Best wishes from Ireland !

Big thanks to you and Ross for continuing these audio journeys with the actors of BoB. The interviews, discussions, dialogue, questions all are getting better and better with each one! As I’ve said on Ross’ site, that these guys see their experience as something greater than another performance, gig or acting job does them supreme credit, and that they had a duty to the men they portrayed to “get it exactly right” — the guys from “Ryan” never quite got to the same point.

One minor question that hasn’t been asked (no reason that it should because it’s a super geeky technical detail) but it’s interesting to those of us who own an M1 (a 1955 HRA-made Garand) is if the guys who portrayed riflemen ever developed “M1 thumb” — or were they trained sufficiently to avoid it?

It’s a known condition in Garand circles, caused by failing to remove your thumb smartly up and away from the magazine when you insert a clip and release the downward pressure on the top-most round. The bolt, locked to the rear of the rifle, is released forwards when pressure is released, and if you don’t yank the thumb out quickly, the bolt painfully pinches/smashes the digit. Do it enough, and you’ve got one painful thumb.

It was a common-enough incident in bootcamp that I was told almost 1 in 3 grunts “contracted” the affliction.

Anyway, I do very much appreciate the effort you guys put into these, and for Ross for being persistent in getting the actors back to talk about the roles they made famous, the real men they did honor to, the book they did credit to, the service to the country these men served and those they liberated, and the cinematic perfection they presented for not only us history nuts, but for the general American public as well.

Cheers guys!
Michael
aka “GroundskeeperWillie

p.s. Yes, I got M1 thumb eventually — everyone does at least once

Padraig , Dundalk, Ireland.