There was a thread on Shooters a few months ago concerning the gun writer, Craig Boddington, who was now calling himself General Boddington. There was a story in the newspaper this morning concerning him. He was/is a Colonel in the Marine Reserve who was called to active duty a couple of years ago and sent to Kuwait. He was/is on the list of Colonels awaiting Congressional approval for promotion to Brigadier General. His commanding officer, a 3 star in command of all Marines in the area, told him to assume the rank of Brigadier General and the post Of Military Commander of Kuwait. Somebody complained to the Inspector General and the 3 star was "censured' and is on leave awaiting retirement. Boddington was "counseled" and returned to his old job at Camp Pendleton, once again wearing eagles. I wonder if his old job is writing for gun magazines. Wonder if I've bumped into him at the Del Mar gunshow. I'd better find a picture so I'll recognize him, he probably won't be in uniform.

Scrounger--You wonder if you bumped into Craig Boddington. Sounds like you might bump into a lot of people and perhaps some ballet lessons might be in order to give you better coordination and balance. Either that or AA meetings.

Carpetman, go back to the Small Game Forum, they're your kind of people...

[ 08-30-2003, 17:29: Message edited by: scrounger ]

scrounger...Craig Boddington wrote an article several years ago in the CBA's Fouling Shot on a modified "Mossy". Some huge cast caliber. Pretty well done so he's a caster. There's a picture in the article as well as I recall.

Patton got away with it and the practice of "frocking" is accepted in the military. I was a frocked First Sergeant (BTW, the spelling is correct)so there may be more here than meets the eye.

If you see anything further on it, please post./beagle

Just couldn't resist, guys. ... felix

Dear Ma & Pa,

I'm good. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt & Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch at the Uvalde creosote plant by a dang mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m., but am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt & Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay or rattlesnakes to kill. Practically nothing in the way of real work. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, they git warm water.

Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc, but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, chicken fried steak and other regular food. But tell Walt & Elmer you can always sit between two city boys that live on coffee.

Their food plus yours holds you till noon, when you get fed again.

It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route" marches, which the Platoon Sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys gets sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The country here is nice, but awful crowded -- nothing like West Texas.

The Sergeant is like a schoolteacher. He nags some. The Capt. is like the school board. Majors & Colonels just ride around & frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt & Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting! I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a squirrel and don't move. And it ain't shooting back at you, like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is to lay there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes -- imagine that!

Be sure to tell Walt & Elmer to hurry & join before other fellers get into this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Gail

Felix, that was a stitch. Reminded me of Andy Griffith's movie "No Time for Sargeants".

Beagle, I have no service time but from what I've read, you are correct. Besides, if the 3 star ordered him to do it, what choice did he have? I don't expect he will be punished for it. Reading between the lines on the article, I get the impression the 3 star is in the doghouse for some other reason, this was just something else to throw on the plate. The bad publicity could cause Boddington to lose the promotion through no fault of his own.

Here is a link to the story. Doesn't read as if COL Boddington did anything wrong. Frocking isn't as common as it used to be, but still happens. Tony
http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGAMXQH5ZJD.html

[ 09-01-2003, 01:15: Message edited by: AnthonyB ]

Boddington went from having his byline read "Lt. Col." to "Gen." in about 2 months. Not to cast any doubt on a fellow Marine, much less on an OFFICER, but that just don't happen. Heck with it, I can't stand the guy. Period. I hate his style, his face and the guns he uses. I know why this is- G+A gave him Elmer's old "Gun Notes" title for his column. YOU DON"T DO THAT!!! That's like giving AL Franken credit for Hemmingways books or something. It's blasphemy pure and simple. Gee, did this turn into a rant??!!

I am not a Boddington fan, but it doesn't like any fault for this mess should fall on his shoulders. I have wondered how he got to be such a hot gun writer, but broke the code. He must have a pretty good source of income and he has large mess of very fancy high dollar rifles and the money go travel and shoot critter with them. He always has the newest and most cutting edge rifles. This makes him a darling of the gun rags and they have a symbiotic relationship with the firearms industry and a writer that has the new stuff help stimulate sales. Other than having the funds to buy fancy left hand rifles and travel over the world slaying critters, I don't see much to recommend him as an expert. There are several popular gun writers out there who have some fancy guns to photograpy, shoot a few groups and the parrot back what the prior generation of gun writer learned by experience. Anway..I hope Boddington doesn't lose his star for good over this flap.

I just wondered how many of you realize that General George Armstrong Custer wasen't a general?

Hi, nvbirdman. My understanding of Custer's rank is that his permanent rank was LTCOL, but because he had been promoted to a brevet rank of BGEN during the War Between the States, he was called General as a courtesy. This would have been a tremendous asset socially and especially to anyone with political aspirations. Certainly he would have been outranked by a permanent Colonel. There was a Colonel somewhere back east who was in nominal command of the 7th, but who remembers his name? Brevet rank seems to have been a way of temporarily honoring and utilizing superior performance during war time without creating the problem of too many high ranking officers to find places for when the inevitable peacetime cutbacks came. This practice continued through WWI. After the war temporary majors found themselves staying in the service as permanent First Lieutanants. Regards, curmudgeon

It also happened in WWII. There were quite a few 25 year old Air Corp Colonels who became O2s after peace broke out. In General Omar Bradley's book, he mentions several times his and Eisenhower's permanent ranks as opposed to their wartime ranks of expediency.

Tony....Sounds as if the Iraqi War is getting to the "punish the innocent phase" to me./beagle

Trp Bret, I agree, me thinks Col/Gen Craig is just so much hoopla for the nimrods out there. My rant is G&A magazine, they once sent me a questionare (sp?) about their mag. Told them when they quit bragging up EVERY firearm they write about and start naming defects I'll start buying the mag again, they never wrote back so I quess they didn't like my opinion...Fuzzy Sights