the states, so when some grunt makes a special bond with a four legged buddy he may not be able to bring him home That's where http://www.afghanstrayanimals.org/ comes in. Yes, they help a lot of animals over there. And many of those that get shipped to the states are not 'Army dogs.' But it says something about us that we do try and take care of our pets. And when an Afghan kid's dog gets sick and one of these vets saves it, I think we've prevented a terrorist for life. I just made a donation, and I hope you will consider it as well.

66 years ago today

Yeah I know, George Washington, patriots, Independence, car sales, blah, blah, blah. But 66 years ago today my father stepped off a boat and landed in France. Within a few days he was in the thick of things fighting, getting wounded, trying to run a company while wounded, and generally not having a very good time.

But 66 years. That is what a lifetime used to be. Time keeps munching on, and slowly the past fades. What was to him a memory, is now history. Things that to me are memories are now history to college kids.

When my dad was a kid he used to sit and listen to civil war vets tell stories as they sat on their front steps. That used to seem amazing to me, but now my dad's exploits are as far removed. Someday (I hope) some kids will ask some old guy what it was like fighting in Iraq, and he'll remember the time he talked with some old guy who fought in France.

Volksmarche medals

All it takes is one small thing to interest me in yet another aspect of collecting. This time it was a conversation about the cold war, which led me to look at some Volksmarche medals related to US units based In Germany.

This led to searching the web, reading about the marches, (making a small bid on ebay on one and getting it). It just never ceases to amaze me just how many areas of military related collected are out there.

military money, military beer cans, military sports items... the crossover to other collectible areas is pretty amazing. There is just no limit, and it just goes to show you that the old collector's adage about specialization holds true.

I bet you could amass a world class military volksmarche collection without spending too much money.