Mr. Kramer, Mr. Rasimus, Gentlemen (I presume no ladies here, if so, please
beg my pardon),

Have you ever thought that the poor guy felt that his luck run out?

Mr. Kramer can imagine that; he was fired upon and probably scared sh*tless
while putting the pipper over the darn target, but would recuperate once on
the ground. Let me tell you something; not all of US can do that. I used to
be an English translator for Serbian Surveyor Engineer and we were plotting
a pipeline for the ethnically mixed village just after the war in Bosnia. It
was deep snow and TRIPLE foward lines (Serbs, Muslims and Croats were
slaughtering each other with gusto) running through the village. It was not
a minefield , but mined AREA. I went first, knowing something about mines
since our guide lost his leg on "plastic canned pastette" mine with a nice
step-star on the top. I knew that they are almost useless in the deep snow
of Bosnia-just don't follow the steps! I had a sip of moonshine brandy so my
glasses (I wear a THICK glasses) wouldn't get foggy, got some Dutch courage
and rolled on, translating to my Canadian boss what my engineer had to say
(did I forget that Canadian guy was former soldier?). Trenches were in
chriss-cross, all armies used same communications but there were shallow and
mined as well with "Jumping-Jack-Flash" mines (push-pull activated
black-powder propelled mines that would explode at 1.5-2m, increasing the
range of lethality) that took the left-eye-vision from my friend (other eye
saved by the rock, but his face was cut with shrapnels). We finally roughly
marked the pipeline path (partly because we were drunk, partly because we
couldn't walk straight enough to measure the distance because of bloody
mines and tranches), but that was curled by using the polyethylene pipes
that run in rolls so they were placed AROUND the mines... and quite shallow.

After that, the Raven said: "Nevermore!".

Alas, I got employed for the simmilar job in Croatia, but for demining
company. Same, random mine placement, foward lines often mined by the both
sides one next to the other! I had the urge to urinate (so did my friend
deminer) so we went in the bushes. Then I noticed a cut red tape saying
"MINES! DO NOT CROSS!". I got frozen. I looked around and saw a well known
can-mines ("meat potato", anti-personell mine No.2, wrist-cutter) with
detonator No.8. I froze. It was summer, and DET-8 can be triggered by the
simple chemical reaction... if you pee on one, for example. If I just didn't
translate the blody AP Mine manual for the firm! I thought what funny
epitaph will be put on my grave-"died because he peed on one". My friend
yelled: "are you finished?" I muttered: "not yet, but we both will be soon.
GET US OUT OF THE BLOODY MINEFIELD!". The trainee with a dog from the South
Africa heard me yelling in Croatian (Serbo-Croatian, actually), but he
understood the universal word MINE. He took a dog which had a little
problems with detection-he could smell a mine, but not always react!

Somehow he found our traces in the red-dust (dalmatian Terra Rosa) and got
us out. I was devastated. I got back to the office and had a 1,5l of the
moonshine (it is legal here) and passed out. I quit next morning. I told the
guys the first expirience with mines, and they understood my attitude. After
all, I built entire administrative infrastructure, translated demining
manual from Bosnian into English (Bosnian is like Australian English,
Croatian like British, Serbian like American English, comprede?).

I got all back payment, a big farewell and still did the job for them...
from my house on my laptop.

They never called me a coward! I still have the nightmares of being marroned
with my trusty Lada with 200,000 miles on the clock in the middle of the
minefield... with no signal on the cell phone. I never went back for my
stuff to that place, although I designed kennels for the dogs. The entire
training site was moved 2 km closer to the road because dogs could not smell
dud (training) mines because of the scent of the REAL ones. I was jumping to
help whenever the car (darn Mitsubishi) got broken.

So, put yourself in the position upside-down on your chute, your head
dangling and your leg strained in an attempt to hold the chute still on you.
Do you feel lucky?

--

Nele

NULLA ROSA SINE SPINA