For Those Left Behind

Submitted by Eric Daniel

ED --  I got sent the low-down on these items straight from the Author.  I haven't played the game or read the book, but I thought the idea compelling enough to post it here as an option for all of you who are either deploying, deployed, or know someone "over there."

When a parent is deployed, children suffer in ways that aren't always obvious. Using a book or a game as springboards to conversation have been proven time and again as ways to get a child to open up.

With the release of her book “My First Deployment” and “Mail Call! The Military Deployment Game”, Navy wife, licensed therapist, and mother Lisa Stillion gives caregivers and parents the tools needed to make this happen.

In “My First Deployment”, a rambunctious little girl named Allie radiates a range of emotions when her father leaves for a military deployment. Exploring the causes and effects of separation anxiety, “My First Deployment” encourages creative ways for children to express thoughts and emotions, and gives grown-ups easy ways to help young ones cope with the loss they feel.

“Mail Call! The Military Deployment Game” is designed with the family in mind as players chase each other around the game board, trying to get a care package assembled and mailed out to a loved one.  “Mail Call!” helps military families maintain strong family ties through understanding and sharing.  “Mail Call!” can be played competitively or as a team (cooperatively) where there is no winner or loser.

Get the book and game here

Sweet Agony Habanero Syrup

Submitted by cdburklund

For those of you who don't care for the taste of tabasco or rooster juice, there is Sweet Agony Habanero Syrup, or it's two sister products, Sweet Agony InCINNerator Habanero Cinnamon Syrup and Nuoc Cham Asian Style Hot Sauce. They've all won Fiery Food CHallenge Awards out of FT Worth and are for the seriously hot food deprived individual. They are not for the faint of heart.  All habanero based they have lots of flavor, lots of heat.  Their jams are even hotter.

Get some Sweet Agony Habanero Syrup here

Happiness is not suffering a -2 for moving in the open

Submitted by Eric Daniel

In 1980, for the colossal sum of $25, I acquired the Holy Grail of board games –

Squad Leader.

For those not in the know, SL, developed by the now defunct Avalon Hill Game Company, came out in 1977 as a turn-based WWII infantry board game played on geomorphic boards with cardboard counters representing individual squads, tanks, leaders, and support weapons.

SL, and its successor Advanced Squad Leader, set the standard for accuracy and detail.  Weather, morale, seasons, troop quality, equipment reliability, fatigue, all are addressed.  There was mud, there were hills and cliffs, there was smoke, white phosphorus, barbed wire, snipers, paratroopers, foxholes and trenches, there were even donkeys and reindeer.  If it was in the war, it was in the game.

Squad Leader wasn’t a game you played, it was a game you lived.  To this day, I still get panic attacks waiting for Turn 1 of “The Tractor Works.”  Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers had nothing on that 10-3 harbinger of doom, Oberst Grup and his platoon of flamethrower and demo-charge packing 8-3-8 engineers.

The original SL evolved, through three expansion games, to encompass all of the major Axis and Allied powers as well as most of the terrain types.  What SL didn’t address Advanced Squad Leader did when it came out in 1985.  With ASL the rules got more advanced, the counters got more accurate, and the style of play completely changed (the only things that transferred from SL to ASL were the boards and the dice 9though you now needed four dice instead of two.)  ASL literally addresses everything.  ALL Axis and Allied major and minor powers (Finns, Gurkhas, Bulgarians and Belgians, Vichy and Free French, as well as conscripts, guerrillas, Marquis and the Home Guard, and finally, the Japanese and Chinese and U.S. Marines (though not a different race, per se., they were missing from the original SL.))

ASL was not a game for the timid or the faint of heart.  Its rules were lengthy and complex and you had to understand THEM ALL in order to play the game effectively.  Once mastered though, these rules made for a very exciting and challenging game (to date, my favorite scenario is “Climax at Nijmegen Bridge.”  Though one of the original GI. Anvil of Victory scenarios, it has always been a nail-biting bloodbath and I never pass up an opportunity to play it.)

Unfortunately, like all good things, SL went out of production when Avalon Hill was bought out by Hasbro in the late 90’s.  ASL’s death was short lived, however, as production rights for all things Squad Leader were acquired by Major League pitcher and ASL fanatic, Curt Schilling, who began reintroducing old material and publishing new under his production company, Multi-Man Publishing.

Get Advanced Squad Leader here

A picture is worth a 1,000 After Action Reports…

Submitted by Eric Daniel

In the six months I was in SW Asia for Desert Shield and Desert Storm I fired off close to 40 rolls of 35mm film.  High speed, low speed, B&W and color.  Not only did I have to wait until I got back to Europe to develop the film (and at the time we had a SERIOUS problem with pictures coming up missing (i.e. the folks at the photo lab were stealing them) but when all was said and done, about 70% of the pictures were “crap” and not nearly as interesting as I thought they’d be when I took the picture in the first place. 

Such is the reality of print photography; you take a lot of pictures hoping to get one or two “keepers.”

Thanks to digital camera technology however, taking pictures got a whole lot easier.  When I deployed for OIF III in November of 04, I was given a Canon Power Shot A75.  It is a neat little camera.  It has a 3.2 mega pixel image capability (which is pretty tiny by current standards) automatic flash, 3x zoom capability, and is capable of making movies.

While it isn’t nearly as flexible as my Canon AE-1 SLR 35mm camera, it is significantly more durable, reliable, and combat friendly.  While on patrol the A75 gave me the capability of taking a quick picture of anything I thought militarily significant.  Someone give you the “evil eye” while on a patrol?  No problem.  Take their picture and store it for review later.  See a car or truck that you remember from somewhere?  No problem, take a picture and compare notes when you get back to base.  Furthermore, because the images are stored digitally, they’re easy to transfer between devices, and it’s no big deal if you end up deleting 99% of them.  Lastly, carrying additional memory cards, which are pretty tiny and don’t take up a lot of space, gives you the capability of taking a lot of pictures (or movies) if the situation requires.

While the A75 is dated and there are definitely more capable cameras out there, mine still works and it was free.

Buy a Canon digital camera here

In case you've forgotten...

Submitted by Eric Daniel

In the event you’ve been living out on Pluto for the last hundred years or similarly cut off from the civilized world, I just wanted to remind you that there’s an outfit out in the swamps of Louisiana called the McIlhenny Company that produces a red chili hot sauce called Tabasco.

While the McIlhenny company and Tabasco have been around for a couple hundred of years, literally, and their red hot sauce is duly famous, I wanted to make sure you all know that McIlhenny doesn’t just make “red” anymore.

In addition to the classic red chili sauce, McIlhenny makes a green jalapeño based sauce, a garlic flavored red sauce, a habanero sauce, and a smoked chipotle pepper sauce. Of the lot, my favorites are the habanero and the chipotle. The habanero isn’t so hot that it requires a waiver to eat, but still packs enough of a punch that you know it’s there plus it has a nice fruity taste (I’m not a big fan of heat for heat’s sake. I’d rather eat a milder hot sauce that had actual flavor, rather than a blistering concoction with no discernable taste.) The chipotle, on the other hand, is just so damn good that if I didn’t ration myself, I’d go through a bottle a week.

More over, as I mentioned with the Rooster juice, all of these Tabasco products do not require refrigeration, so they are safe to take into the field (or back to Pluto.)

Check out Tobasco sauces here

Rooster juice

Submitted by Eric Daniel

I was introduced to “Rooster Juice” (a.k.a. Sriracha hot chili sauce) back in 1992 when I would dine at my Platoon Sergeant’s house. His girlfriend was a flight attendant on Singapore Airlines and one hell of a good cook and every time she was in town she would lay out the best tasting, and hottest, Thai food I ever had (honest to God we would sit there eating saying “This is great, this is great, I’m gonna die I’m gonna die…”)

Anyway, one of the condiments that always went with her food was a bottle of Sriracha hot chili sauce. Essentially ground chili peppers with a few other ingredients to round out the palate, this sauce is absolutely devastating with rice or any other tomato based pasta dish. As an added bonus, it doesn’t require refrigeration on opening, so it’s ok for use in the field.

P.S. I started calling it rooster juice after trying to describe it to someone over the phone. I wasn’t exactly sure of the name so I just said, “look for the clear bottle with the red sauce, green cap and the rooster on the front.”

Get some "Rooster Juice" here

Food for thought

Submitted by Dan Weissman

As we all know military food isn't top of the line and when on deployment it only gets worse with age. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen "For Farm and Military Use Only" or "Rejected by Air Force" stamped on the side of a box. Fortunately I was given a solution for the average deployment military meal.

My best friend’s Father gave us 1000 packets of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning just before we left. It's salty with a slight kick and just like it says, It's "Great on Everything!"

Also, while packing up for deployment and cleaning out the ‘frig I stumbled upon a bottle of Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce that I didn't have the heart to throw away.

There seems to be a rule in the military that says what's mine is yours but I haven't found it in writing yet. With in a week of leaving the bottle was already gone and I had the entire division hooked. Since then everyone, including myself, has had family members send some in the mail. BBQ sauce not only adds flavor but also provides moisture to food that could normally be used as a sponge.

There’s nothing more glorious than 30 bottles of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce arriving in the mail. Fortunately we have yet to run out of Tony's. The seasoning packets may be small but they go a long way.

Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
Jack Daniels' Original No. 7 BBQ Sauce

Gun Camera, part deux

Submitted by Simon

ED -- This camera was posted by Simon as an alternative to the SC-X210L I mentioned in my original piece. Since there wasn't much data posted with the comment, I did a little research and dug up the specs.

The ATC2K weighs half a pound, is waterproof to 3m, shock resistant, runs off of two AA batteries, and uses standard SD digital memory cards for data storage (You can carry multiple cards and replace them as they fill up.)

Get the ATC2K here

Out with the old, in with the new

Submitted by Chris Johnson

I wanted to agree with the other guy about loving his coffee mug. I can't however agree with his ultimate choice.

I used the Thermos-Nissan JMF502 for a while until it started to leak out of the screw top lid. I have found a superior piece of kit however in another thermos product, the E5 Travel mug. The Thermos E5 has a double seal in its screw top lid. Screw down snuggly and the mug is completely sealed, unscrew the lid a couple of turns and you can drink from it, and of course unscrew all the way to fill-er up again.

This functionality is not the best part however. I have poured my hot beverage of choice on many occasion, screwed the lid down tight and left it to go work on something, come back 4 hours later and it’s still hot. I'm not exaggerating. It obviously isn't as hot as it was but it is definitely well above room temperature. The insulation is awesome; I can't live without it now. Being a Submariner, the boats can get pretty chilly, but this baby keeps me warm and toasty all watch long.

ED – So that’s what it was…. Yes, my cup, after a couple of months use, started to leak. Not so much that it was a concern (I wasn’t losing all my coffee) but enough that it was annoying. Besides, with the gasket there in the lid there shouldn’t be any leaking period. I’m definitely going to give this one a try. Thanks!!

Get the Thermos E5 Travel Mug here

And that's a wrap....

Submitted by David Yows

I can't take the credit for this but I wanted to share this info. Some of you may have already tried this but if not, it really does work and it's very inexpensive compared to the alternative of repair or replacement.

Everyone it seems on deployment has a computer of their own. You know as well as I do that the sands of the desert get into to everything. That's bad news for a computer. My PSG got a box of GLAD Press and Seal and put it over the entire keyboard area of his laptop to include the power button, etc. It did the trick of keeping the sand out of the keyboard and thus out the computer components inside.

As an IT Manager, I was impressed. Buy a rubberized keyboard for your laptop and look at the price tag that comes along with it. The nice part is when the press and seal gets dirty to the point you can no longer see the letters, simply tear off a new section and you're back in business. Press and seal does what it says. Try it.

Gun camera filming, groundpounder style

Submitted by Chris Schmidt

Ever wanted to film all those raids and patrols you do with your squad without having to juggle that damn digital camera/camcorder? Too scared to even bring your camera out on mission for fear it will get fouled up by all the dust/sand/water? The SC-X210L is the perfect recording device for those downrange that want to get that 1st person perspective or want to film from crazy angles.

The compact size of the camera itself is great (it fits into a standard-issue frag grenade pouch) but that's not the best part. That would be the remote camera extension that comes included. The extension connects to the camera and can be attached to damn near anything. I've mounted it onto my helmet for some wicked room-clearing and firefight footage. If you do it just right, you can get it so your weapon will be in the shot as you shoulder it.

Another great thing is the footage is saved onto a solid-state hard drive in MPEG4 format. That means you can shake the hell out of it and it will still work, no tapes or sensitive guts inside to get messed up. It's also water resistant, as it was originally designed for extreme sports like white water rafting, snowboarding and skydiving.

The camera itself is capable of 10x optical zoom. It has 1GB internal memory and takes SD cards up to 2GB. It comes with a dual-voltage battery charger. It takes stills, can be used as a voice recorder and holds and plays MP3s.

Cons are as follows; low-light recording is pretty crappy, and there's no night vision mode like larger camcorders offer. Battery life is only about an hour and spare batts are tough to find, even on the internet (though it is possible.) The remote camera does not offer any zoom.

What you have to remember this camera isn't made to capture high def images, it's made to take video where other cameras won't dare to go. So far I've mounted this camera on: My M4, The .50 cal on my M1114, behind the windshield of M1114, on the turret of my M1114, on top of the turret of my M1A2 tank, the side of my kevlar, the top of my Kevlar, my shoulder (not recommended.) You get the idea. If you can shell out the $400, this motorized tanker highly recommends this item for your next tour.

Get the Samsung SC-X210L here

Mine's the green duffle bag...

Submitted by Lori Baumgartner

When I was a young GI stationed at Ft. Stewart the one thing that I couldn't live without was a key chain beeper. I’ll tell you why. Know when your getting ready to grab your gear off the back of a five ton truck, and of course, everyone's gear looks just like everybody else's? Well this little device hooks on to your gear and when you point the transmitter at it, it beeps!! We found it to be the perfect thing to locate lost gear. Pretty cool huh???

ED -- Lori, you didn't include a link for the product you described, but I thought your suggestion warranted posting, so I did some looking around. Is this similar to what you used?

Get a luggage locator here

The Sims Sanity

Submitted by Anthony Profit

I had a job in Baghdad during OIF II that didn't require me to leave the slightly safer AO of the FOB. However, that job did require 13 hours of my time every single day and after a while, it became very redundant. My section was comprised of 16 people and after spending a few months with those same people every day in such close quarters, we began to get annoyed with each other. Enter, The Sims 2. I was already a fan of the original Sims games for the PC, but when The Sims 2 came out in September of 2005, I had to have it. For those of you not familiar with The Sims, it's a game where you create someone or a family and you basically play God over them. You build them a house, get them a job, and watch them live from day to day. Well, I created all 16 of us in my Sims game and we all watched ourselves interact with each other in the game like it was a movie. I think it really kept us sane (and from killing each other).

Shop for "The Sims 2"

A Thumb Full of Memories

Submitted by Amy Smith

Nothing beats being able to carry every important document, a few good tunes, and some of your favorite pics in your pocket.  Can't live without my thumb drive!

Submitted by Dave Godin

I brought a 256 mb USB flashdrive on my last deployment, and found it very useful.  I kept pictures from home, all my IE favorites, a list of my friends and family, email addresses, a scanned copy of my orders, a few favorite mp3 songs, and a few other docs on it.  No matter where I went, I could plug this into a computer and get what I needed.  I wouldn't deploy without one of these.

Shop for the PNY 512 MB USB 2.0 Portable Drive

My Sanity Gadget

Submitted by Susan Rabinowitz

It didn't save my life, clear a forest, help me keep my tent from falling down or bring world piece, but when I was deployed during Desert Storm my Game Boy saved my sanity. My NCO and I both had one.  We could connect them and play Tetris during those long hours sitting in lines or on the tarmac waiting. It was just a green/black screen back then and we only had a couple of games but it certainly made the time go faster. We were always together and people knew if they saw one of us the other was likely to be connected by a cord close by.

Shop for Game Boy Advance