Tomahawks 1st hangover breakfast in Colombia - Caldo de Costilla

So, the other day I got a wild hair and took off for Colombia. Being back in the USA for very long tends to get on my nerves pretty quickly. I flew out of Tucson to Dallas, then caught the flight to Bogota. It was not a bad journey. Aside from the 8+ hours of layover time, almost enjoyable.

I spent my first night walking around , sampling street foods and scoping out the countless hot ladies this country seems to produce. There must be something in the water here. And, in keeping with tradition, I managed to score some pussy on my first night in country.

After walking around for a bit, I bought some roasted chicken and empanadas, and grazed those while downing several beers. Of course, I had to top off the evening with a few shots of whisky. This morning I have a fairly decent hangover due to the booze and being a bit dehydrated from the plane trip. I went out and bought some Caldo ds Costills - beef ribs and potatoes in broth. It is about as good - if not better than menudo in Mexico for a hangover.

Ill have more info to follow down the road.
See you on the trail!

Tomahawk

Customizing My Ruger LCP for Everyday Carry (Jake Zweig)

I came across this article on my friend Jake Zweigs pistol mods. Im just helping to spread the word. Jake is a good dude. I met him on the season 1 shoot of "Dude you're screwed".

Tomahawk - see you on the trail!

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/02/daniel-zimmerman/customizing-ruger-lcp-everyday-carry/
By Jake Zweig
A gun is a tool. You choose the tool that best fits the job. My job every day: protecting myself and my family. As a Navy SEAL, that’s what I went looking for. The right gun would be practical for everyday carry in a side pocket, and it would shoot when I needed it to shoot, where I needed to shoot it. I spent a year making the choice and decided to go with the Ruger LCP .380. Of course, the gun would undergo a few modifications before I would be completely happy with it . . .

This gun was purchased used, for $200, from my gun guy in Maine (you the man, Phil). I wasn’t planning to decorate my library with this firearm, so I asked for a gun that was cosmetically beat up but ready to be reborn and fulfill its promise. I was already planning the changes I would make to this gun, to make it work the way I wanted.
Ergonomics
I don’t give two cents what the gun looks like, only that it’s solid and well made. It has to be easy to carry, which is the entire purpose of this gun. And must be reliable. Once I got it, I put 200 rounds through this one without a single malfunction.

 The Ruger LCP comes with a press check window so that you just have to look to the side to see if there is a round in the chamber. The double action trigger pull is long, which might keep you from shooting yourself or the wrong person in an adrenaline-spiked reach for your gun.

With extended magazines that are readily available in the marketplace, the gun was easy to control and keep on target. I was drilling double-taps at 15 yards, and able to hit the kill zone of the target with very controlled fire from 25 yards. Inside of 15 yards, the gun shoots as well as many a full-sized pistol, just not as comfortably.

I had a few issues with the LCP, but nothing I didn’t know about going in. It’s a good gun. Ruger did a good job. However, Navy SEAL Real World Gun Rule: when it comes to protecting me and my family, good isn’t good enough.

Improvements
First, the sights suck. SUCK. Ruger shouldn’t sell a gun with sights like these. You will need to replace the front sight at the very least to make this pocket pistol go. Innovative Arms did a kick butt job on my LCP with a respectable turnaround time. They milled out the slide and installed a low-profile, nicely rounded tritium front sight and a matching custom dovetail in the rear. You can expect to spend about a buck fifty on this mod, but it is worth every dollar.
Second, I was having an impossible time changing magazines. The small mag release button goes flush with, and recesses into the hand grip once you start to push on it. Larger thumbs like mine don’t depress the release far enough.
Compounding the problem is a strong combat grip while squeezing gun. Trust me, if you every need it for self defense, you will be squeezing the gun. But your squeezy finger would be on the back side of the magazine release, blocking its movement. If the shit goes down, I want to be fighting with my gun, not fighting with my gun.
I pulled the magazine release out of the gun and welded another 3/16 onto the button side of the release, then sanded 3/16 off of the opposite side. Now it works like a champ.

 Lastly, there’s appearance. I know I said I don’t give two cents what the gun look like, as long as it go bang. That’s not completely true, but only for practical reasons. I was going to give it a Cerakote finish, but they wanted $100 to do the job. So I went with the color spray paint that best matches my skin tone.

 If I have to confront somebody head-on and they see me, they will spend a half second figuring out if that’s a gun in my hand or something else. That’s all the time I’ll need to double tap their ass.

 I choose to carry with a stock 6-round magazine with a 1.25 inch Garrison magazine extender, so that my whole hand is on the grip. I back that up with two 15-round magazines from ProMag, and they work flawlessly.

 A note on round selection
I add this section because it’s a very important part of this gun choice. With all the hyper-expanding rounds on the market today, it’s key to understand that this gun is pushing bullets out at about 1000 fps. There isn’t enough ass in the bullet to get it to expand and do damage. For this reason I am running FMJ and in the future will have some homemade SUPER +P rounds in FMJ.
Summary
I wish it came in 9mm (in the same size) and double/single action, but those are the only things that could make this gun better.
I am very happy with my ability to shoot, move, and communicate while employing this firearm. With just a few minor modifications to the sights and magazine release, a good gun becomes an awesome choice for everyday personal and family protection.
Ease of carry, combined with the ability to put rounds on target in stressful situations makes this Ruger LCP an absolute keeper!

Cambodian roast pig - សាច់កាប់, and Filipino Lechon

Cambodian roast pig - សាច់កាប់ , and Filipino Lecon are pretty much the same thing.The word lechón originated from the Spanish term lechón; that refers to a suckling pig that is roasted. The Filipinos stuff the pig with veggies and herbs before roasting. Im not too sure what the Cambodians do. This type or roast pork, is the very definition of a simple good thing elevated to heavenly heights.

You can find roast pig in Phnom penh at the central market or in Siem Reap at any number of locations. In the Philippines Lechon  is (or should be) the national dish of the PI. I have found lechonerias in every town or village I have ever visited there.

I could probably live on lecon, rice and san miguel beer for the rest of my life and be happy. Id look like jabba the hut in a couple of months but, what the hell.

Talking about this food has made me home sick for Asia and specifically the Philippines. I cant wait to get back there and share a meal and numerous beers with my friends.

See you on the trail!

Tomahawk

Street food

Nana, plaza , Bangkok,The name originates from the Nana family (Lek Nana being the most prominent member) which owns much property in the area and has still much influence in Thailand.
It is an interesting place. Nana plaza has 3 floors of bars to take care of any type of fantasy you may have. There are numerous street vendors selling everything from cooked bugs to luggage. I have eaten some awesome street foods there. And spent wayyyy too much money in the bars. I have come away from there with some pretty severe skull cracking hangovers the morning after.
Anyway, one night in Nana I was wandering around drinking Chang and San Miguel beer on the street, just havin' a look to see what was going on.

I spied a vendor selling cooked bugs. I sampled a grasshopper and though it didnt taste bad, it had a smell that was not good to me. So, I passed on the others. I snapped a quick picture, and was on my way. Almost immediately I caught the aroma of Beef, it kinda reminded me of my moms pot roast back in the day. Anyhoo, I followed my nose to the spot where the aroma was coming from. I saw a large wok filled with hard boiled eggs and some strange looking cuts of meat in it.
It smelled great but had (to me) an un appetizing look.

Over the years I have been able to build up a tolerance for eating street food. When I first came to Asia I had a virgin stomach. And, each time I  attempted to sample some street food I’m looking for a sit down toilet in less than 5 minutes.

Previously,when I traveled to  3rd world countries, I always practiced what I call "Prophylactic eating" - that is eating nothing that does not come packaged, bottled or canned. The acceptation to this is fruit like pomelo, bananas, pineapple etc. which had a thick skin on it. But now? After 20+ years of traveling around the world, I have a gut that can digest a volks wagon and never to hesitate to eat street foods.

I do still use bottled water in Asia and other regions, I commonly only drink whisky , water , coffee and sometimes local beer like Chang in Thailand or San Miguel in the Philippines (my favorite). Recently in Thailand while visiting my friend Mams family I was exposed to a wide variety of interesting foods. Everything from water buffalo skin to ant egg soup. I tried a few of them and was pleasantly surprised at the unique flavors and textures. I have never been a fussy eater. All I really require is that food looks good, smell good, and tastes good. And, I admit, there are some things like pong tear in Cambodia or Balut (Hard boiled chicken embryos) in the Philippines , I will not eat.
I look forward to my next 3rd world adventure and any type of unique foods that look tasty.

Tomahawk

The 1st Burma Rifles

Being a big fan of South East Asia, I am forever studying the history of the region.I have worked with and traded with the Chin People, and know many Karen folks in Burma and Thailand.

 Recently, I came across some information about the 1st Battalion Chin Rifles in Burma. This unit was made up of mainly Hill people like the Karen, Kachins and Chins, cool stuff. One regement - 10th reg ,1st Burma Rifles later became the 10th Princess Marys own Gurkha Rifles.

Below, I have posted some info for you. If you are a military history buff, you might find it interesting.

See you on the Trail,

Tomahawk - Scouts Out!

Burma Rifles;

The Burma Rifles were a regiment of the British Indian Army created in 1917. The regiment re-used the name of an unrelated earlier unit, the 10th Regiment (1st Burma Rifles) Madras Infantry, which evolved into the 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles.
Contents.

Origins of the regiment
Early history:

The expansion of the British Indian Army during World War I led to the raising of two companies of Burma Pioneers in Mandalay in November 1916. Burmese of all groups were recruited for these units. After expanding to four companies, the Pioneers became the 70th Burma Rifles in September 1917. The 85th Burman Rifles were raised from the Burma Military Police in July 1917. A second battalion of 70th Burma Rifles was raised in January 1918 and both battalions served in the Middle East in 1918-20. Two more battalions were raised during 1918. According to John Gaylor in his history: Sons of John Company - The Indian & Pakistan Armies 1903-1991, the 3/70th Burma Rifles, raised in April 1918, went to Southern India to suppress the Moplah Rising whilst the 4/70th, raised in May 1918, remainded in Burma.
1922 reorganisation of the British Indian Army

In the 1922 reorganisation of the British Indian Army the 70th Burma Rifles and the 85th Burman Rifles were merged to form the 20th Burma Rifles. The new regiment numbered four regular battalions. A new battalion, the 11th (territorial) battalion was also formed in 1922.

The Burman element in the regiment was mustered out after 1927, although Burmans continued to serve in the Burma Military Police. Personnel drawn from the hill-tribes of Burma and other groups (Karens, Kachins and Chin) continued to serve and in 1940 Burmans were again recruited, although the Anglo-Burmese tended to be overly represented in the Burma Rifles and the Burma Military Police.

Separation from India

After the British formally separated Burma from India in 1937 the 20th Burma Rifles was allocated to Burma and renamed the Burma Rifles. The intention was for officers to be drawn from the British Army. However the majority of the British officers already serving with the regiment chose to remain with their units on secondment from the British Indian Army.

World War II

The regiment was expanded during the Second World War to a total of 14 battalions and served through the Japanese invasion of Burma during the Burma Campaign. Eight Battalions of Infantry were raised along with a holding battalion, a training battalion and four territorial battalions. The men of the territorial battalions were under no obligation to serve outside the borders of Burma.

After the British Burma Army's retreat from Burma, a reconstituted 2nd Battalion continued to take part in the Burma Campaign. The remaining highly weakened battalions were disbanded although many of the non-Burmese nationals (Indians and Gurkhas) from them went to form battalions of the Burma Regiment created in September 1942.

The 2nd battalion participated in the 1st and 2nd Chindit expeditions into Burma. In his official report following the first expedition Orde Wingate the Chindit commander wrote: “I would like to record here that I have never had under my command in the field as good a body of men as the 2nd Burma Rifles.     ”

As a result, for the 1943 Chindit operation, the battalion was expanded and broken down into reconnaissance platoons for the Chindit column. In 1944, the battalion was broken down into sections among the Chindit force.

In 1945, the 2nd Burma Rifles was reconstituted as an infantry battalion. In July 1945, the 1st battalion was re-raised in Burma. Over the following three years leading up to Burmese independence, the 3rd through 6th battalions were re-raised.

Uniform and insignia

The mess uniform of the Burma Rifles was rifle green with scarlet facings and the regimental badge was a (male)Burmese peacock (displaying)over a title-scroll "BURMA RIFLES" in white metal. (officers Silver or silver gilt)

In Volume 2 of his work "Indian Army Uniforms" W.Y. Carman describes a full dress uniform in the same colours, noting that it was worn by officers and other ranks forming part of the Coronation Contingent of 1937. It is not however known on what other occasions (if any) it was used.

The last surviving Burma Rifles Officer, Major Neville Hogan MBE noted further insignia distinctions from WW2.

Shoulder Titles : Rifle Green with "BURMA RIFLES" in red. Collar Dogs: Same as the Cap Badge, a (male)Burmese peacock (displaying)over a title-scroll "BURMA RIFLES" in white metal. (officers Silver or silver gilt) Officers Pips, Silver for Full dress, Black for Service Dress, Black embroydered onto Red worstead (after the traditions of the 60th Rifles/KRRC) Enlisted Stripes & Crowns, Black embroydered onto rifle green worstead (after the traditions of the 95th Rifles/Rifle Brigade)

This un-usual mix was noted and verified by photographs in Major Hogan's collection.
Titles of the Regiment

    70th Burma Rifles / 85th Burman Rifles
    20th Burma Rifles
    Burma Rifles

Paul Bowles - Author, American expat

“I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born. Far both geographically and spiritually. To leave it behind ... I feel that life is very short and the world is there to see and one should know as much about it as possible. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.”

~ Paul Bowles 

Paul Bowles is up there in my top 10 favorite authors. I also dig the fact that he was - until his death in 1999 an expatriate. Like myself, he wasn't big on hanging around where he was born or grew up. I deeply appreciate that fact. I could never understand why people - My own family for instance - want to stay and live their lives within a 30 mile radius of where they were born. It boggles my mind.

Anyhoo, check out Bowles book "The sheltering sky" published in 1949. The novel is about post-colonial alienation and existential despair. Set in North Afria.

Paul Frederic Bowles (/boʊlz/; December 30, 1910 – November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with Tangier, Morocco, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his life.
Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making several trips to Paris in the 1930s. He studied music with Aaron Copland, and in New York wrote music for theatrical productions, as well as other compositions. He achieved critical and popular success with his first novel The Sheltering Sky (1949), set in what was known as French North Africa, which he had visited in 1931.
In 1947 Bowles settled in Tangier, Morocco, and his wife Jane Bowles followed in 1948. Except for winters spent in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) during the early 1950s, Tangier was Bowles' home for the remainder of his life. He came to symbolize American expatriates in the city.
Paul Bowles died in 1999 at the age of 88. His ashes are buried near family graves in Lakemont Cemetery in upstate New York.

Cashew fruit

Cashew fruit or "cashew apples" are one of my favorite jungle fruits. Why? because they are easy to identify, pick, and prepare, Combined with the fact they can be found in tropical areas all over the world. I have found them in Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Native to Brazil, Cashews were - like many other south American and Mexican fruits - introduced to Asia by the Portuguese and Spanish. The cashew apple, also called cashew fruit, is the fleshy part of the cashew fruit that is attached to the cashew nut. The top end of the cashew apple is attached to the stem that comes off the tree. The bottom end of the cashew apple attaches to the cashew nut, which is encased in a shell. In botanical terms, the cashew apple is an accessory fruit that grows on the cashew seed (which is the nut).

The cashew apple is a soft fruit, rich in nutrients, and contains five times more vitamin C than an orange. It is eaten fresh, cooked in curries, or fermented into vinegar, as well as an alcoholic drink. It is also used to make preserves, chutneys, and jams in some countries such as India and Brazil. In many countries, particularly in South America, the cashew apple is used to flavor drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. In Brazil, it is a popular fruit flavor for the national drink, the caipirinha.

If you ever get a chance to travel to the tropic anywhere in the world, check out this easily identified and readily available food source.

See you on the trail!

Tomahawk

A Sound Of Thunder - by Ray Bradbury

One of my favorite time travel movies was Ray Bradbury's "A sound of thunder" . I have read the short story, the comic book, I have seen the TV version on the Ray Bradbury theater and then the 2 film adaptations. It is a pretty good story based on the "Butterfly effect" we have all heard about.If you get a chance, check it out. you might like it.

Tomahawk

A Sound Of Thunder - by Ray Bradbury

Originally published in the June 28 1952 edition of Collier’s magazine, Bradbury’s seminal tale of a hunting safari sent back in time to kill a dinosaur has been reprinted more than two dozen times in collections and anthologies. A film adaptation of Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder features Ed Burns as Travis Ryer, the leader of the safari and Ben Kingsley as Charles Hatton the owner of the safari company.

The encounter with the Tyrannosaurus forms the heart of the story with Bradbury’s eloquent prose transporting the reader along with the hunting expedition sixty-million years into the past.
Bradbury’s tale serves not only to entertain but also to speculate on the dangers of time travel. His illustration of a ripple effect on the timeline caused by a seemingly unrelated events over a long period of time is not only demonstrated by the climax of the story, but is also explained in the context of the story. The following passage is an exchange between Travis, the leader of the safari and Eckels one of the businessmen.

While Bradbury does an excellent job illustrating the point, he tends to over simplify the ripple effect since he assumes the timeline to be static and that by removing the mouse from the equation a void is created that multiplies up the timeline. It seems more likely that true effect might be equally as dramatic, but unfolding over time in a much more dynamic way. Using Bradbury’s example a lack of mice might mean something other than the fox evolves and thrives on the land, or perhaps the fox adapts to another food source altogether.
The climax of the story involves the return of the hunting party to the office of Time Safari Inc. which still oddly enough still exists, but the language has evolved differently.
More importantly they discover that the presidential election has been influenced and that the fascist candidate Deutscher was elected president instead of the moderate candidate.
 
While dramatically effective, the ending virtually contradicts Bradbury’s earlier example of the ripple effect and the mouse. The ending suggests that while the players remain the same, namely the presidential candidates Keith and Deutscher, that their environment and the evolution of the human language has been influenced.
It’s an interesting coincidence that Bradbury chose a butterfly to symbolize the chaotic effect multiplied over time. The term Butterfly Effect did not originate until MIT research meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered in the early 1960s that small variations in his computer model caused wildly divergent results. Lorenz later went on to write a seminal paper on Chaos Theory based on his experience.

Bradbury’s short story also inspired The Simpsons segment Treehouse of Horror episode in a segment called “Time and Punishment” from Season 6. In the episode Homer accidentally discovers time travel when he jams a fork in a broken toaster trying to fix it. Homer’s first unplanned trip to the past takes him to prehistoric times where he stomps on a bug and changes the course of history in hilarious ways.
Bradbury’s time travel story serves to point out how small actions can have big consequences.

Tracy Richardson Mr. machine gun

 

“Wherever the cannon booms and the rifles bark, this American boy, who embodies in real life the type of moving picture hero one reads about but never sees, is pretty sure to turn up sooner or later — and it is generally sooner. Along the Rio Grande he is known by thousands of the adventurous souls who populate that picturesque and very troublesome stretch of territory. From Brownsville to Nogales there is not a dugout or an adobe hut that does not know him.”
New York Times on Tracy Richardson, 1915

Tracy Custer Richardson, adventurer, gold miner, explorer, soldier of fortune, writer, reporter, spy, police investigator, and patriot of three countries.This is or was a cool dude. I admire his ability to travel the world as a soldier and mercenary. He was born at Broken Bow, Nebraska, November 21, 1892. Tracy was appointed a corporal in Co. C, 2nd Infantry Missouri National Guard in Lamar in March 1905. In 1908 he left Lamar to work for a pipeline company. He worked for the pipeline in 1908 and 1909 and then went to the tropics. In 1909 and 1910 he joined the Nicaraguan rebel army under General Luis Mena.

While serving with the rebel army, he found himself in Managua, surrounded by federal soldiers. Tracy told the commanding general that the city was surrounded by rebel forces. Believing the story, the general surrendered the city to Tracy (a documented fact). Tracy took part in a Venezuelan revolution in 1911 and then joined the rebel army in Spanish Honduras. Each time he joined a force to overthrow a dictatorship or tyrannical government. He was paid $500 or $1,000 per month for his knowledge and his ability with a machine gun. He also received $500 cash for each battle won.
From 1911-1914 Tracy joined the Mexican revolutionary army fighting against Madero.

An interesting point of fact is that $500.00 in 1914 had the same buying power as $11,740.60 in 2015. According to http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm. "Mr. Machine gun" was raking in the cash....so, if he won a battle or 2 and was paid 500 each, then his pay of 1000 bucks he made off with (In today's dollars) $46,962. per month. Not bad, I'm sure it kept him in booze and whores for a while.

Richardson and a friend wired a locomotive with dynamite and sent it crashing into an on-coming federal troop train. Hundreds of soldiers were killed. Pancho Villa placed a reward of $10,000 for Tracy. Meeting Villa in a saloon in El Paso, Tracy supposedly forced him (with the aid of a gun) to apologize for the inconvenience the reward poster had caused. When the American army landed at Vera Cruz, Tracy Richardson left the Mexican army and joined General Funston as an intelligence officer and guide with the rating and pay of captain.

In 1914 he left Mexico to go to Canada. There he joined the Princess Patricia Light Infantry Regiment. He fought with the unit in Belgium and was decorated for breaking up a machine gun attack at Ypres. In 1916 he transferred to the American Air Service. During the time he was hospitalized in Manchester, he completed work for a degree which was granted at this time from the Royal School of Mines.

Released from service in 1919, Tracy prospected and explored in Canada. In 1920-21 he inspected mines and forests and explored in Spanish Honduras. In 1922 he was asked to make an oil survey of the entire Republic of Guatemala. Also in 1922 he shot and killed a man in New Orleans. The case was presented to the Grand Jury which called it self defense. He worked again in Mexico but returned to New Orleans to work as a detective. Later he sold real estate in Florida and worked as an investigative report in Washington D.C., and served in New York as an agent for prohibition.

In 1932 he was employed by the Pelican Gold Mining Company, whose president was arrested for mail fraud. Tracy was twice arrested as a fugitive from justice because the company owner had used his name in the fraud. Eventually Tracy's name was cleared. In 1934 he moved to New York where he wrote for several magazines. Then in 1941 he entered active service in the United States Army. He was discharged in 1946 as a Lt. Colonel. In 1947 he returned to Lamar, Missouri which he had always listed as his home. He lived with his sister Lelah until his death on April 20, 1949 of heart failure. He is buried in the Richardson family plot in Lake Cemetery in Lamar. A quiet ending for a warrior.

He served the United States in three wars - The Mexican Border War, World War I, and World War II. He also served in Canadian and British armed forces as well as selling his services to rebels trying to overthrow a dictator. 

 Note: Read a 1915 NY Times Magazine article on Richardson on the NY Times website: The "Machine-Gun Man of the Princess Pats"; Tracy Richardson, Adventurous Young American Who Has Seen Service in Mexico and Nicaragua, Getting Famous with the Canadians in Europe).

EMIL HOLMDAHL AMERICAN ADVENTURER

Emil Holmdahl is another interesting character from American history. Right up there with  Bert Levy , Sam Drebin  and Tracy Richardson  just to name a few. As Former professional Soldier, Military contractor and adventurer Myself, I can see that His colorful history bears a verisimilitude to my own. I can easily identify with this man and his exploits in war and in the wilderness of Mexico. I am impressed with his ability to learn both  The Spanish and Yaqui languages, his skill with fire arms and his ability to survive countless battles and hazardous conditions around the world.

He has been accused of stealing the skull of Poncho Villa in Mexico  for Prescott Bush (former presidents grandfather) back in 1926  for $25,000.00. I personally find that to be interesting if indeed it happened as the Mexican officials claim. Having lived in 3rd world countries for a number of years i know how things can  easily embellished

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading about this real American adventurer as much as I did.

See you on the trail!

Tomahawk

The following write up was  Borrowed from the Book "Soldier of fortune" by; Douglas V. Meed.

This is the story of  Emil Lewis Holmdahl. He  among the last of the great soldiers-of-fortune who roamed the world fighting under different flags for money, adventure, sometimes for principle, but mostly just for the hell of it. Who swash buckled their way through the wars and revolutions at the beginning of the 20th century before the romance of soldiering died in the muddy, blood- soaked trenches of World War I.

Holmdahl was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, to a farming family of Swedish immigrants on August 26,1883. At an early age he thrilled to Rudyard Kipling's stories of exotic battles in the Far East and to the "dime novel" adventures of cavalrymen and lawmen in the American West. But unlike most boys, he turned his childhood dreams of martial glory into an exciting, if dangerous, reality.
 
Escaping his rustic origins, from age fifteen to eighty, he swaggered his way across a score of battlefields. He soldiered in the mountains and jungles of Asia, through the swamps and crumbling ancient cities of Latin America, in the ferocious battles of the Mexican Revolution, and in the hell of World War I trenches. He fought Filipino insurgents under the Stars and Stripes, overturned Central American dictators, battled alongside Pancho Villa, then fought against Villa, and probably was the man who cut off Villa's head.

Holmdahl was condemned to a U.S. federal prison for gun running until paroled to serve General John J. Pershing during the 1916 punitive expedition into Mexico. There, he guided a green Second Lieutenant George Patton across the Chihuahuan desert to his first bloody gunfight. After a pardon granted by President Woodrow Wilson, Holmdahl fought as a commissioned officer alongside American and British soldiers in France in World War I. There he helped smash the last German offensive in 1918. As an aged senior citizen, he was investigated by the Secret Service for smuggling gold bars out of Mexico.

Although he had the hard-edged roughness of the professional soldier and hardly any formal education, Holmdahl held the respect and affection of generals and political leaders on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. In some of his more introspective writings he showed a touch of the poet. Surprisingly, for all his "rake-hell" adventures, this tough and complex man managed to live to a ripe old age.

It was through a few very fleeting mentions of his name in El Paso newspapers during the years of the Mexican revolution that I first came upon the Holmdahl story. Intrigued, I searched through many histories, memoirs, and newspaper accounts of the revolution and found only a few tantalizing tidbits of information.

A thorough mining of El Paso newspapers revealed little except stories of his 1915 trial for gunrunning. His army records from his first enlistment in 1898 through World War I were destroyed by a fire in the St. Louis Federal Depository. Records of his service as a civilian scout and spy for General Pershing have disappeared -- possibly destroyed on that general's orders. Remaining are the personal letters of 2nd Lt.
Patton, General Pershing, and verbal reminiscences of those who knew him. His reports to the War Department are preserved in the National Archives.

While he gave a few contemporary interviews during the Mexican Revolution to Chicago and California newspapers, for the most part he was a secretive, furtive figure. This is not surprising since he was often involved in gunrunning, spying, revolutionary plots, and secret missions along the Mexican border. Like many of the freebooters who fought in the Mexican revolution, there are numerous legends about him sung in the corridos, the folk songs of Mexican peasants. Surprisingly, many of them are true.

Fortunately, after Holmdahl's death in 1963, his nephew, Gordon R. Holmdahl, bundled up his uncle's vast array of newspaper stories, United States and Mexican government documents, and diary jottings. These, in addition to other records he held, cast much light on his uncle's sometimes flamboyant and often shadowy life- time adventures.

 ALLEGED SKULL THEFT;

On February 8, 1926, three days after the grave desecration, El Paso Herald Post published the headline "Villa's Grave Robbed" that details the circumstances of the decapitation of Villa's interred body and the arrest of Emil Holmdahl and Alberto Corral for the crime. The news clip outlines a sophisticated and well planned operation to steal the skull of Pancho Villa. The El Paso Herald Post news clip reports that the caretaker of the cemetery told Mexican investigators that an "Americano" was inquiring about the location of Villa's tomb a few days before the grave robbery. Chihuahua state authorities later arrested Emil Holmdahl through a description by the cemetery caretaker. The grave robbers left a note at the tomb in an attempt to throw off investigators. The note said that Villa's skull was on its way to Columbus, New Mexico, the site where Villa conducted a raid into US territory to recuperate a number of gold bars he had paid for arms and ammunition he never received.

The skull of Pancho Villa was in fact already on the way to El Paso, Texas and into the hands of a Holmdahl cohort by the name of Al Jennings for eventual turnover to a Frank Brophy who was an intimate friend of Prescott Bush at Yale University. A news article titled "US Investigates Holmdahl's Arrest" published in El Paso Herald Post on February 9, 1926 clearly indicates high level US government interference and pressure on the Chihuahua state authorities to release Emil Holmdahl. This was accomplished on February 11, 1926 and was reported in another news report by the El Paso Herald Post titled "Expect Holmdahl to Reach El Paso by Friday". It looks like the Bushes have a long history of manipulating USA intelligence covert activities and the secret "Skull and Bones Society" in New Haven is an intimate part of these operations.

Emil Holmdahl arrived in El Paso on February 12, 1926 according to Ben Williams of an organization in El Paso called "The Wednesday Group". Williams, in his memoirs, details the deal made between Emil Holmdahl, Al Jennings and Frank Brophy. Frank Brophy, working on behalf of Prescott Bush, paid $25,000 dollars for the skull of Pancho Villa. The skull is now displayed in a trophy cabinet inside the crypt-like headquarters of the "Skull and Bones Society" at Yale University.

Tom Creates a Chemical Fire | Dude, You're Screwed

Mekong Catfish in Thailand

A while back in Thailand, I contacted my good friend Captain Eddie Mounce of Fish Thailand http://fishthailand.co.uk/. My interested was in doing a jungle fishing safari on Kanchanaburi Lake at Khao Laem Dam in western thailand. I had heard about the massive snake head species in the lake.

Eddie informed me that the snake heads http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channidae were not biting at the time so I opted to do some fishing for Mekong Catfish and other catfish species at Bungsamran Lake near Bangkok.

It turned out to be a good day, Eddie provided me with an excellent fishing guide named Ali and under his guidance I managed to Hook and land 38 catfish nearly all over 20 kilos, over an 8 hour period. The Mekong Catfish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangasius_gigas is the largest fresh water catfish in the world. It is protected under Thai law, so it is catch and release only.

Also over the same time period I went to Ko (island) Samet resort http://www.koh-samet.org/koh-samet-resort.htm and did a bit of Tuna fishing. I hired a boat for the entire day for just over 30 bucks American. I didn't catch any tuna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuna but toured the fish farm, drank some Chang beer http://www.changbeer.com/and and got way too much sun.

I ended up spending the night at one of the local island resorts because I missed the last ferry back to the mainland. While at the fish farm I had some fun feeding the captive tuna, I would throw a small bait fish over their pens and watch them shoot through the water, I believe they are the fastest fish in the ocean.

The next morning I caught the ferry to the mainland, then took the bus back to Bangkok. Once there I took a long nap at my apartment, then went out for some street food. I didn't take more than a few days in BKK before boredom overtook me and I headed out in quest of my next adventure.

But, that is another story!

Tomahawk