Rangers with the 502nd did use the 249, as I’ve hear my middle Grandson speak of using one.
gary
P.S. question: This is not derogatory or anything, so don’t take it that way. The rangers and SF grew beards in many units to hide their identity. Yet how does a guy with bright red hair do that (I was once red headed)? Next time I speak with Dillon, I’ll ask him. His second combat tour was in Iraq awhile back, and from what I gather a much different ball game. He was with the 75th Rangers there. Ben is with the Rangers in the 10th Mountain in Afghanistan right now, so we do have a bit of sibling rivalry in our family
gary
We did not grow beard to hide our identities - we grew them because the locals considered beards to be a sign of manhood. We hid our identities by not ever letting them know our ranks or family names. Everyone in Orgun was known as Commander so and so. I was commander Rob. Plus I really hate shaving. As to your question about red hair, one of our terps (who ended up killing three 3rd Group guys, had red hair. When he first showed up, I thought he was an Irish American contractor. As a country located along many ancient trade routes, a lot of DNA has been spread there. Hence they thought I was Hazara. Turns out I’m 5% Pashtun, according to DNA test. And he was not the result of any liaison with a Russian back in the day - he said his whole family looked like he did. Our other terp looked about as Long Island Italian as you can imagine. His dream was to open a strip club in NYC. He also wanted us to raid a compound so he could check out the girl he was supposed to marry. Turns out her tribe prized big women, and he did not, I have photos of those two terps somewhere,
Yeah, but it’s based more on this photo. I was in charge of training and paying 55 AMF, (Afghan Militia Force) many of whom were former Muj. If you could look past the buggery and the hash smoking, they were pretty good dudes. They manned seven OP’s around our firebase and were primarily tasked with our security. I’d ride around on a Yamaha dirt bike to pay them every week.
well thanks for setting me strait. I was told it was an identity thing awhile back by somebody whom I assumed knew. Being an Italian by ancestry, and yet red headed; I know we came from the far northern part of Italy somewhere along the way. Yet there are many blonds up there as well. Actually, everybody in the photo could pass for Italian, except for the guy kneeling. Still he could get by for most folks.
gary
does everybody over there wear a pistol? Silly question I know, but still kind of interesting. In my era, a guy with a pistol stood out as an NCO or officer unless he was on a crew served weapon (machine gun). I wore my 45 under my shirt with the buttons undone at the top. We wore no rank unless you were a lifer back in the rear or ticket puncher, as that was a bad sign.
gary
“Being an Italian by ancestry, and yet red headed; I know we came from the far northern part of Italy somewhere along the way. Yet there are many blonds up there as well.”
In the decades just prior to Hannibal dragging his pachyderms over the Alps Rome was just moving into the north of what is Italy but was known to them as Gallia Cisalpina (“Gaul this side of the Alps”) which was very much Celtic territory. They were still trying to “pacify” the area when the Barca boy turned up and was pretty much welcomed as a liberator, Trasimene being something of a Celtic “Payback’s a Bitch”. It was about a decade and a half before the Romans sorted out Carthage and could get down to some serious Ethnic Cleansing of their northern neighbours, some tribes managed to bug out (the Boii went beyond the Danube and became the Bohemians) but there were sufficient Celts remaining in the area (voluntarily or otherwise) to make a big contribution to the gene pool. Later on the Langobardi spent some time in Bohemia on their way from the Baltic to what became Lombardy to add their DNA to the mix but this was more a Suebian thing than a Boii “Payback, Part 2”…
“Sounds like your a history buff!”
I pretty much like any military history, but my big interest is Imperial Rome. I knew about the Cisalpine Gaul stuff because back in my wargaming days I had a Second Punic War Carthaginian army and did some reading up on the era. I know it’s been the subject of movies and a TV mini series but it could stand the full “Game of Thrones” treatment; there’s enough family rivalry and plot twists (not to mention a better final episode…).
“I’m kinda hung up on very old English history right now.”
That sort of dovetails into one of my main passions, the collapse of the western Empire, and in particular Britain after most Roman forces were taken to Gaul by a would-be Emperor in AD 406.
The period in which Britannia becomes England (and Wales) is particularly intriguing as although academics don’t like calling it “The Dark Ages” any more, archaeology is constantly throwing new light on the period. I have found Tony Wilmott’s work at Birdoswald and Maryport of particular interest (I was lucky enough to visit both of those excavations).
“Plus the old west in an off & on pattern”
We had our own version of the “Wild West” up on the Anglo-Scottish Borders and except for the fact it was even wilder and went on longer it shares a similar tale of the romanticising and mythologising of some really exceptional reprobates. If you’ve not come across the Border Reivers before I think you will like them; their biggest contribution to British culture was to introduce to the English language the terms “Blackmail”, “Red Handed” and “Bereaved”…
I love digging in to the closets with all the skeletons that go along with the British empire. Some are sort of funny and some are very ugly. The wars with the “clans” interests me, but also know little about them. Right now I’m getting ready to read Sir Thomas Mallory’s book on King Arthur for the second time. The first one was closer to Elizebethian English (barely easier than Chaucer). Just kind of interesting stuff, but rather read Donne or something Russian. To go along with your thoughts on Rome, I have two books by Dante to get past, and have everybody I know looking for a third and fourth.
As for the old west, I’ve been on several look sees to see who is telling the truth. Lots of BS out there!
gary
