Krag Crap by Bill Mook

[psteinmayer]

LOL

[kragluver]

Oh - duh, of course. I'll slink back off into my corner...

[Dick Hosmer]

Hey, it wasn't personal. I just happen to prefer more factual, and less flamboyant authors. He was a prominant spokesman for his era of knowledge.

ps: I look in my butt traps, too!

[5MadFarmers]

I think I'd have liked him. At a minimum he'd have been an interesting one to talk to. Something of a curmudgeon I'd gather.

He was a prominant spokesman for his era of knowledge.

More importantly, the one before also. Which is the one in question. So add the mores of those two generations, his life and career, and the pixie dust of idol worship and you'd have him.

You made me curious. So I poked at his life. He was born in the P.I. in 1901. His father was a serving officer. Shockley himself followed in his father's footsteps. Thus a sprinkling of idol worship. His father. An officer in the PI during the event horizon where it all went down.

Young Shockley attempted to lie his way to France. Lie? He was too young. He lied about his age. Didn't succeed from what I can see. Kind of tough if your father is a serving officer.

Instead he finished his schooling and received a commission right after the war. Who would he have been stationed with? Older officers having served in the PI and in France. Analog fathers. More stories and mores from the previous generation.

Shockley thus heard more accounts of the PI troubles than most. Those vignettes are illuminating. Colored but illuminating nonetheless.

He'd have been an entertaining man to have a beer with.

[butlersrangers]

As a child in the Philippines, I believe Shockely witnessed events, such as, grain sacks with severed Heads of Moro insurgents being emptied on the Governor General's lawn by Moro Scouts in Mindanao. He saw his Army Surgeon, Father, at work on victims of gun-shots and Kris cuts. An 8 year old child, he saw dead Juarmentados and their victims. Interesting childhood!

[kragluver]

Don't worry Dick, I took nothing personal. I was poking fun at my own ignorance about the Uncle Charlie reference.

I did find Shockley's book interesting. Not many other books provide details of the PI or Boxer Rebellion. I noticed Canfield quoted him heavily.