Cheerful is my middle name 
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The only time I ever spent training for parades was graduation from Infantry training, and whenever we had a brigade or divisional level change of command held on the post parade field. At that level a change of commander usually occurred every two years or so. But never in the same year for each commander, so we could have divisional level on say even years and brigade level on odd years. Those were usually rehearsals one to two days at most prior to the ceremony. These were almost always done in the late summer Louisiana heat… I figure it was two to three days a year on average. But we never did public type parades marching down the Main Street of some town or city.
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Yeah, but the clothing allowance usage depends upon the soldiers duties and where he is stationed.
I had friends who were with 25th ID in Hawaii and they had to constantly get new uniforms and boots after rotations through Pakaloa Training Area, aka PTA, or however it’s spelled. The lava glass rock there would shred up their boots and pants during typical infantry maneuvers.
When I was at Ft Polk and was assigned to advance party for REFORGER 84, we spent a week or two rehearsing of removing and installing vehicle batteries to perform that task at the POMCUS site where we would draw the vehicles from. I ruined a couple of uniforms with battery acid during those days.
And if I remember right, the uniform allowance was maybe enough to buy two six packs of beer a month at most… it would take a few months of uniform allowance to buy a set of BDUs. Now the OG-107 jungle fatigues could be bought with one month’s uniform allowance. The crappy issued combat boots of that time never lasted a year, as the soles lost all tread in less time than that and could not be re heeled or re soled. The replacement speed lace boots with lug soles we field tested in '86 were a huge improvement, but didn’t hit clothing sales for another year. And again a new pair cost most of your annual clothing allowance.
I did REFORGER 84 as well! My infamous 4 1/2 hour swim to Denmark as a scout swimmer.
I never had to buy boots in Group. We were issued two pairs of the brown Gore-tex boots to test out. We were also issued Chippewas. And then for cold-weather riding, I would wear the Hahn Wags that they issued us. And the OG 107 slant pockets were my uniform of choice in the field.
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I dont want to get into a huge discusson here, but looking at the german wiki page version its more like 500 000 on the soviet side and 300 000 on the axis side including wounded and captured for the battle proper that is 3rd Romanina, 4th Panzer and 6th only. The german page does also include a big list of german works including original sources and books published early after the war. I have to say that based on previous experience I have bigger respect for those sources, especially books written by officers who witnessed the war than compilations done by modern authors, having wrote a coupple of works myself.
My stepfather woked in Nuclear Power after leaving the Navy where he was a Nuke. Actually had to interview with Hyman Rickover. Hebecame a reactor operator as a civilian before becoming a consultant. I guess that makes me the original Bart Simpson.
Discussions about nuclear power were dinnertime fodder when I was growing up, as we’d often have his colleagues over for dinner. For instance, a coal fired plant next to the Crystal River Nuclear plant set off alarms whenever the wind blew in the right direction. They release forty eight different radioactive isotopes.
Radioactive waste with a half life of thousands of years really isn’t that dangerous. It just means it’s spitting out nasty particles at a much slower rate than say, something with a half life of eight seconds.
Dirty bombs (I learned this one in the Army) are quite limited in their effectiveness, and not really much to worry about.
And yes, we need nuclear power badly. I’m interested in micro reactor technology.
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I don’t know much about nuclear power other than not to pronounce it like Jimmy Carter did (“nookie let”). My “knowledge” about radiation comes out of the book Nuclear War Survival Skills, by Dr Edward Teller - “the father of the h-bomb”. He has a chapter about radiation. If I recall correctly, the three types are alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha rays are the ones with a half life of like 10,000 years, but are so weak they can be shielded with a piece of paper or regular clothing. Beta Ray’s have a shorter Half-Life but are a little more powerful, and gamma rays are the ones that can penetrate through, like 10 ft of soil, but they have a half life of days. According to Teller, after approximately 49 days of sheltering, people could live in a very radioactive area with little more than regular clothes, and still be able to work outside for 6 to 10 hours a day, after which a healthy body would repair the damage overnight.
I do not have the book in front of me and I haven’t looked at it in years, but those are some of the statistics that I remember. I certainly do not want to test out what he writes.
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A day or two after Chernobyl blew up some journalist went out in downtown Stockholm with a Geiger meter and made some measurements.
This place:
got high readings …
“Fall out from Chernobyl has contaminated Stockholm!!”
Those paving stones …
they are hewn from radioactive granite …
The first alarm in Sweden came from a nuclear power station, Forsmark, north of Stockholm
I had to do that once in Oki, big PITA. We were on “inspection duty” for 2 weeks marking, burning threads, cleaning.
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I read this a few days ago:
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I was stationed in Bavaria when Chernobyl melted down and I remember hearing about the Swedish alarms. I think Chernobyl was one of the Jenga pieces that ended up toppling the Soviet Union.
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oooohhhh
Glow in the Dark 'shrooms 
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I was in Berlin. Riding my motorcycle in the rain with my girlfriend Marina on the back three days after. I hope she hasn’t lost her hair too. 
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Between the radiation and the Mad Cow from British beef, it was a rough time for Cold Warriors. Red Cross wouldn’t even take my blood for years.
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Indeed. Wasn’t it just last year we were able to donate again? All because I ate a hamburger back in 1988? Yet people with high risk for HIV were able to donate long before us.
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So does that mean that the boar meat is already cooked and seasoned? Slice me off a plate of that barbecue!
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The governor of Virginia is proposing to begin installing micro modular reactors down here in southwest Virginia. I am all for it.
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HIV and blood donation = a political agenda, according to an acquaintance who manages a regional blood donation enterprise around Washington DC. Being a blood and plasma donor, I’ve asked people at the blood bank about this. Some say yes, some say no, and most of them don’t want to talk about it.
Well then let’s agree to disagree!
The German article in Wikipedia also contains this text:
“Da um Stalingrad und den Donbogen nicht nur die Eingeschlossenen, sondern auch die Kräfte der Heeresgruppe B bzw. Don kämpften, waren die Verluste insgesamt deutlich höher. So verloren die Verbündeten bei den Gegenangriffen der Roten Armee 545.000 Soldaten; davon die italienische 8. Armee 95.000, die zwei rumänischen Armeen knapp 300.000. Hinzu kamen noch die Verluste der Heeresgruppe B und Don von 300.000 Mann”.
Cheers,
Angel
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That’s about as on topic as blood donations and Mad Cow disease. Well done! 
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