Posted on 12/18/2010 4:24:33 PM PST by dynachrome
A train from Baltimore to Philadelphia stalled on the tracks for ten hours last night. With doors locked and electricity waning, passengers cried and fought for emergency rations. A local news reporter happened to be on board, and tweeted it.
D.C. reporter Stephen Tschida, of ABC affiliate WJLA-TV, was on the train as rations fell short, cold set in, and passengers swelled into an anarchic mob. As @ABC7Stephen, he chronicled it all, 140 characters at a time. Here is our brave correspondent's story, unabridged and arranged chronologically:
(Excerpt) Read more at gawker.com ...
An excellent ornament!
A great animation it would be to see it smashing through that idiotic Mao ball hung from the WH ‘Holiday’ tree.
Right, they were coming home after being stuck on an escalator with nobody to come get them for several hours.
Tschida’s experience is nothing compared to an Amtrak experience I once had.
In 1980, I was on an Amtrak train from Los Angeles to Detroit. Somewhere around Raton, NM, the train ran out of beer. When we made a stop in La Junta, Colo., the passengers stormed the local liquor store—and the stampede nearly turned into a riot.
I find watching trains going by to be soothing. And Perryville is at the top of the list. The mighty Susquehanna to the west and a mile line of sight to the east. 5 or 6 trains an hour. I light up a cigar and sit on the antique baggage cart out front while contemplating the universe.
That doesn't negate the fact that this guy is a p***y.
That’s part of my personal philosophy. Beer and wine are food, liquor is medicine. And so it is written.
Wonder how long they'd last where these guys spent 15 MONTHS - high atop a ridge they literally pickaxed off a mountain - shot at constantly (in over 1,000 firefigjts.
A handful of men - isolated, a 2 hour straight up a mountain climb from the nearest outpost. No power, no running water, no heat, no phones, no computers...never enough food. 130 in the summer - 130 below in winter, watching your best friends get blown up in front of you. (High Hindu Kush Mountains of north eastern Afghanistan.) -
http://restrepothemovie.com/video/
Sebastian Junger (”Perfect Storm”) and Tim Hetherington embedded with them for a total of a year, on an off, and filmed, wrote, directed and produced this film. No Hollywood, no poilitics, no agenda - just cameras rolling as it went down.
It won top prize “Grand Jury Award” at Sundance, was shown around the country this summer, garnering many more first prizes, and is now on the short list of documentaries for an Oscar. National Geo bought rights and aired it in Nov. It drew such an audience, they're airing it again Jan 2. Do yourself a favor - watch it.
Below, a very short clip of one of the Sky Soldiers coming back to the firebase after leave...You can see the valley below - WAY below and straight down. This soldier always carried extra back up - to give a little bit of ‘extra’ for the guys. He even brought a folding chair. they had no freaking chair to sit on - First thing on leave, a chair just to sit in was the first luxury.
On a different climb up that mountain, this soldier was under fire - as they were often - totally open to enemy fire. They had finally gotten a generator (Gee, ARmy, could you spare it!) and he had long fluorescent light bulbs in his pack. He was scrambling up that mountain, under fire, returning fire, crawling on his belly, scrambling for the least of cover - but he made it to the top - with a big grin and thumbs up - he didn't lose one bulb.
(Note in this clip the muslim call to prayer in the background. How many of those train passengers could have stood that 5 times a day - 15 months)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6-3I9JHllc&feature=player_embedded
SSGT Giunta, just awarded the Medal of Honor, was part of the platoon.
Don't worry. America is still in good shape - with men like this. And they will be coming home.
Does no one carry a firestart kid anymore?
I think that he came out second in a pissing contest with Jim Robinson.
ahahahaha
WG's account is still here, just WG's not posting. He could still swing by and read stuff sent his way. Who knows?
Yep.
I’m with you. I think he did a pretty good job of chronicling a sorry episode of what happens when you trust government to run the trains.
Mussolini where are you when we need you?
> “I guess with everything run by electricity on the amtrak, they couldn’t keep the heaters working.”
.
Damn those oil companies, err, oh well....
Good reminder, if I ever intend to ride on a train, take a stock of something.
Thinking of taking a train accross country this summer just see the country.
Have already done the Pittsburgh to Florida thing.
Overall, knowing it was to be long, it was great.
Shhhhh, I had a few six packs and some of those little bottles of rum. Happy, Happy.
ping
> “I think that he came out second in a pissing contest with Jim Robinson.”
.
When you get in any contest with Jim, guess who gets to decide who won?
Typical Liberals. I never go anywhere without a small backpack with essentials to last me at least 48 hours. I have one in my car and if I should head out for the day downtown Seattle I have one with me too. Just being prepared. With Libs however they’re expecting some government service to come along and rescue them almost immediately with lattes and cinnabuns.
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