My Generation Was Killed - Part 12 - One Bullet Away…

 

‘Sup Killers..? Well, I did it, I actually painted something…! I can see you are all so proud of me…!

Had a lot going on this week, a lot of things came together. As you can see from the headline pic, I managed to acquire a copy of LT Nate Fick’s autobiography, ‘One Bullet Away’. Picked this up and it was delivered yesterday along with a copy of ‘War on Saddam’ from the same supplier. A bargain at just over $35 the pair postage. More on these later… 😉

But first up, MODELS! So I finished off the HQ element for the list, a pretty easy two Hummer section.

Obviously in the real world, this is just A Hummer, so for game purposes, I added a truck. Unlike most other vehicles in the show, LT Fick’s is still in its European MERDC camo, about as suited to the desert as the DPM on my Landrover…He did manage however to get hold of a tan ‘Wendy House’, so at least some of his vehicle is desert-ish coloured…!

Had a lot of fun with this one as I decided to make the Wendy House removable so that you can see the inside. This one was made from one of the ‘scrap’ 3D ones and looks pretty good, well to me at least! 🤩

These look a lot better ‘at scale’ (!) but I don’t mind the EXTREME close ups! 😬 

So next up is the other HQ truck, I used another 3D tuck for this one, adding the usual wading kit, exhaust and some stowage. This one gets a .50 cal, and the Fick-Mobile also has one ‘in-game’.

Just had to knock up two bases for these and I was DONE! Bases made as previously taught, noting the HUMRAT packets added for that extra bit of colour 😉

Right, well that’s the modelling aspect for this week done and dusted, and you’re welcome ☺️ 

So, these books… I haven’t read them yet, have in fact barely flipped though the pics. I know Fick’s book is going to be an inspirational read, no doubt about it. Nate Fick wasn’t ‘just’ a USMC PL COMD, he was so muh more, and I am looking forward to getting to know him a bit better. It was published in 2005, a mere 24 months after his experiences with Bravo PL.

The other book is from the Daily Telegraph, a UK paper and is undated, I’d assess its from around the same period of 05-07 or so. This one is a bit more personal for me. I have only flicked through it once, and it has already brought me to tears. I am crying as I write this, right now.

So, I am sure these books will be both informative and cathartic for me.

As an example, I will showcase two pics, one from each book that kind of bring things back for me, and not necessarily in a good way.

This pic is from Fick’s book and show the Iceman attending to a wounded Iraqi girl, caught in the drama. The caption reads, “…Aiding civilians, though often at odds with our assigned mission, became crucial to the platoon’s psychological health.” Yeah, I get that 100% 🙏

This one is from War on Saddam and show again, US and this time British pers attending to the human collateral damage that occurs in all wars. This was the page that made me immediately put this book down. That picture of the Iraqi child on the bed, who has been burned in a coalition airstrike on Baghdad, took me right back…

We had pushed out of Umm Qasar and forward into Basra, and had stopped for some kind of reason at a RAP, Regimental Aid Post in some part of the AO. I only remember two things about that stop: 

1) I managed to catch a sleep in the back of an empty Landrover Ambulance. I remember it because inside the Ambulance were two pillows, each with the ‘Crows Foot’ marking in ink and dated 1944… Yup, you read that right, I was getting my head down in an ambulance in a war zone in 2003, on a pillow made for WWII… I  obviously ‘borrowed’ one of the pillows… 😉 But I lost it somewhere between there and coming home, so unfortunately can’t show it to you…

2) I saw a sight I’ll never forget. An Iraqi girl had come out of one of the medical tents, probably an operating theatre of some kind. I will never forget her small stature, pink and white dress, long black hair, and the fact that she had both of her forearms missing. 

They had been blown off as she picked up a scatterable cluster munition. 

I just stared at her and wondered what life our ‘liberation’ of Iraq had now given her. I often wonder if she is still alive, and if so, what she may be doing now. 

So yeah, these are the things my mind sees when I look at things like this. And it might not be a picture of an Iraqi child that sets me to thinking, I can look at my own mokopuna and think on the same lines.

Thank The Lord that I have such a supportive whanau and group of friends to get me through those dark times.

Until next time, Stay Frosty…🫡