The next time the admin mods kick me off FreeRepublic and I have to get a new ISP to create a logon/legend, I'll come back as "Tarantula." It actually makes me homesick.
Back in the day a group of black-ops ghosts were pinned down in a steep-walled, narrow valley in Columbia, hunted by the powder-crazed soldiers of Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. They were lying submerged in about 2.5 feet of water in a stream at the bottom of the cleft.
They stayed there for 48 hours, finally making it the 3 kliks to the EP on day 3, just catching their last chance for a flight home. The Huey only checked for smoke at that time of day 3 days in a row, then had orders to return to base, assuming that the ghosts weren't gonna make it out. One of the group, it's leader, had started life as an OCS ninety-day-wonder butter-bar who somehow managed to survive his three deployments to Nam and ended up leading an elite force that no brass would ever admit to the existence of.
He made it out that day, by was DOW within a week of getting home. His code-name in all radio communications for that, his last op, had been "Tarantula."
If I ever get the chance, I'll wear it with pride. Thanks again.
;-\
:-)