Watching a documentary on the AH64 Apache. My dad was a helicopter mechanic for a while before he took his 20 year retirement from the Army. I just mention that to honor him. I watch shit about military hardware all of the time.
Before the first war in Iraq, none of the people I happened to work with had any idea of what systems like the AH64, M1A1 Abrams, Hellfire, etc. could do. I tried to explain how outmatched, outgunned and out-everything-else was Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Didn't register. Lack of knowledge and/or imagination I suppose.
Anyway, I guess I'd forgotten that the ah64 gun uses a 30mm canon. They were interviewing the pilot about that and I was just dying. He described what shooting it felt like. I'd always thought that it was 50 caliber. So the aptly named cannon was really about 2.5 times bigger.
I'll skip the graphic details but you could boil his comment do 'the gun sets everything in your body vibrating. - including your teeth.' That shit just cracked up. Umm, well of course the guys on the other side would have had a different perspective. But that's more of a 'them' problem than a 'me' problem.
Think I'll go out for a beer. If I drink alone, I get maybe half through a Stella Artois or Heiny-can. But it's the only thing I can really do to keep my hands busy. Should be some sort of band. We'll see.
