Progressive? Hardcore??

[marine05]

You bring up a great point:

"...but you can't take the soldier out of the man."

Getting rid of the muscle memory in the hands at the position of the soldier (attention) is about as difficult a habit to undo as any I know.

Charles Heath

Kind of off topic here, but my dad is a WWII veteran, now 77, a couple years ago he was talking to a VA rep and during the conversation he was asked his serial number, my dad popped it right off. He remarked afterwards that if he had been asked what it was he never would have remembered, but the way it was asked, "Serial number" as a command the "muscle memory" kicked in as an involuntary response nearly 60 years after it was last used.

s/f

DJM

[Hank Trent]

Along those same lines, I was a spectator at a little farbfest several years ago, and noticed one group of three or four mounted cavalrymen out of a dozen or so mounted cavalry there. This group had everything wrong--modern saddles, sutler row uniforms, a galtroop, you name it. But their body language and the body language of their horses made them stand out, because they looked like real cavalry--there was something obviously "not pretend" in the way they moved and interacted.

I finally went up and asked them, and found out the answer--in real life, they were all members of the same mounted police organization.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Marylander in Grey]

Folks,
I have been in this hobby for several years, I have like most of you have spent thousands of hours in museums and poring over period works trying to solve the eternal mysteries of what the men and women we portray actually wore and used.
I have had the privledge to go relic hunting in thier camps to see thier trash.
I have come to the conclusion that we are all progressive unless we have the privledge of having an ancestor who preserved every aspect of thier military equipment and clothing and have been able to find some one with the talent to find period skilled craftspeople to reproduce these items, or to actually fit into these items.
Part of the beauty of this hobby is to constantly research all aspects of the war. I have seen many "Hard Core" soldiers who's appearence is impecable but suffer in simple drill. I have seen people chased from the hobby because they have been ostrisized for not knowing who to talk to when they started.
Remember this is an expensive hobby to begin with and when you are steered wrong at the start the prospect of refitting is frightening. A "farb" rifle costs almost the same as a correct one.
I recently expierenced this while trying to get a Federal kit togeather. Who do you believe, research shows so many variants in uniforms and equipment. You would need 3 or 4 rifles and 6 sets of clothes and accouterments to be authentic.
Finally lets remember our purpose is to educate, not only those in the general public but also those in our hobby.
Embrace our brethren and encourage the correct path but be patient it takes time to convince the wife that your 2 year old rifle is incorrect and we need to spend some more money to get it right.
I remain your most humble student,

[Curt Schmidt]

Hallo!

"Finally lets remember our purpose is to educate, not only those in the general public but also those in our hobby."

Now there is a topic for its own long thread!

Curt