Cue 'Ride of the Valkyries' says Biglorryblog...yes be afraid...be very afraid...Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa' Jerry Burley and his assorted sidekicks (including 'Black Socks' Wilson (pictured above) are back on BLB--and not before time either....
JB kicks off with a mild-rollocking for the Blogmeister: "After your teaser the other night (which I didn't know you were going to post...) I am now compelled to fill in the blanks! And the live rounds for that matter, as we shall see....." And if you want to find our exactly what our brave lads 'over there' have been doing well click through here...
JB continues: "'Nature Notes 'first though, and that's a dog, believe it or not. I pass it every day on the roadside going to work and it's so mangy and manky there is barely a hair left on it. Unless of course, it's that well known breed, the 'Ugandan Hairless'. Seems healthy enough otherwise, though I'd watch the sunburn meself...."
"Operation Natural Fire 10 has passed here without incident - a disaster preparedness and humanitarian exercise involving all five East African Union states, along with the US military."
"And as can be seen the Americans don't mess around with kit, even for a ten-day exercise. Three Chinooks, a rake of 20-year old, but brand new (?) Humvees.."
"...they have just been removed for a run-out from a war bond store somewhere in Europe - some big 6x6 Mack tractors and a rake of other, smaller kit."
"We were sub-contracting around the periphery, building a geo-textile reinforced, murram surfaced helo landing pad on some particularly foul black cotton soil (and by mungu didn't it rain!!), a 300m rifle range for small arms practice and some ablutions and other menial jobs to suit our abilities around the main camp. All went well enough for all parties, from what I can make out from my position in the trenches anyway."
"You saw our Oshkosh (that dragged one of our RT890 cranes up there) in the previous post - I think it's been out of US service for so long that most of the baby-faced GI Joe's wandering around didn't even recognise it for what it is/was!"
"Well, not to be outdone by our 8x6, Billy Bob's twin brother Billy Bob brought along their new 8x8 Oshkosh recovery unit in his bergen. Not sure exactly what for, but there we are. And our Brit contingent included the Foden Multi-drive (pictured above) that pulled our diesel needs up to this very remote northern part of the country, a Bedford TM 6x6 crane truck...
"... and our venerable old Iveco Cat 2 Special Types double diff tractor and Turkish Ozgul trailer, resplendent with D6 dozer and 12 tonne vibro-compactor levered onto the back...."
And for Wilson fans (for once less his black socks in the very first pic), there he is after completing the helo pad and witnessing the first trial landing and pretending he's now qualified for Top Gun. And in his car pretending he's 'Rambo in Vietnam'. And standing with a pint sized GI Joe in front of the Humvees, pretending he's General MacArthur. He is in truth none of them, but he's happy which is the main thing. And the rest is consigned to history, with the exercise now over and all the kit and bods safely back home in the smoke."
"And to finish an interesting shop sign for you there to end up with - I could probably manage to stack a number of boxed VCR's fairly tidily if I had to, but how do you correctly stack a church choir in your village shop? Answers on a postcard please to "Mike Wilson, O.I.A., PO Box.............Regards JB."
Good to have you back, JB, and good to know that you managed to get all your gear back home after your little play in the sandpit with the US Army.