re: #391 Shiplord Kirel

May not be necessary, but I should add that this mercenary wannabe sub-group is a significant and influential component of the overall gun culture. “Served in the Rhodesian army” is a familiar claim of ammosexual bullshitters, right up there with “ex-SEAL,” but with the added advantage of being well nigh impossible to check out.

I met one guy in Oklahoma who was the real deal. Served in the Rhodesian Army in the 70’s…and he gave me a real sharp look when I mentiond “Executive Outcomes” (which was a South African merc outfit long before Blackwater). He had pictures of himself on an armed patrol boat with zebras in the background in North Rhodesia. (It seems he had been with Executive Outcomes as well doing EOD with old Soviet AP mines up in the Congo which he said didn’t pay shit and was freaking outrageously dangerous. He came back to the US and became a truck driver. Overseas merc work did NOT live up to the hype)

The converstion started when he saw the book I was reading…one of those ‘pass the time’ (at a truck terminal) African adventures set in pre WWII Ethiopia, and the author had actuakly been his Sgt Major when he had gone to the SADF after Rhodesia became Zimbebwe.