Andy Mcnab
Forum
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>>By camban (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 12:46)
eeuuuhm DW was that a cryptic message you wrote on page 172 down bottom, or were you under some strange gin-tonic influence....
Camban : well good for you hearing AM, pity I can't take BBC 2 over here. posh accent hey, hmmmm are you sure it was him, did you get the ginger-breath smell and apple shampoo sent over the radio....
I agree with what he said,though, unfortunately it will get worse over there (Iraq).
Have you read any SBS books, if not I highly recommend you to read First into Action by Duncan Falconer. It's a bio, he joined the SBS at the age of 19, youngest ever, and tells about the training, NI, SAS etc...
Was thinking of reading the Sara book meself, so maybe it'll be on my next list. But for now I still gotta finish, Greed and LD.
>>By borisette (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 13:22)
borisette, you can listen to BBC radio on the net www.bbc.co.uk/radio2, all programmes are available for re-runs but not sure if the news inserts are included. The item was at 10:00am GMT on the Ken Bruce show. Don't get the breath/shampoo stuff?
Funnily enough I have Duncan Falconer's book, and another SBS book, Dark Water I think, in my Amazon basket for when I've read the four or five already in my pile.
Lucky you, still having some CR/AM books to read. I read them all a while back, currently waiting for The Increment to be published.
Recommend the Sarah Ford book, keep it on your list.
>>By camban (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 15:26)
Camban, if you stick around you'll find more of the same non-literature, off topic stuff. We're not just a literature board, we're a community called F Troop here. It's just the way it is here. Just skip what's not to your liking ;o))
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 17:01)
Lynn, I do like it, I was joining in, sort of, off centre sense of humour you see. Here's some more: in Lofty Large's book the first part is about his baptism of fire in the Korean War where he mentions instinctively shooting with both eyes open, as per shotgun practice. Now I have done shotgun stuff and the instructors tell you to keep both eyes open. Problem is, I cannot hit the target with both eyes open, only when I shut one and aim along the barrel. Can any of you military people out there explain the principles involved with this?
>>By camban (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 17:21)
No wonder I love Ginger Snaps so much! ;-)
I'm SO glad we haven't scared you off, camban! :-) AM mentions in several of his novels about the women using apple-scented shampoo. And previous page he was compared to Ginger Snap, hence the breath/shampoo ref. ;-)
"Don't settle for sham-poo! Demand real-poo!"
>>By Dare (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 17:32)
A little PT exercise....
Okay, F Troopers, please raise your right arm straight up, above your head, then bend your elbow and lower your hand until it is positioned directly behind your head, below the nap of your neck, between your shoulder blades... now PT (Pat There), please!
In going on 2 years, and some 170+ pages, admittedly, we do go off on some bizarre tangents (biscuits, tulips and gold hot pants in evidence)... but still... with only a few twists and tweaks, it's easy enough to trace back to source -- and 99% of the time, we're way under the "six degrees of separation" mark... :o)
In fact, even the elusive Tom Pun (from Ink Magazine, pgs 97-98) noted: "I found your board at one of the top Google Group searches for Andy McNab and unlike many message boards I have come across you lot actually discuss your topic and are very friendly!" Hence, our 15 minutes of fame -- F Troop's brilliantly insightful and darkly revealing interview (or was it interrogation?) questions in Issue 2 of Ink*! :o)
So now, after that rigourous PT workout -- what say we adjourn for beverages and cookies? Will that be milk, SlimFast or Glenfiddich? I don't care -- I just want the ginger snaps! (vbg! vbw!)
* Copies of the Ink magazine are available (flork me if you are interested)...
>>By am-i-binned (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 18:35)
<Problem is, I cannot hit the target with both eyes open, only when I shut one and aim along the barrel> (Camban)
The med. explanation for this is that we all have one dominant eye. When we use our vision to observe it's important to know wich eye is the dominant one, that way one can position him/herself in relation to the object/person . This is important for the coordination hand-arm/eye
There is a test you can do to see wich eye is dominant :
- extend both arms and form a small circle with your thumb and indexfinger from each hand
- keeping both eyes open, look through the circle made by your hands (thumb and index) to an object placed at the end of the room. Make the circle as small as possible
- close the left eye, if you still see the object through the circle, than that means that your dominant eye is the left eye. If instead you don't see the object through the circle, than that means that the dominant eye is the right one.
- repeat the same thing with the other eye, and see if there's a difference
- if you don't see the object at all, meaning left or right eye, than go and see a doctor.
Strangely the only time I shot a rifle they told me to close one eye. And this was with the Director of FN.
>>By borisette (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 19:37)
sorry mea culpa, I made a typing mistake there :
- if you close the left eye and you still see the object than the dominant eye is the RIGHT (not the left, silly me) eye.....
if you don't see the object through the circle than that means that your dominant eye is the LEFT one.
I need a holiday !
>>By borisette (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 19:42)
and I'm not on gin-tonic tonight !
psssst never drunk the stuff, hate it.
(camban)
<Lucky you, still having some CR/AM books to read. I read them all a while back, currently waiting for The Increment to be published>
Well while you're waiting, try reading DF's The Hostage, great book !
And he's got another one coming out this august : The Hijack
( can't say that the titles are very inventive.....but who cares as long as the book is good, the story well-going, and all in all my money worth)
Oh yeah you still gotta finish the other SBS books first, ok go on.
>>By borisette (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 19:49)
AIB ! What a good idea! I'll take tea with no milk and yes with Hob nob's. Chocolate of course.
Is it two years already ?? Gosh... hope it can go on for a few more.
Do people ever meet up for a FUBARCON in this board ?
>>By Ninjawoman (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 21:39)
Camban: "I do like it" aaah, welcome to F Troop !
You need be a little nuts, then you're just fine.
Lofti Large is a bit of a sore point with me: orderded the book 2 months ago !!! but still no sight of it :o(
Somehow this one keeps coming up "Women are like guns, keep one around long enough and you're going to want to shoot it"
(not a very smart quote coming from a she)
Speaking of quotes: this one might appeal to AM:
"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you"
>>By Lynn (Wednesday, 12 May 2004 21:53)
LOL! That's ok, I like that quote too, Lynn. Both of them, in fact!
But that first one works just as well if you substitute "men" for "women". ;-)
>>By Dare (Thursday, 13 May 2004 00:48)
What's a FUBARCON? And why F Troop?
Lynn, the Lofty Large book is available from Amazon, not on 24 hours for some reason, but mine came in only a few days. Well worth the wait for his succint opinion on many matters: army bull, communism, marijuana, and terrorists, for example. It's easy to understand why AM says that almost all new SAS members chose him as the their role model.
>>By camban (Thursday, 13 May 2004 11:56)
Must be bored, I just took the gnod tour and it recommended Shaun Clarke, author of the Soldier A, B, C, etc. series. I read Soldier A, it was crap. Any other opinions?
>>By camban (Thursday, 13 May 2004 12:43)
(Pssst, Camban... I asked the same thing about FUBARCON. I think I know the "fubar" part, but "con"?... :o\ )
Uhm, Lynn...
Are you around to take a bow for this next part? ....
Camban,
It was at Lynn's suggestion that F Troop came about (way, way back on pg 4). At that time, there seemed to be only four active chatters (buddy, Lynn, Paul R and a-i-b), so Lynn quipped that we could be Air, Boat, Mobility and Mountain and we could call ourselves F Troop.
F Troop is a direct reference to IA, Chapter 19, when AM was in Belize in July 1980:
"Britain had kept a small garrison in Belize ever since as a permanent deterrent against incursions, and we were going there as part of that force. ... The British presence amounted to something like an infantry battalion plus all the support -- Harrier jump jets, artillery, the lot. And part of that was an outfit called F Company, basically a dozen Regiment and SBS blokes. It had quickly been renamed F Troop after the comedy series about a US cavalry unit in the Wild West, manned by a load of bumbling old idiots."
>>By am-i-binned (Thursday, 13 May 2004 13:05)
Thanks for that a-i-b; so, are you tell us what the fubar part is then? Hope it's not rude.
Do you know, it's amazing this site, have had a look at some other writers sites, including the brilliant P J O'Rourke, and there is nothing there, zilch. Wonder what magic ingredient AM has to explain this?
>>By camban (Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:05)
Checked the BBC Radio 2 web site for those who were interested. Looks like I gave a bum steer, the show AM was on is not available on line as I thought, sorry. Have asked for the transcript and will post if I get it.
If you like surreal humour, as you all seem to, go to the Radio 2 home page and check out "Ask Elvis", it is one of the funniest things I have ever encountered. Almost as funny as real-poo, still laughing at that Dare.
>>By camban (Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:19)
Camban...
<< ... tell us what the fubar part is then? Hope it's not rude. >>
Not sure about rude but it is ... uhm ... F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition...
<< ... Wonder what magic ingredient AM has to explain this? >>
Uhm... sorry, I cannot answer that question, cuz if I told you, I'd have to kill me! :oD
>>By am-i-binned (Thursday, 13 May 2004 15:53)
Hi all, well this a blast from the past !
Reg is back (from holiday ?) but not for long. Going away again soon as I can't get enough of it - believe that, you'll believe anything.
Hey dw, am I missed. People are always saying they miss me - something about being a rotten shot ! Damned if I know what they are on about !
Hey Nomad, have you been eaten yet by a lion !
AIB and the rest, how's it hanging !
If I have time I'll write more before I depart again.
>>By Reginald (Thursday, 13 May 2004 18:11)
camban:
Re: shooting with both eyes open.
The reason you do this, is simply that you need to have both eyes open in order to take in as much information as you can. With CQB-shooting / contact-drills on patrol, you don't have time to fine-aim through the optics. You use the "point-and-shoot" technique (various techniques used probably vary from unit to unit, regiment to regiment). You have to keep an eye on your target, but also the surrounding scenario in your whole field of vision.
So, in essense, you keep both eyes open when you're in the "thick of it". If you're in a fixed barricated position/fortification, I suppose you could give yourself time to use the optics and close one eye so that your master-eye can do the job.
Incidently, there are also a lot of optical sighting system available for the CQB-type of warfare - Aimpoint being a large manufacturer. It's basically an optic sight with a red dot in the middle. Wherever you point the pot, you hit.
A bit like those fancy laser-beams, only it's all optical. (These sights are the ones used by the Delta Force troopers in Ridley Scott's movie "Black Hawk Down".)
>>By ortlieb (Thursday, 13 May 2004 21:54)
Howdy!
This might be old news to all you lot, but Andy Mcnab is on BBC 1 right now talking about the torture of the iraqi prisoners.
Bye, bye.
>>By Scouse (Friday, 14 May 2004 00:50)
you can still look through the optics, and keep the other eye open it just takes practice and as you correctly pointed out earlier you have to get away from having a dominant eye. most snipers use the technique for tracking as you don't have too much tunnel vision.
have fun, later!
>>By Nemesis2842004 (Friday, 14 May 2004 08:16)
>Andy Mcnab is on BBC 1 right now
right now? right NOW?
*scrambles to rest room to switch on TV* LOL
Scouse, you're such a tease!!
(who has the video?)
>>By bikergirl (Friday, 14 May 2004 10:41)
It's always so good to hear something WAS on tv, hearing about it the next day :o((
Hi Scouse, great to see you here again!! And thanx both (BG too) for informing us *sob sob*
>>By Lynn (Friday, 14 May 2004 10:48)
Happened to be watching that BBC1 programme, "This Week", a political discussion sort of talk show. AM had his face pixilated during the interview and obscured, partly by shades, in a little walk-about intro filmed in Norfolk; he obviously bought that house back. Says he has recently been back to Baghdad and been on patrol with US forces. Most interesting comments were about the prisoner abuse, he reckons that the reason the US is suffering this scandal is down to part-time soldiers of the National Guard being undisciplined and poorly led. Also, even though the Daily Mirror photos are now officially regarded as fake, he thinks that it is only a matter of time before real ones emerge, causing even more damage.
It's about time he stopped this face obscuring business surely? Anyone who wanted to harm him would have done it by now and it's virging on the paranoid I think. Or maybe it's just to perpetrate the myth and generate sales?
>>By camban (Friday, 14 May 2004 12:19)
Thanks for the shooting tips fellas, but I still don't understand why both eyes open is needed for shotgun work, understandable in CQB, but moving targets at a distance is a different matter?
a-i-b: so FUBAR is equivalent to SNAFU then?
Finished Lofty Large's book last night, another very impressive human being. In the latter part of the book some of the tales sounded familiar, I realised that one of the men he was with was Pete Scholey, author of "The Joker" I mentioned previously, what a fearsome pairing that must have been. Pete had confused me I remember, by sometimes calling his friend Lofty, and other times Don, without explanation, so now you know!
>>By camban (Friday, 14 May 2004 12:46)
The open-eyes technique is also used in astronomy when looking through the eyepiece of a telescope. The reason I was given when I learned it was that it's simply tiring to keep one eye closed all the time. It takes a while to get used to it, but after a while you learn to disregard the information coming in from the other eye. When one eye gets fatigued from looking through the scope, you switch eyes.
>>By Majorette (Friday, 14 May 2004 14:08)
Dunno, Camban... :o\
Might be a soldiery "the Chicken or the Egg"...
Which came first: the SNAFU or the FUBAR? ;o)
>>By am-i-binned (Friday, 14 May 2004 14:32)
Oh, that one's easy, AIB!
SNAFUBAR = Situation normal - All F**ked Up Beyond Recognition
;-)
>>By Dare (Friday, 14 May 2004 17:39)
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