At our homeschool co-op, we saw a World War II veteran speak. His name was Chet Elliott.
He is giving the Pledge of Alligence here.
He was born in Ohio during 1923 and joined the army when he was 19. He drove half-tracks. Those have tank treads in the back and wheels in the front. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and used an M-1 rifle. The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive of World War II. Elliott was in the 6th armor division. His favorite job was driving a truck.
One time there was a German tank driving towards him, and he thought it was an American tank until the last minute. Miraculously, he survived.
After he released a prisoner, he gave Chet a big bowl of cherries. Unfortunately, they were sour.
There is a plaque on the bridge for him where he was wounded. He is currently 93. When he left the army, he was a corporal.
It was an interesting speech, and I would like to find out more. I am thankful for all the soldiers who fought in all these wars for our freedom.
A group picture. This is not just our blogging class.
The Triad EX-3 was released in 2013 in the blue color scheme. It was re-released the next year in white. The white color is supposed to shoot up to 90 feet instead of 75, but they have the same performance which is near 75 feet. I have the white one, but that does not matter unless you care about me having a certain color gun.
My biggest issue is the hard trigger pull. (I know I am being very happy by starting with the cons.)
I like how it is a very small yet very effective gun for tertiary or pistol rounds. In a Jolt vs. Triad fight, Triad would win because after the Jolt fired a shot they would have to reload. The Triad guy could come up and shoot the Jolt guy. That is why I like Triad EX-3.
Your team tries to hit the other team’s people. It takes 1-3 hits to get them out. Once one team has no members, the other team wins.
2. Humans vs. Zombies
The game starts with one zombie for 5 people. (That’s how we play it.) If the zombie is hit by a dart, they are stunned for 5 seconds. If they touch a human, that human is now a zombie. The game ends once all the humans are tagged. The last human is the starting zombie next round. 3. Secret VIP
This game requires at least 6 people: 2 humans, the VIP, the original zombie, the traitor and the general. The VIP is picked by the general. To pick, everyone closes their eyes, and the general taps someone on the head. Only the general knows who the VIP is, and he is not allowed to tell. The original zombie picks the traitor in the same way. The traitor is a zombie who acts like a human until he tags someone. If the VIP is tagged before 15 minutes, the zombies win.
4. Hidden Guns
One person who doesn’t play hides the guns. Each person starts near a gun either unarmed or with a small pistol. The starting spot is picked by the person who hides the guns. Your goal is to shoot the other people. You try and find better guns. Three people are required to start: one to hide the guns and two to fight. It would be best with 4-7 people, though.
5. Free for All
This is extremely obvious how to play. It is free for all and last man standing wins.
6. Bombies
It is like Humans vs. Zombies, but the zombies can explode. When they explode, they turn any nearby humans into zombies. The zombie has to sit out the rest of the game. The area of the explosion is up to you to decide.
I went to The Paintball Park at Camp Pendleton Marine Base with my Boy Scout troop on Saturday. They supplied us with the gun, 500 balls, a mask and a belt with two canisters that we filled with paintballs.
In the first two rounds, we played Team Deathmatch on a map called Hamburger Hill. It had a lot of bushes and a big hill. In the first round, our team was closer to the hill, and a lot of people went up to the hill and started firing down at the other team. I moved to the right of the hill and snuck closer to the other team. I didn’t get anyone out. The hit only counted if the paintball splattered on you. I got hit a total of 3 times that first round but only the last time splattered. There was someone else with me, and we tried to push forward, but I got out. The round ended soon after that.
In the second round, I stayed behind a piece of cover with two other people. One of them left to go try to get on the hill. (We switched sides so the other team had the hill now.) The hill had a fake tank. There was a piece of cover next to the tank. Whenever the person behind that cover looked out, we shot at him. Eventually, we got him out. Then, we fired over the top of the tank and tried to get people out. Since we couldn’t see over, I’m not sure we did. By that time, I had run through most of the paintballs I had brought.
Then, we went down to reload and get water. The next two rounds were a variation of Capture the Flag. There were two flags in the center, and the goal was to get both of them. If each team only got one flag, an employee would go and take one team’s flag and put it back. That team would still have the point the flag gave them, though. This was on a different map that was flat and had little shacks for cover.
You can see the shacks behind me.
In the first round, the time was up when each team only had one flag. In the second round, I saw the other team had stopped firing for a second so I ran out to grab the flag. By the time I had grabbed the flag, the other team noticed. Luckily, I got hit but the ball did not burst. At the end, another person on our team got the flag so we won that round. In the third round, the other team got one flag and we didn’t get any flags. There were more rounds, but my dad and I were almost out of ammo and getting tired. Finally, we gave our ammo to other people and left.
I doubt you want to hear about Wendy’s and the drive home so I am going to end this blog post there.
3.
Jots by John 