Here I am at the range getting in some FPS training with my Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk III .303 rifle. Fortiscule and I have been playing some Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway this week, so it's got us in a World War II frame of mind. My Lee-Enfield actually dates back to World War I, but British soldiers used them in World War II as well. We might cue up the DVD box set of "Band of Brothers" later tonight.
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway is of particular interest to me because it depicts a unit that a friend of mine served in. Capt. Wallace Swanson commanded Co. A of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (the "Five-Oh-Deuce," as you hear the unit referred to in Hell's Highway and "Band of Brothers") from D-Day, though Operation Market Garden in Holland (the subject of "A Bridge Too Far" and Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway), and on through the siege of Bastogne in The Battle of the Bulge. Wallace, whose wife Jeanne called him "Jake," passed away a few years ago and I had the honor of being one of his pallbearers. I admired him very much as one of my personal heroes. He looked like a movie hero, but he was the real thing, as you can see in this wartime portrait at right.We're looking forward to mobilizing the entire Sythbane Squadron to play Call of Duty 5 when it comes out, because it's supposed to support four-players in co-op.
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THIS ARTICLE IMMEDIATELY REMINDED ME OF A SONG ENTITLED "IN COLOR" BY JAMEY JOHNSON IN WHICH A GRANDFATHER IS RECOUNTING STORIES BEHIND OLD BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS AND EMPHASIZES "YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT IN COLOR". THE VOCALS ARE VERY RICH AND HONEST ON THIS TRACK AND I WOULD ENCOURAGE ANYBODY TO GIVE IT A LISTEN AT LEAST ONCE. HAVING SERVED IN THE MILITARY, I CAN RELATE TO THE EMOTION ATTACHED TO THE ARTICLE AND SONG. SERVING AS A FRIEND AND THEN IN TURN A PALLBEARER TO A FALLEN HERO IS INDEED AN HONOR.
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