Touched with Fire
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 17:24:45 -0700
>From: TMOliver
>Reply-To: swrctmo@iAmerica.net
>Organization: Kestrel/SWRC/Oliver
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win16; I)
>To: mahan@microwrks.com
>Subject: Re: Touched with Fire
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
>TMOliver wrote:
> >
> > Bill Riddle wrote:
> > >
> > > Having quoted the book (in a post on BBs), let me give my initial
> > > impressions of Touched with Fire, Eric Bergerud (Viking, 1996):
> > >
> > > Having now read 67 pages, my initial impression is that this is a
> > > valuable book.
> >
>While I have not read (but look forward to) the book and my immoderately
>modest evaluation of the skills of most flag/general officers are on
>record here, for whatever reasons, accident, blind luck,
>political(saving A/NZ), ‘cuz we wuz there, etc., the campaign
>accomplishedsomething that Central Pacific island-hopping never could,
>the creation of an immensely bloody, draining meat grinder for ships,
>a/c, and trained personnel in which disease, malnutrition and steel
>combined to eat the heart from the Japanese military.
>
>Aside from the results of the awesome attrition, the campaign did
>represent a thrust which the Japanese could not fail to oppose, a sword
>pointed at their fuel supplies without which the conduct of anything
>other than a suicidal defense of the home islands was temporary if not
>impossible.
> —
>
>Far too long for a sig, but personally compelling…
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>Having been to see the elephant, contemplated the impermanence of
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>existence, gazed upon the Apocalypse, and smelled Death’s rotting
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>breath close at hand, one siezes reward from the simplest of
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>pleasures…the sound of the surf, the cool, musty bite of a well-brewed
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>ale, the briny tang imparted by a fresh oyster, the dark heart of a
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>carefully aged whisky, the incomparable taste of the first slash of rare
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>beef, the aggressive impact of a powerful pinot, Summer’s first real
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>tomato, the smoky complex fire of chipotle sauce, the combined reek of
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>gunpowder and working dogs across an Autumn pasture, the blessed
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>combination of green chile and tomatillo, the ectasy of lump or backfin
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>crabmeat (from blues), fresh Gulf Snapper or the season’s first inshore
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>shrimp, all prepared with Spartan simplicity, the shadowed glimpse of a
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>nipple within the gap of a loose blouse, the “Scent of a Woman” (not the
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>movie, the experience), the astringent bite of lime-dosed gin and tonic
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>in a tropical twilight, the lung-filling tingle of the first drag on a
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>post-coital Camel, smoked salmon and a good Sunday newspaper….among
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>these are found ample joys to counter inevitable misfortune and grief.
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>Oliver Sends/OPIMMEDIATE