Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
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Thanks for the review! I won't waste the time for a few minutes of flight.
Translated from Portuguese.
NATURE AND WAR
Action: North Angola (1970) overnight progression by the 2. th Parachute Hunter Company, belonging to BCP 21.
We walked in the backpack of the comrade that was in front of us and we never knew where the boots were.
I followed in the first place in the line, before the mess started.
I heard an unknown noise, continuous, but imperceptible. Felt bites in the shins and more and more and more up the body, the spine fell apart and the confusion installed.
In that pitch dark, no one knew about anyone. I could hear my comrades moaning in the darkness, I felt like I didn't know what it was. Rub over my pants and under the cloth, I felt little high in my legs and horrible pain.
I was trying to smash what bit me, when I also felt in my hands, I was able to grab what I was biting, and, by the touch, I realized that they were enormous ants.
Pulled with the other hand and I realized that I would break the ant in half, but the pain was still because the head of the ant was stuck with the claws in my flesh.
I've never been such a distressing moment. The comrades who followed the most in the back were worse. I listened to the mourn if and I realized that some of them were in a panic trying not to scream so we wouldn't be heard and detected.
The guide told the boss that they were kissonde ants. A red-colored ant with a big head, carnivorous and a great unusual aggressiveness. "
We had to get out of there as soon as possible. The commander then took a small focus on a small focus, trying to make the light not be visible from another place, so that we could all gather around him. It was a mess never seen.
At the end of a long time we got to regroup the squad and get out of that nightmare. We realized then that the noise was produced by millions of ants in motion.
As we stepped on them, they went off the way and they were disoriented biting everything that moved.
Just before the sun came up, we looked for a tight forest and rested keeping the safety to the outside. Extenuated by the journey's fatigue and the chaos caused by the mess of the ants, we fall asleep.
The rest was only interrupted to perform the sentry shift.
For hours no one moved from the place where they stayed. Until the heat came and with a slight breeze, the trees rocked and started to fall on us, a kind of a very thin glass. At first we didn't realize the reason why we all felt, but when the whole group started with a terrible itch, we realized we were resting under a monkey bean tree......................
(taken from the book "Amores in time of War" written by the Parachute Sergeant Joaquim Moreira in 2019)
Pedro Castanheira.
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When the navy suffers a budget cut.
Catapult set too fast?
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...of-the-day?p=16955235&viewfull=1#post16955235
Note one of the parachutes landing in the middle of the fire on deck.
Those ants aren't all bad.
Yes their pincers have a nasty substance on them that really causes the nips to sting/swell/itch but it also acts like a disinfectant. The not so well to do locals used them to pinch deep cuts together in place of thread sutures.
Grab the ant by the body, stick its head into the wound and, let it grab on and give a quick pull. The head stays behind and a bit of the wound is clamped together. Keep applying ants (termites/army ants etc) until the wound is closed. The saliva on the aunts is a natural coagulant as well.
Takes about a year for the heads to dissolve/break up, if a couple of layers are needed to close the wound.
Just like Canada, there are more than one type/size/color in Angola. Most of their ants are mostly harmless, home builders but the travelers are a whole different story, when they're migrating. I saw a whole village pack up and move out for a couple of days until a wandering army of ants moved through. They can be devastating to anything in their patch but most of their routes aren't wide. The path they travel is often stripped bare a meter wide.
Years ago I worked with a Portugese guy on a construction site building a dam. We were both doing scaling and stripping forms - He didnt speak English but had an Atlas with him and he showed me all the construction sites he had worked on in African and South America ... those boys get around a lot for such a small country ... he was short and pretty tough. He rolled cigarettes with two papers stuck together ... crammed with tobacco those cigarettes were short and fat and smouldered for quite a while once they got going ... even a heavy rain didnt put them out 
... we worked a lot in cold rain ... I can feel it now.
... we worked a lot in cold rain ... I can feel it now.
"Not that bad", you say ..... Your definition of the term "bad" differs greatly from mine. Living and/or fighting with those critters crawling all over me fits my interpretation of the word "bad". Insects and land crabs in the Pacific War drove many US soldiers over the edge during WWII.
Footage from the movie Bridges at Toko Ri. The US Navies First jet fighter. Not what the actual raid used, but that's beside the point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K46-MRxjteU
Grizz
What aircraft made the raid on the bridges at Toko Ri - the Skyraider, Corsairs .... ?
I knew an Ex US Navy seal. He seemed perfectly fine, until one day he jumped on top of a table and shaking. Perplexed, I looked around as he was not answering what was wrong, and saw a rat in the corner. I knew he suffered from PTSD, so I herded the rat out of there and he became his old self again. I never brought it up to him to ask for an explanation. Let sleeping dogs lie.
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You're making a mountain out of a mole hill. The ants were only a problem when they were moving. They only move at certain times of the year and they aren't everywhere.
Getting caught in the middle of a trek is not conducive to a good day. The swelling/itching from the nips takes 2-3 days to subside and I don't know of anything that will alleviate the discomfort.
I've seen people caught by the ants and the end results were usually a few days of extreme discomfort up to and including death. Just like getting caught by a swarm of hornets.
It's not like a beach full of crabs, that are swarming at night and poking all of the little demons lurking in people's minds on a regular basis.
Sometimes, just the thought of such things will drive some individuals insane and if there are a group of easily influenced people close by??????????????
Mountain out of an ant hill would be more appropriate ... >
I've stepped on a red ant hill and did a very good version of the Highland Fling. I've also been attacked by a swarm of honey bees and set a land speed record, flapping my arms like a goose trying desperately to take off in a tail wind.
We've had a couple of bad hornet years as well. Stepping on one of their underground nests with a running chain saw in your hands is a great test of your agility amid wind falls.
I've stepped on a red ant hill and did a very good version of the Highland Fling. I've also been attacked by a swarm of honey bees and set a land speed record, flapping my arms like a goose trying desperately to take off in a tail wind.
We've had a couple of bad hornet years as well. Stepping on one of their underground nests with a running chain saw in your hands is a great test of your agility amid wind falls.
I too have seen the ground hornet dance done more than once accompanied by a running chainsaw. Sometimes the " target" would take the saw with them during the escape. Sometimes it was dropped (still running of course) and a brave individual had to retrieve it. Not a rare occurence with MNR fire crews cutting line. Hornets always seemed to be more abundant during dry summers. Dry summers were the busy fire years!
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Kick in the turntable
French SNCASE SE.161 Languedoc.Pre war development of Bloch MB 160,had a sibling bomber MB 162 (bottom picture).Test flown during war but produced just after it and used on mostly colonial routes.
Also used as flying test bed and carrier of French first jets and jet related research.
French SNCASE SE.161 Languedoc.Pre war development of Bloch MB 160,had a sibling bomber MB 162 (bottom picture).Test flown during war but produced just after it and used on mostly colonial routes.
Also used as flying test bed and carrier of French first jets and jet related research.
