Two Shorties by Dick Mauer


"The Washboard Effect"

 by Dick Mauer

Manny Cornejo recently put a l969 picture on "Old Patrol" of a 2 seater 
International Scout taken in the west desert of the Calexico AOR.  This 
picture made me think of the reliability of those old Scouts that had 
one big exception. That is, one big exception besides lack of air conditioning 
and having to get out to lock hubs for 4 wheel drive.
 
I remember an incident in about 1968 When IPI Frank LaMort was working 
the west desert when an Officer needs assistance call went out. Frank 
headed for highway 98 from the drag road he had been working. The desert 
"road" up to 98 was very broad but had become washboarded from use.  The 
last quarter mile before 98 was a long eastward curve and Frank was 
moving along at a pretty good clip. When Frank got to the curve the 
washboard effect kicked in, causing Frank to slide, and when he hit the 
berm at the side the Scout completely flipped and landed on its roof. 
Luckily, Frank was thrown flat on the bench seat and the only thing 
holding him in the wreck was the cuff of his shirt pinned between the 
steering wheel and the roof. It broke Frank's heart that he had to cut 
his shirt away to get out . ($31.25 quarterly uniform allowance) Note 
also, no mention of seat belts here. There weren't any. 

Like I said, the Scouts were otherwise fairly reliable in getting out 
of soft sand and occasional wet ground, but take it easy on the washboards. 
Has anyone noticed the two commercials currently running on television that 
are using International Scout convertibles?


 "Nice Shooting"

 by Dick Mauer

 

For a number of years in the 70s, PA John Chryst ran the quarterly qualifications in Buffalo Sector. John was kind of an overly officious guy in these assignments. He was a guy who let you know he was the team leader when working and the RANGE MASTER on QQ days. UNOIMSAYIN'? (A little background is needed here before the rest of the story) John was an inveterate pipe smoker, who was constantly loading up, tamping, cleaning, disassembling, reassembling, lighting, or, just in general always screwing with his pipe. He was constantly lighting, relighting, or looking for a place to strike the wooden matches he carried in abundance. I think he smoked more wood and sulfur than the special blend tobacco he used. 

The range we shot at had upright railroad ties where we hung targets. On this day we had 10 agents on the line and had gone down range to hang new targets. John was being his usual self, barking orders and had set his pipe on top of a railroad tie while he recorded scores. We returned to the line for timed fire and when we returned to the targets John found his pipe shot in 2 pieces. He was trying to figure out who the guilty marksman was and carefully counted rounds on all targets. Pete Pesaresi was one of the top shots on the line that day and his smile belied his responsibility. Pete had been crafty enough to load and get off 11 rounds on that target. RIP John M. Chryst