Combat!

[imarangemaster]

Herr Gunner, Wen Sie wurden im Deutsch-Armee, was war Ihre Aufgabe? Ich war ein Feldjaeger (I thank that is what Military Police were called back when I was in in the early 70s) und ein Kriminalpolizist.

[gunner]

Rangemaster, ich war ein Gebirgsjäger in unserer Armee, at first i was responsible for supplying the troops, than i made some nice courses in building traps and shooting the G3 with scopes and changed to somewhat you call it Reckon. And now i´m working as an head of an car interior department. You had interesting jobs.

Grüsse

Gunner

[imarangemaster]

Mountain Trooper, very cool. Did you get climb up and pick your real Edelweiss? I know that is also the insignia of the Deutch Gebirgsjäger.

I imagine your new carbine would have been a welcome replacement to your HK G3 when climbing in the high country!

[gunner]

Yes i climbed up but i didnt picked up the real Edelweiss. It is forbidden to pick Edelweiss (Nature conservation act ) and the sergeants controled our backpacks after an tour in the higher regions. But i have it as the normal insignia badge. Yes, it is a good replacement for the HK, lightweight and short dimensions, perfect.

Regards

Gunner

[imarangemaster]

I thought out conservationists were tough over here, but not allowing a Gebirgsjager to pick his flower as they have for a hundred years? Is there an Edelweiss shortage, hahaha,

Getting back on topic: It was interesting that Rick Jasen in Combat took a carbine because it was the lightest. Vic Morrow had a wood Thompson made because the real thing was too heavy. I fired Thompsons on several occasion, and they were Heavy. The Sheriff's office I worked at in the late 70s had a couple 1928s and had both C and L drums. THAT was really heavy! I even briefly owned a semi auto 16 inch barrled Thompson, but as a semi Auto long gun, it was useless. I switched back to a carbine for a LE trunk gun.

[gunner]

I thought out conservationists were tough over here, but not allowing a Gebirgsjager to pick his flower as they have for a hundred years? Is there an Edelweiss shortage, hahaha,

Edelweiss shortage! Thats good, maybe they planted some and they werent big enough But for that i had a thought on the Navy boys with their anchor in the Badge.......
Never held a Thompson in my hands, since a few years they were allowed to have as an semi auto.

Regards

Gunner

[TDH]

I bought the whole series of Combat and watch it over and over. They used the same back lot to do most of the filming and usually invaded the same town from different angles. The series was basically killed by the last season. They lost the use of the back lot they used and went out in the surrounding hills to film. They also switched to color which was twice as expensive to use and the final killer was salaries. Vic Morrow figured he was the star and wanted more money commiserate to stars on other shows. That meant Rick Jasen wanted more money as well. Rarely in the final season did you see both in the same episode. They didn't get paid if they weren't in the episode.
Watch closely and you will notice that Caje was the only one that actually aimed his weapon. The rest seemed to mainly aim from the hip. Also Caje was left handed.

The Rat Patrol in my humble opinion was a great show. I was 15 when it came out. Every thing about it was hoaky but gee golly whiz what was there not to like. Here are 4 guys running around the desert in hot rod jeeps firing large calibre automatic weapons and blowing stuff up. I was 15 what's not to like.
Oh and their german advisary went on to play Victor in The Young and Restless.

[bentonville]

About 5 years ago my son and I were relating some moral we learned from a Combat episode to some folks in our church. One of our members said, as an aside, that his cousin was Roland Benson, aka Jack Hogan, aka Kirby on Combat. Amazing!! My son, then about 12 and new to the Combat series thanks to the DVD set, was especially thrilled. Our friend arranaged a meeting with Jack Hogan. Our church friend and we went to his home. Jack took us out to eat Mexican food, visited some cousins in the area, and related many stories from his experiences with Caje, VIc, Rick, Dick, Mickey Rooney, Lee Marvin, and others I have forgotten.
One especially poignant story concerned the two-part episode called Hills are for Heroes. Towards the end of the episode, Kirby is ordered off the hill the squad had just fought to gain. He emotionally delivered an improvised line that went something like; " ....We took this hill. ( He motions to a corpse of an American soldier) I don't even know his name...he can't come down!" When Kirby shared this with us, he got tears in his eyes. He remembered improvising the line and remembered how men fought and died together for a common cause but didn't even know each other's names.
He took pictures with us and even talked religion with us. He is a gracious, kind, sensitive, extremely intelligent AND private man. We appreciate to this day how he allowed us into his life for the one day.

[TDH]

That's one of my favorite episodes. Another is towards the end of the series when Kirby finds himself in charge and surrounded. They live through the night in a basement. Later Saunders and Hanley are surprised he did so well.