Frontier Partisan Chas S. Clifton posted on his Southern Rockies Nature Blog about the two young elk hunters killed by lighting in country Clifton used to roam.
The search for two missing bowhunters, Andrew Porter and Ian Stesko this past week in southwest Colorado really got under my skin. Obviously I did not know them. I have have messed around on the upper Los Pinos River drainage just a little, but they went in farther.
The story evoked memories for Clifton, and I get it. Something about this story got to me, too. Maybe it’s just thinking of the times I dodged disaster as a young man in the mountains — in my case the Sierra Nevada and the San Gabriels. My brother once sat out a tremendous storm with thunder-and-lighting battering the peaks near Kearsarge Pass (that was a little before I was old enough to go on such treks). It could have gone badly. When you’re exposed out there in the high country, a bad turn in the weather can be deadly.
I read the Facebook post confirming the manner of death by Porter’s fiancé Bridget Murphy and it is heartbreaking. Her tribute to her love would wring tears from a heart of stone. According to an Outdoor Life article, it appears that the hunters were not directly struck by a bolt, but were close enough that both were electrocuted. It is a reminder that the Big Wild is indifferent to our plans and dreams, that danger can overcome even the prepared, experienced, and capable.
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I have long been fascinated by the Lebanese Civil War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the rise of Hezbollah, and the disastrous American involvement. There was something strange yet compelling to me about the images I saw from the time I was about 10 years old of the street fighting in Beirut. Disco dudes blasting away at each other in neighborhoods. I remember that it struck me as wild — and incomprehensible. There was no way a kid could understand the sectarian factionalism that underpinned the savage war of these urban militias.
LEBANON. East Beirut. 1978. Civil War. Swinging their Soviet made weapons, a group of Chamounist militiamen block the crossroads into the Christian sector of Achrafieh.
By the time I was a teenager, I had read Allan W. Eckert’s The Frontiersmen and many other serious works of frontier history, and I recognized in the horrendous massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in 1982 the Continuity & Persistence of such terrible actions as the massacre at Gnadenhutten in 1782.
I found the elusive and dangerous Imad Fayez Mughniyeh a fascinating figure. A senior man in Hezbollah, he was a deadly enemy of the U.S. and Israel, deeply involved in operations in Lebanon that included the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 that killed 241 American military personnel, 58 French military personnel and six civilians. Likewise the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Lebanon, and the kidnapping and torture death of CIA station chief William Buckley. The Showtime miniseries Ghosts of Beirut, which tells his story and the story of the operation that finally took him out in 2008 is well worth your time if you have not yet seen it (it’s available on Amazon Prime for direct purchase or with Paramount+).
And the great political scandal of my college days — Iran-Contra — was a direct result of the Reagan Administration’s desperate desire to free hostages held by Hezbollah in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon. It all loomed large in my young life — and I remain fascinated by all of it to this day.
I snapped up Jack Carr’s Targeted: Beirut as soon as it came out last year, and it’s very good — but the OG book on the subject remains Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz’s Beirut Rules. As of Tuesday, September 23, that seminal book is available — for the first time — in paperback.
On April 18, 1983, a van rigged with two thousand pounds of heavy explosives broke through the security perimeter of the American embassy in Lebanon and exploded, killing sixty-three people and decimating intelligence operations throughout the Middle East.
Only one man inside the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the blast: William Buckley. Assigned as the new Beirut Station Chief, Buckley arrived in the war-torn city to find a CIA station in tatters and an intelligence playing-field unlike any other in the world; the veteran of the Cold War would now be learning Beirut rules. A field operative at heart, he delved into Beirut’s darkest corners, developing new sources and handling assets.
Then, on October 23, a US Marine Corps barrack was destroyed in a plot masterminded by a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh. But even as President Reagan vowed revenge, Mughniyeh eyed a new target: Buckley.
Beirut Rules is the pulse-by-pulse account of Buckley’s abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen US government documents, as well as interviews with Buckley’s co-workers, friends, and family, Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz reveal how the relentless search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East to this day.
As my friend Craig Rullman would say: Do the thing.
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S2 of Landman drops on November 18. Paramount+ has served up some shots…
Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in Landman, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Sam Elliott as T.L. in Landman, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Sam Elliott as T.L. and Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy in Landman episode 6, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Michelle Randolph as Ainsley Norris and Ali Larter as Angela Norris in Landman episode 1, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Demi Moore as Cami in Landman, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Andy Garcia as Gallino in Landman, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Ali Larter as Angela Norris in Landman, season 2, streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
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Claudia Cardinale went up the trail on September 23. For Frontier Partisans, the Italian actress is best known for her role as Maria in the 1966 Western The Professionals.
Maria is the reason Henry “Rico” Fardan’s squad of hard-bitten mercenaries head into trouble in Mexico. She’s the wife of ranching tycoon J.W. Grant, and she’s been kidnapped by Mexican revolutionary Jesus Raza. The eponymous professionals are contracted to retrieve her, which, of course, almost certainly means killing Raza. In modern special operations parlance, she’s the package. And quite a package she is, as Fardan explains to explosives expert Bill Dolworth…
Dolworth: “A hundred thousand dollars for a wife? She must be a lot of woman.”
Fardan: “Certain women have a way of changing some boys into men. And some men back into boys.”
Dolworth: “That’s a woman worth saving.”
But Cardinale made Maria something more than a bombshell who causes men to vapor-lock. In a very apt 50-year retrospective in Cowboys & Indians Magazine, Anson Mount (of Hell On Wheels fame) notes:
Any reviewer who didn’t go out of his or her way to mention the contribution by Cardinale as Maria would be remiss in their duty. To say that she is ravishing in this picture would be a gross understatement. It would also be chauvinistically dismissive of an exceptional performance. I am happy to say that the movie itself realizes this in a more narrative way. (You’ll understand that last comment after you see the film.) Cardinale crafts an absolute firebrand of a character, a thoroughly modern woman who refuses to be owned as property. In fact, it can be argued it is upon her performance and her character’s journey that the entire film rests.
Cardinale was 87.
(Note in the margin: I did not know until putting together this entry that the poster for The Professionals was designed by the great frontier artist Howard Terpning. It is disheartening to note that Woody Strode is not named on the poster).
Craig Rullman says
Claudia sits next to Raquel in my imaginarium, and they frequently cat-fight for dominance.
JimC says
https://frontierpartisans.com/2525/100-rifles/
John Cornelius says
Trapline memories!
I do remember that High Sierra thunderstorm, and huddling under an overhang, while lightning bolts shot parallel to the ground in the valley in front of us, at our eye level. So close that our hair stood on end, and you could smell ozone. The thunderclaps were simultaneous, and deafening. Each clap caused rocks to cascade down slope. Mother Nature at her most impressive.
Also, I was learning Shotokan karate in Long Beach in the mid-seventies. One of our black belts, a hairy brute about 5′ 10″ and 220# was a Christian Lebanese. Sam would be gone for a couple months at a time, traveling back to Lebanon, presumably to fight for the Christian faction. One of the other black belts told me “Don’t ask Sam what he’s been doing. He might tell you, and you don’t want to know.” Nuf said. During a sparring session, Sam delivered a classic response when his sparring partner complained that Sam was too rough. Sam said, in his heavily accented way, “Should I counter with a kiss?”
JimC says
Perfect.
patrulje says
The Professionals is a near perfect movie, acting, script, moral dilemmas and Claudia Cardinale steals every scene she is in. I always felt that the tv show Bearcats was based upon the Professionals.
JimC says
Anson Mount traces the origin of The A-Team (mandatory viewing for kids of a certain generation) to The Professionals.
Matthew says
You know I am not as enthusiastic about the Professionals as a lot of people here. Don’t misunderstand I don’t think it was a bad movie. It’s a good movie, but I am not sure it is a great one. That said it is not a movie that I feel I have to revisit like The Seven Samurai or the Wild Bunch and I don’t know if it would stand up to multiple viewings the way Casablanca does. That said it is entirely possible that I’d feel different if I watched it a second time.
Of course, there are movies that others love like Titanic or Citizen Kane that I absolutely hate so take what I say with a grain of salt.
You know the before mentioned Seven Samurai probably influenced The Professionals and every team of experts hired to solve a problem movie made.
Quixotic Mainer says
Via con Dios Mrs. Grant!
Shame about the two hunters. As Cap. McCrae would say ; “there’s a lot of accidents in this world and they met with a bad one.”.
A forever memory for me came of a mountain snowshoeing expedition with my brother,when it kicked up such a snowsquall that it thundered. I’ve never experienced that before or since.
JimC says
I have seen videos of Thundersnow but never experienced it. That’s gotta be unsettling.
Quixotic Mainer says
There was a lot of… energy. Very primal feeling. I was a few years from getting into Norse and Native mythology or I would have appreciated it even more.
Greg Austin Walker says
Iran-Contra was dual purpose and a disaster in both.
The wholly illegal contra war was funded by Iran-Contra as a ill-considered and ill-fated effort to seize Nicaragua back from the Sandinista political victory after Somoza departed the country thanks to then president Jimmy Carter’s betrayal of both the Shah of Iran and Somoza – leaving us with the political nightmares in both countries today.
All we got from the contra war was gross corruption on the part of the contra “leadership” in terms of graft, drug dealing, and much much more. And Iran today speaks for itself…the consequences of less than stellar presidential leadership on both sides of the aisle.
LCDR (ret) Michael J. Walsh, in our book “SEAL!”, describes the hunt for Buckley which he participated in as well as the NEO operation (Fluid Drive), June 20, 1976) that evacuated all non-combatants from Lebanon at that time.
I traveled through Beirut in late 2003 and again in 2004 while supporting the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. The city at that time had been rebuilt and was thriving – albeit the military Presence was significant and purposely menacing. Since then the cycle of violence and destruction has completed its circle. As Mike Walsh wrote – “They love the blood too much to stop.”
John M. says
Rifle pedantry: Obviously Disco Medallion Guy has some kind of Kalashnikov, but I don’t think Black Tee Shirt Guy has a combloc weapon. His box magazine looks 7.62 NATO to me–The combloc equivalent (7.62x54R) is a rimmed case which nets out to a pretty sharp “banana”, as opposed to the squared-off boxiness of a 7.62 NATO box magazine.
If I had to guess, I’d guess Black Tee Shirt Guy has a Galil, but I sure wouldn’t bet on it. And I think Wife Beater Shirt Guy has the same rifle as Black Tee Shirt Guy, but his seems to have some kind of sling that’s breaking up what little profile we get in this photo.
Crazy photo, though. For those of us who didn’t live through it, men’s fashion from the 1970s looks like some kind of mass shared hallucination or something. Was it really like that? The photos say it was, but how could so many people have thought that was a good idea?
JimC says
HK 33 maybe?
And that is a most apt description of ’70s fashion. Aye God Woodrow!
John M. says
Could well be. I’m for sure not an expert on Cold War-era 7.62 NATO weaponry, but I scrolled through a bunch of Wikipedia photos of various Western rifles, including a Wikipedia rundown on the guns of the Lebanese Christian militias and didn’t find anything that was a dead ringer, including a handful of H&Ks. (I spent longer on this than I care to admit.) The Christian militias were aligned with Israel for a while, so it doesn’t seem crazy that they might have picked up some Galils around that time. I can’t see the characteristic AK-style safety on it (which the Galil borrowed from the AK) but it’s so dark I’m not sure I would.
Greg Austin Walker says
Photo is of Lebanese Christian Maronite militiamen on the streets of East Beirut, during the Lebanese Civil War, Lebanon, c. 1978. [944 x 629].
Individual on the left is carrying a SIG 540 or 542 assault rifle. Individual on the right an AK-47 (the AKM series is stamped reciever and has slanted muzzle brake, among other features).
Arms and munitions cane from Soviet bloc countries as well as through US/CIA channels and Israel.
Syria was the proimary player in the LEB. Supported directly by Saddam in Iraq, among others.
The fighters on both sides of LEB’s civil war were well-trained and vicious street fighters. The photograph was clearly taken in a then quiet neighborhood – YouTube videos of the street fighting during that war demonstrate a far different attitude and intensity.
Several private military companies recruited LEB mercenaries for work in Iraq. This began in late 2003. Many were later sent home as they were difficult to control and delighted in shooting / killing any thing or person as a matter of sport.
However, Lebanese cusine is superb and a favorite of mine.
JimC says
I think you nailed it Greg.
John M. says
Fun fact: When the US government wanted to supply the Afghans against the Soviets, they wanted very deniable weapons. The Israelis had seized a mess of combloc weapons from their neighbors during the 68 or the 73 war (I forget which), so the CIA bought those off the Israelis quietly and then passed them on to the muj. I’m sure the KGB didn’t need to bring in their Ph.D department when they started picking up AKs on the battlefield that had been shipped to the likes of Syria, Jordan and Egypt, but “deniable” isn’t the same as “totally untraceable.”
Erik Dolson says
Great piece. A full meal. Thank you.
Andrew says
The muzzle device, gas plug and what little I can make out of the handguard look like an FN-FAL to me and the Israelis would have had plenty on hand to hand out to allies in Lebanon.
Greg Austin Walker says
I’d agree.
“The FN FAL was supplied to and used by various factions in Lebanon during the 1970s, including by the Army of Free Lebanon and other forces, as evidenced by its presence on lists of Lebanese Civil War weapons and specific mentions of its use by infantry units in the era. The FN FAL was a common and well-known military rifle during that period, with some types of FALs used in Lebanon featuring Lebanese crests, a common customization for contract countries.”
“Christian Lebanese women, members of Kataeb Phalangist party, train with weapons on Sept. 9, 1976 (Lebanese Civil War 1975-1990) (X-Post from /r/OldSchoolCool) [3048×2112]”
https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/2zepjr/christian_lebanese_women_members_of_kataeb/
John M. says
I dunno, Greg, I like your Sig 540 or 542 ID from last night better than FN-FAL. The rifle in the photo is a dead ringer for the reference photo of the Sig 540 on the Wikipedia page, right down to that oddball slanted tower rear sight:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIG_SG_540
I hadn’t looked at rifles in 5.56 because I was so stuck on that box mag being 7.62 NATO, but looking at it again, I think it is 5.56. The mag doesn’t look curved enough to be a 5.56 mag and has that boxy chunkiness of a 7.62 mag, but looking at it again, I think it’s too long to be a 20 rd 7.62 mag and I think the lack of curvature might just be the angle of the photo.
It’d be no surprise to see an FAL in that context, and that was actually my first thought, but I don’t think it’s right.
Greg Austin Walker says
I’m referring to the individual on far right in photo – tank top – rifle slung behind him, muzzle down. The barrel / muzzle brake is FN-FAL and the mags in his chest harness are slanted (base plate configuration) – as their imprints in the canvas reveal – FN mag signature.
John M. says
I’m tracking with you now.
Greg Austin Walker says
Good look at FN FALs in action, 1976, LEB –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e9iRNUYIkA