In case you missed his introduction at GlockTalk.
Paparockcal:
Hello everyone. We live in a very trying if not interesting and dangerous times.
I'll be turning 67 this Dec.23, born and raised in the southern Arkansas pine ridges and swamps. In college I spent three years in a
Counter-InsurgencyUnit run by the Special Forces inside the U.S. Army ROTC programs of Henderson State University, Arkansas and then Eastern New Mexico University were I graduated. I was not granted my request for a commision in the Infantry as there was only one that year at the school and it was being given to another graduate as a punishment for his actions. I ended up in Air Defence
Artillery.
To understand who I am you have to know my father was a First Sgt. during WWII and he "trained" me from childhood to be a soldier. Where ever we lived he established a Boy
Scout Troop so that I could earn my Eagle Scoutwhich I did including outstanding Eagle Eagle Scout of the Southern District of Arkansas. It is as much a tribute to my father as it was to the work I put in.
When I entered college, I became a voracious reader that allowed me to challenge not only my own but others preconceived ideas. I shattered my own narrow understanding of what American was all about. As an undergraduate in Psychology I spent my last year and a half taking graduate level classes heavy in abnormal psych classes with permission. This was during the late 60s when ROTC cadets were not the most popular people on campus. I was one of the senior officers in the
Counter-Insurgency Unit run by the Green Berets on campus and at 6' 5" and 230 lbs as well as a senior martial arts student earned a reputation.
My mentality and
tactical thinking fits well with small unit operations rather than "strait leg" units. Those of such a mindset understand where I am coming from. The world has changed around me but I am still the same. Most of you won't know who Elmer Keith was but I understand how he felt when everyone suddenly went "
magnum" crazy when he knew you didn't need them. You can invent the fastest jets, biggest nukes, but to hold ground you have to have the best trained ground fighter, period.
As a kid I used to practice a minimum of 50-100
rounds a day for years to develop my skills with handguns and rifles before I ever went into the Army. Not many kids I see today have that interest. Upon entry into the U.S. Army I qualified expert with the M14, M16, and
Colt 1911 as a 2Lt.
I have kept up my shooting skills over the years by shooting on
gun ranges and by
hunting from New Mexico to Wyoming, where I lived for ten years. I love the mountains with the clear clean air and few people. I confess, I lost my faith in people and the fact that America is a nation of laws from first hand experience being one of the first to help establish Drug Suppression Units in the U. S. Army. I love and will defend my fellow American's. It's just that I have seen the corruption first hand rise so high it taints the very soul of the system; there are so few not tainted by it. Even fewer are willing to stand against it, bring it to
light, and prosecute it. I know I tried.