Cameo of me in "Dust Tactics" by Fantasy Flight Games

I'm at 0:40

Military Rescue (warning: Surgery Video)

Court's father-in-law (Lt. Col Ret., US Army, two tours in vietnam, tank commander) sent me this video accompanied by the text below a couple days ago. My response to him is below the text (he said he agreed with me on all counts, which is why I feel justified in posting this!).

This story is about PVT Channing Moss, who was impaled by a live RPG during a Taliban ambush while on patrol. Army protocol says that medevac choppers are never to carry anyone with a live round in him. Even though they feared it could explode, the flight crew said damn the protocol and flew him to the nearest aid station.

Again, protocol said that in such a case the patient is to be put in sandbagged area away from the surgical unit, given a shot of morphine and left to wait (and die) until others are treated. Again, the medical team ignored the protocol. Here's a seven-minute video put together by the Military Times, which includes actual footage of the surgery where Dr. John Oh, a Korean immigrant who became a naturalized citizen and went to West Point , removed the live round with the help of volunteers and a member of the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team.

=========== Kieron's Response: ===============

Haven't watched the vid (looking forward to it...it's loading), but my first reaction is that protocols are created for good reasons.

They risked their lives (and thus the lives of those charged to save THEM), and the chopper at a minimum. They also encouraged others to do the same in the future (as evidenced by this e-mail and video); that's the more dangerous thing, really.

Having watched the vid now, it's a great video and very powerful. Thanks for sending it.

After reading the full story from 2006, it turns out that the soldiers on the ground specifically withheld the RPG info from MEDEVAC HQ, fearing they would in fact follow protocol and not take him. Understandable, given their situation (taking fire with injuries)...but it apparently caused the ripple effect that the doc in the aid station didn't know about it either (thinking it was only "shrapnel injury"). One assumes he wasn't as prepared as he could have been.

I am struck by what seems to be driving these decisions: emotion. Having your friend die if they don't get choppered out causes you to "lie". Seeing and talking to a conscious patient causes you to do things differently than you are trained to do. I am taught that good decisions are based on logic and protocol: not on emotion.

I'm also glad I'm not the position these defenders of our freedom are, and do not fault them in the least for being truly human.

Pig Call

Do you know what you get when you search for "pig call" on google? #1 is a video I uploaded of my pal Troy!

Here it is (it's only 16 seconds long)

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Double-click on the picture to make it full-screen...

Women in Art

I (heart) U!

I heart you, too Ms. Maddie!

I'm waiting for my Men's Prayer group to start (it's at my house tonight at 7:30...in 30 minutes). I've got the cookies, the coffee, the soda, and a "prayer" handout from a book about Mother Theresa (it's the one that starts: "People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,").

I cut myself this morning with one of the sharpest, best knives in America (at least, according to the in-home salesman who sold it to us...who is also our next door neighbor's boy). I was trying to cut a bagel...and not even a frozen one at that. Oh well, love me anyway.

This past Saturday Troy and I filmed a 30 min. instructional video of Dungeon Twister. We've got it now on his Mac, and once he burns it to a CD, or uploads it somewhere to the 'net, I'll post the link. Not that you want to sit thru a 30 min. instructional video of Dungeon Twister...

The girls are at a skating party, with Sam and Kelley. Hi Kelley!

I just finished a book my 'rents gave me for my b-day called The Human Factor, by Graham Greene. It was a little slow getting started, but the last half kept my attention pretty well. The moral of the story (it was a spy novel) seemed to be that doing "the wrong thing" might not be such a good idea, even if you can justify it. The end doesn't justify the means, in other words. That can be a hard rule to follow, when you are faced with life's challenges...the easy path and all that.

Troy was looking over my shoulder as I was looking up something I had published in my blog, and he said "WHAT DO YOU NEED AN MRI FOR?". I told him that if he wanted to know, he'd have to read my blog. Here is my blog policy:

If I've given you the link to my blog, I will refuse to discuss anything referenced in it, unless you have read it. This saves us both a lot of time, which can be better spent on talking about YOU, and not ME (not that I have an objection to talking about ME, per se, it's just that I find it boring, since I already know all about me, and I don't know all about YOU).

Also, I avoid putting anything negative about anyone, and anything too personal in the blog, so reading it frees up time to discuss that kind of stuff in person.

There is also something about the fact that when I see someone in a cast, I hesitate to ask them what happened, since I figure they've had to tell the story about a zillion times already, and they are tired of it. If they had a blog, they could put in all the gory details ONE TIME, and maybe hand out a card with the link. Laugh if you must, but some (like me), would APPRECIATE such an approach.

Since my arm'll be in sling with a cyrogenic ice pack thingy within a month, I may just try it out.

Well...it's 7:25 and no one has arrived. I'd better sign off, so I can be prepared to greet people!

Sayonara!

Update for 8/7/05

The girls (and grand-ma, and Aunt Kelley, and Sam) left for Holiday World (in Santa Claus, Indiana, no less) last Thursday. I hope they've had fun (they were due back an hour ago).

I say I hope, since they DIDN'T CALL ME ONE SINGLE TIME. Of course, my policy is that if I don't hear anything, then they are alive and well (since I would be contacted by the authorities if anything untoward were to happen).

Played games with a friend yesterday, then drove down to E-ville and visited by parents and brother, Kerry (who is in town for a week) last night, and spent the night there. Drove back up to Indy this morning to take my uncle-in-lar to church (but he wasn't feeling well, so we didn't go). It was nice to talk a bit with my bro.

Don't tell the girls, but we are trying to find a good home for our dog, Jackpot (we'll tell them eventually, obviously). She is a great dog, except she is too excitable and tends to knock down small children and nose every crotch in the room. So, if you know of anyone who would like a one-year-old, housebroken black chow mix, let me know! She'd be the perfect pet for someone without small children.

Click here for the video of her in her pool.

I've been playing this fun little strategy game, called "Slay". An unfortunate name, and not indicitive of the type of game, really.

Our lawn-mower is broken.

The house addition is slated to begin the first week in October, and will take 3-4 weeks.

THEY'RE PULLING INTO THE DRIVEWAY NOW - GOTTA RUN!!

Our Dog's Not too Smart

This is a video of her digging...in a plastic pool of water.

How old are they??

Video of Maddie and Molly

Clicking on the link above will download a video of my girls stating their names, ages, and birthdays.