On the Cape today

Took a ride to the Cape today....

Visiting with Dad and making sure the woods don't take over his yard.

 As always, a stop at the beach is required....A few people were sunning themselves. Looks like the start of a nice summer.

JAWS - Movie Posters reimagined

If you've been paying attention to things on Cape Cod, you might know that summers there are now more shark infested than ever.  The seals are thriving due to protection as marine mammals and that in turn brings the Great White Sharks in for the summer.

That got me thinking about what would it be like if JAWS was made today, instead of 38 years ago...Just hope the sharks focus on the seals only.

Here's a couple updated copies of posters for JAWS, the quintessential summer movie.

 

 

Middleboro Jones will be leaving Kandahar once again - This time, likely for good.

Katanga meets Middleboro Jones, who is dirty and injured from his travels around Afghanistan)

Katanga: Mr. Jones! I've heard a lot about you, sir. Your appearance is exactly the way I imagined

After traveling around Afghanistan, I know how my counterpart, Indiana feels.....

The way things fall in place are both amazing and a never-ending mystery.....

I wound up in Afghanistan the first time in 2009 due to the down economy and a lay off......I was lucky to find a good company that has provided a great place to work, great people and very positive leadership. I couldn't be happier except for the aspect of wakiing up 7500 miles away from my home.....that part was NOT something I could ever be happy with.....'

 

Now after three runs through Afghanistan, the countdown for my departure as begun again.  I have approximately 17 days in country departing towards the end of May.  The game has changed here and the show is closing down.  There will be some work here, but not like it was during the hey days of 2009 - 2011.

So Middleboro Jones has managed to work his way out of trouble again....not real trouble mind you, the trouble of waking up 7500 miles away from home......

I will be "escaping" Kandahar and the whole Afghanistan AOR by the end of the month.....

I will miss my coworkers and the company BUT I will not miss waking up in Afghanistan....Thank You very much.....

As for plans, my plan is to head home and to spend the summer enjoying life in Massachusetts.  I have not been home for a summer since 2009 and I plan on enjoying all that it holds for BBQs, Time on the Beach and especially time with family & friends.

 

As for the rest....It's just like the scene where the Nazis are trying to take the Ark away from Tannis.....

(As Indy, Marion and Sallah watch the Nazis loading the Ark of the Covenant onto a large truck)

Indiana: Meet me at Omar's. Be ready for me. I'm going after that truck.

Sallah: How?

Indiana: I don't know, I'm making this up as I go

 

Roger that.

 

 

When I get home......

Where I would like to be/In my @vw Bus heading to the beach- I'll do it this summer when I get home from #Afghanistan twitter.com/Leadership_One…

— Middleboro Jones (@Leadership_One) March 22, 2013

Paul Monti of Raynham leads volunteers planting US Flags at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne

Bravo Zulu to Paul Monti and all the volunteers who made this effort to honor our Veterans.

Mass. Residents Plant Flags To Honor Veterans

By The Associated Press November 10, 2012                   

Jason Machado, of Fairhaven, Mass., walks among U.S. flags at the graves of deceased veterans at the National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass., Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012. (Gretchen Ertl/AP)

BOURNE, Mass. — Hundreds of relatives and well-wishers on Saturday honored the country’s military veterans by planting about 56,000 flags at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, transforming the green landscape into a sea of small fluttering red, white and blue banners.

Cemetery policies did not permit flags and flag holders on graves until last fall. The first flags were planted following pressure from Paul Monti of Raynham, whose son was killed by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan while trying to save a fellow soldier in 2006. Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor and is buried in Bourne.

Paul Monti led a brief ceremony Saturday at the cemetery, where volunteers including Cub Scouts and Gold Star Mothers recited the pledge of allegiance, listened to a dedication and sang the national anthem.

They then fanned out and worked for about an hour, with some armed with screwdrivers to drill holes in the ground before planting the flags at the gravesites. Some lingered to search for the burial sites of relatives or loved ones.

Monti had help from political leaders in changing the cemetery’s policy, but the group he leads pays for the project through fundraisers. Volunteers will return to the cemetery next Sunday to remove the flags.

Monti has said the flags are a personal tribute to his son and fellow soldiers killed in service of their country.

Prayers and Concerns - Sent and Recieved / Sunrise in Kandahar, Afghanistan Part 2

The other day, I posted a quick note to this blog along with a picture of the sunrise here in Kandahar, Afghanistan -  I had sent the same picture to some close friends back home with the same info I had blogged about how we here in Afghanistan were concerned for our fellow citizens back home and how they were effected by Hurricane Sandy.

Well, yesterday I got a note back from a fellow veteran who had shared my note and picture with some of the people he knows back home.

Here is what he sent back to me - The note is from a police department dispatcher who has been pulling 16 hours shifts the last few days. I wanted to share her reply....

Thank you for sharing. That was a beautiful sunrise and it struck me funny. 

 

How kind (your friend's) words and thoughts were. It struck me funny because you know everyday, I pray for our Troops, Veterans and their loved ones. They are always on my mind, their safety, their well being, & peace of mind, their families and loved ones here. I think of them all alot. 

 

You know I have "my things". Whether its the flags and signs on the front lawn or standing as a Patriot Guard at the funerals, supporting those left here while their loved ones are over there you know my heart, thoughts and prayers are for the kids (of all ages) in the military.

 

 It was a beautiful sunrise but it sure tickled me that one of those awesome (people) over there had us in the way of Sandy in his thoughts and prayers. Luckily Sandy only slapped us around on the cape and didn't full out kick our asses. I have been griping about all the people who have done stupid things during the storm and being upset with all the people who have called in bitching about the inconvenience of no power, trees down, wires down, no phones, etc, moving barricades from closed beach roads and driving thru because they wont detour and go around. 

 

I have listened to and dealt with it for two days, telling the really pushy ones how lucky they have it, they could be over in Afghanistan and really dealing with hardships. So to come home tonight and see that (your friend) is over there and thinking of us here struck me funny and one of the sweetest things that has come my way in quite some time.

 

So thanks - you put the smile in my heart tonight.

 

THIS is the power of what we can do when we think of others and what it means just to send along a quick note of concern and a prayer that others are safe.  Think of how much greater we could be if all shared her sentiment??

 

My Mom's three favorite words were : Kindness, Consideration & Courtesy.  She told us over and over again these were the things that would make a difference in how we lived our lives.

 

So to my friend's first responder friend on Cape Cod - right back at ya !!  I appreciate that others are worried & concerned about us.  I am glad to send along my best wishes, thoughts and prayers to all effected by Hurricane Sandy.  I hope to hear better news as the days pass and people try to pick up the pieces.

 

Here is another picture of the sunrise here in Afghanistan that I took.....a beautiful sky in a land where too many are facing tough days also - To all back home, be well - you are in our thoughts and prayers.

 

 

September 11th - Remembering Michael Uliano

Michael Uliano was a star quarterback at Canton, MA High School, a budding Thespian and enjoyed fishing on Cape Cod. He was working on the 104th Floor of the North Tower at World Trade for Cantor Fitzgerald on 09/11/01. He was a good friend to many, left a wife Linda and many family behind.

Mike, we remember you today and always. Rest easy good friend.

Great White Sharks return to Cape Cod

They're back.......It's summer on Cape Cod and they have returned.....NO, not the tourists.

The Great White Sharks....

They know there are seals in the waters off Chatham and seals are their favorite food.  Of course, this makes others who want to be in the water nervous as you could be mistaken for a nice fat seal by Mr. Sharky......

The scene in Jaws where Hoope tries to explain this to Mayor Vaughn is a classic.....

Hooper:Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all. Now, why don't you take a long, close look at this sign.

[refers to the graffitied billboard]

 

Hooper:Those proportions are correct.

 

Mayor Vaughn:Love to prove that, wouldn't ya? Get your name into the National Geographic.

 

I hope the Sharks don't find the wrong "seal" when they go looking for a quick snack.....

4 Seas Ice Cream in Centerville, MA - The Best Ice Cream on Cape Cod

For those who enjoy Ice Cream, this small shop in Centerville, MA on old Cape Cod is without a doubt the BEST Ice Cream you will ever eat.  I have made believers out of people when they came to Cape Cod and we stopped by for a cone or a sundae.....

There is none better anywhere.

The article from the Barnstable Patriot says it all and reviews a book that documents the history of this little piece of heaven on Cape Cod.  Well worth the trip from anywhere.

Four Seas Ice Cream Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod's Favorite Ice Cream Parlor    
Written by John Watters  - Barnstable Patriot

Book Review - Four Seas Ice Cream
Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod's Favorite Ice Cream Parlor
By Heather Wysocki
The History Press, Charleston SC, 2012,
Softcover, 142 pgs., $19.99

When one thinks of summer on Cape Cod, one thinks of sunny days at the beach, Cape League baseball games, fried clams and, of course, ice cream. In the town of Barnstable we are blessed to have one of the most treasured and quintessential scoop shops in America, the venerable Four Seas Ice Cream.

As a reviewer of Heather Wysocki’s new book Four Seas Ice Cream; Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod’s Favorite Ice Cream Parlor, I confess I might be a bit of a “homer.” For well over 50 years I have memories of cones, parfaits, sundaes, frappes, and banana splits frozen in time from the little white clapboard-sided shop on South Main Street in Centerville. In the late 1950s I remember having tuna salad sandwiches on white bread cut into diagonal triangles with a small side of potato chips, followed by a scoop of chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone after a day frolicking at Craigville Beach. I’ve stood in long lines at night bathed by the red and blue neon sign as I prepare to get hooked up with a scoop of black raspberry. I’ve seen fellow Cape Codders, wash-a-shores, neighbors and visitors, a few of them that could be called celebrities, queue up for a dish of the summertime manna being mined from the cardboard buckets deep inside stainless steel freezers. I’m a fan, always have been, always will be.

Wysocki’s book is written from a very intimate viewpoint. The talented journalist is a bit of a “homer” herself when it comes to Four Seas, as her mother and step-dad are the current owners of the long-time family business. Wysocki could have easily mailed it in with a story as frothy as a milk shake; instead, she combines a little history of Centerville with some inside family memories that add a bitter sweetness to the success story that is truly a Cape Cod institution.

The book opens with a short history of the south-side village first called Chequaquet that turned into Centerville, a picturesque village with homes of sea captains, farmers, businessmen and entrepreneurs. One of the first interesting facts is that the structure that houses Four Seas was originally the building of the village smithy. The smithy was originally farther back on the property, but the first man to put Four Seas on the map had the building moved closer to the road so as to attract customers and make room for freezers in the back.

The person that started it all was William Wells Wilberforth Watson, who at first was only interested in investing in the idea of an ice cream stand across the street from Irving Wolff’s family restaurant Ye Old Cape Codder. Wolff opened the Four Seas Dairy Bar in 1934, but by 1936 still owed Watson $600 after running the summertime stand. Watson decided to come to the Cape and manage the store successfully himself. He did so, and in 1938 bought the Four Seas business and property.

Watson ran the stand into the late 1950s and was looking for a full-time manager when in 1956 Boston University student Richard Warren answered a newspaper ad. Warren landed the job of managing Watson’s store. Watson. who wore an all-white dairy outfit, ran his business with an austere hand but the quality of his product brought people from far and wide. Warren readily took hold of the concept, it didn’t hurt that he also met his future wife Georgia Swift, who had worked on the counter for a few years.

Richard Warren bought Four Seas from Watson in 1960, when Georgia and he were well on their way to raising their family of three children. Warren chose not to alter too much what Watson had begun, realizing it was definitely going to be a huge success story one day. To augment the summertime money Warren took a teaching job at Barnstable High School, where he passed an endless string of potential workers in the halls every day. Working at Four Seas Ice Cream was considered a great job.

The author’s stepfather, Doug Warren, “Dick’s” youngest son, runs the stand today with his wife Peggy. Author Wysocki tells the tale of tragedies that hit the Warren family over the years. First, Warren’s marriage to Georgia failed; later his oldest son Randy was killed in a car accident when he was 22 years old; and then in 2008 Richard Warren himself died in a freak skiing accident in New Hampshire.

Wysocki’s book also touches upon the celebrities from all over the country that have stood in line for a scoop. Four Seas ice cream was a favorite desert for all the Kennedys. The book is filled with charming visits by Jackie Kennedy and former professional football player Rosie Grier, both forgetting their wallets and having to sign an IOU. So good was the ice cream that Bob Hope, who was performing at the Melody Tent, visited the stand with his wife several nights in a row. Steven Tyler, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler and many more have also stopped by.

There are many reasons to enjoy Wysocki’s book about the family business. It’s a telling story about the building of a family business, it’s also a story about an ice cream store that has gained national attention, and her book is filled with institutional knowledge passed down from family and former employees. It a quick summer read for anyone who has ever tasted Four Seas’ delicious deserts, and that for sure is a great many people.
  

Sharks like the " all you can eat buffet" in Chatham, MA

Hooper: Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all. Now, why don't you take a long, close look at this sign.
[refers to the graffitied billboard]

Hooper: Those proportions are correct.

Mayor Vaughn: Love to prove that, wouldn't ya? Get your name into the National Geographic

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, SHARKS gotta eat..... At Least the people in Chatham are more rational than the mayor of Amity in the movie "JAWS"

Big Sharks are having an "all-you-eat" buffet as the population of seals in Chatham has climbed due to laws protecting the Seals.

I am smart enough to know that Mr. Shark can't tell if I'm a Seal until he has already bitten a piece outta me....not interested in giving him the opportunity. While no one has been killed by a Shark in Massachusetts since 1936, you don't want to be the one who helps break that record.

Businesses in Chatham are glad for the Sharks as it means many tourists and that is the name of the game this time of year for them.

Shark kill close to beach prompts more restrictions in Chatham
08/16/2011
By Vivian Yee, Boston Globe Correspondent, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Authorities in Chatham have banned swimming on east-facing oceanside beaches after more reports of great white sharks in the vicinity, including sightings of a shark killing a seal close to the beach.

The closures include North Beach, North Beach Island, and South Beach, the town harbormaster’s office said in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“This updated closure is based on credible sightings over the weekend of shark activity close to the shoreline near the south end of North Beach,” the statement said.

Chatham Parks and Recreation Director Dan Tobin said visitors to North Beach Island and harbormaster staff had seen a great white shark attack and kill a seal close to shore.

“It was eaten by the shark,” he said. He said that although not many shark sightings had been reported over the weekend, “the proximity off the beach” prompted town officials to close the area.

Swimming at Lighthouse Beach is still banned from 5 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. daily and swimming remains banned when seals -- a favorite food of the fearsome great whites -- are within 300 feet. Tobin said Lighthouse Beach, a popular destination, remains open during the day because staff are able to patrol the water during those hours.

“Beach goers, mariners and swimmers should continue to pay close attention to their surroundings, and when swimming at Lighthouse Beach should not venture too far from shore,” the statement said.

Swimming is still allowed on south side beaches in Nantucket Sound and in all other areas, the notice to swimmers said.

Gregory Skomal, a state marine biologist, said he has not seen an increase in shark activity over the past few days, although a spotter plane pilot working for the state reported seeing great whites off Chatham on Aug. 9 and Aug. 12.

Shark sightings so far this summer have topped 35, he said, about the same as the number of sightings reported at this time last summer. But the number of sightings is not a reliable indicator of the number of sharks in the area, since the same shark may be spotted multiple times, he said

Chatham, MA becomes SHARK CITY for the tourists on Cape Cod

Summer on Cape Cod and the tourists are out in full force to see....SHARKS !! Great White Sharks no less.....

That's right, Chatham, MA on Cape Cod has become " Shark City " based on the past few summers of Great White Shark sightings. The Sharks are there for the seals, the tourists want to try to see the Sharks.....What the Tourists don't realize is that Sharks are way off shore and they are very solitary creatures.

But in the meantime, it means more business for the locals and that is not a bad thing except for those who hate traffic.....which raises the question, " If you hate traffic, why would you go to Cape Cod during the summer ??" - The Cape is all about traffic, especially in the summer....

Looks like they will need to heed the advice of Chief Martin Brody, " You're gonna need a bigger boat."


Shark Chase, Blood-Thirsty Tourists Jolt Town
By Laura Keeley - Jun 30, 2011 Bloomberg.com

The great white sharks swimming off the waters of Chatham, Massachusetts, are boosting its economy by luring more tourists. Now the Cape Cod town is wondering whether being so popular will have a bite.

As the Fourth of July weekend kicks off the summer vacation season, Chatham is the best place on the cape to view the predators, according to Greg Skomal, shark expert at the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries. The several thousand gray seals dwelling in the area are shark prey, he said.

“The seal population has reached some critical level that the likelihood of seeing a white shark now has increased,” Skomal said.

Shops and restaurants profited last summer as busloads of visitors detoured to the town in pursuit of shark sightings, resulting in constant traffic jams, said Lisa Franz, executive director of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce. This year, with at least two film crews visiting, some residents are bracing for unwelcome attention.

“We wanted to be known as a nice, quiet, laid-back community,” said Mike Ambriscoe, fire chief of the town, 75 miles southeast of Boston. “We’ve been having this problem where sharks have been visiting us. It certainly does put you in the limelight.”

In the past two summers, state experts have tagged 13 great white sharks and confirmed the sighting of at least four others. The U.S. Coast Guard issued a shark warning last year on July 2. This year, fishermen in Martha’s Vineyard, 60 miles away, spotted a great white on May 6.

Shark Circus

News of the sightings brought about 5,000 day-trippers into town each month last summer, said Tim Roper, a selectman.

“Folks show up and ask, ‘What’s the best place to see the sharks?’ or ‘What time do they start eating the seals?’ as if it were a circus act,” Roper said.

Great whites can exceed 20 feet in length and weigh more than 2 tons, according to the Marine Division’s website. In comparison, a Honda Insight compact car is about 14.3 feet long and weighs about 2,700 pounds, according to Edmunds Inc., an automotive information company.

Skomal said people aren’t at risk of being attacked by sharks on Chatham’s beaches as long as they visit ones away from the seals that draw the predators.

“The first year this all happened, I was really nervous about it and would say to others, don’t talk about it, we don’t want shark merchandise,” Franz said. “The second year, I embraced it. The third year, come on down, we’ll have a shark statue for you.”

More Sightseers

The shark buzz and favorable weather boosted revenue by about 20 percent for Beachcomber Boat Tours, which ferries tourists to where the seals gather at Monomoy Island, said Paula St. Pierre, owner. Chatham’s population is 6,579 most of the year, swelling to about 25,000 in July and August, according to the town website.

Chatham didn’t have as many gray seals to attract sharks before the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 made it illegal to kill them and the population began to rebound. Federal authorities are investigating the fatal shootings of six seals in the area this year, said Michael Booth, spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Wildlife. Skomal said fishermen tend not to like the seals, which they blame for eating all their catch and driving away other fish.

“People are more interested in sharks than ever,” St. Pierre said. “They have fantasies that they’re going to see something like a National Geographic show.”

Customer Expectations

No customer has witnessed a shark attack a seal in her 12 years of operating boat tours.

“I just don’t want anyone to have any fantasies when they go on the boat that they’re going to see a seal island attacked with a shark jumping out of the water,” she said. “Who wants to see that anyway? I don’t want to see that.”

Sharks have been identified with Cape Cod since 1975, when Steven Spielberg used Martha’s Vineyard as the setting for his movie of Peter Benchley’s novel “Jaws.” The book was set in New York’s Long Island.

Celine Cousteau, granddaughter of the late sea explorer Jacques Cousteau, plans to spend weeks in town with a crew gathering material for a documentary, “The White Sharks of Chatham,” said Michael LeFort, co-producer. A team from the Discovery Channel already came to film a documentary for its Shark Week programming, Franz said.

Scientists don’t have much historical information on the activities of great whites in the Atlantic, LeFort said.

“Everyone has an opinion on both sides,” he said about the town’s reaction to the sharks. “I can tell you that there’s more fear than celebration.”

US Marine from Falmouth, MA promotes Bio-Fuel and helps Afghan Farmers power their own economy from within Afghanistan

Falmouth, MA is one of the more scenic places on Cape Cod. You are near Woods Hole and the embark spot for Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The town has many fine beaches and recreation spots that during the summer bring tourists from miles....if you haven't spent time on Cape Cod during the summer, you don't know what you are missing.

Enclosed is a story about how a US Marine from Falmouth is trying to get farmers in Afghanistan to grow Bio-fuels and stop the scourge of Opium. This will assist the farmers and the need for clean, green fuels.

I'm sure that Marine Sgt. Brian Nelson would rather be home to spend this summer on Cape Cod but he is doing what US Marines do - He is serving the people of Afghanistan by giving them a helping hand to their future.....

SEMPER FI Sgt. Nelson.


U.S. Marine Wants Afghan Opium Farmers to Grow Biofuel Crops
By Scott Doggett on
Emunds.com 03/22/2011

According to Interpol, 90 percent of the world's opium -- the chief ingredient of heroin -- comes from Afghanistan. And according to a recent report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghan opium farmers are, at $4,900 per hectare, doing great. Everyone from the lowly poppy grower to the country's druglords are reaping large cash harvests. But that's not stopping one U.S. Marine from trying to get the opium farmers to switch to biofuel crops.

The subscription news service Greenwire, in a lengthy report this week, described how Marine Sgt. Brian Nelson found himself alone with four hard-won barrels of cottonseed oil one day last fall in a Afghan field in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.

The 31-year-old chemical engineer from Falmouth, Mass., was waiting for an Osprey aircraft to take him and his 55-gallon barrels to Camp Leatherneck, the launchpad for some 30,000 coalition forces conducting counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan's rugged southwestern provinces.

Nelson, who has already served two tours in Iraq and recently signed up for a third, spent this past winter tinkering with combinations of cottonseed oil and JP-8, the military's universal fuel, to find a blend that works best in Camp Leatherneck's generators, Greenwire reported. His work is part of an experimental U.S. effort to maintain gains over the Taliban by developing local biofuels the military would presumably purchase.

Nelson isn't the first person to push for biofuels in Afghanistan. Several years ago a couple of Army veterans had hoped to produce poppyseed oil as a biofuel and give Afghan farmers an alternative product for their more than 8,000 tons of yearly opium. A report on that unsuccessful effort appeared in a recent issue of The Atlantic magazine.

A CIA analysis concluded that poppy-derived biodiesel offered excellent value, excellent quantity and quality, and a positive environmental impact, the magazine said. However, "poppy fuel" would no doubt leave approving politicians open to ridicule and, predictably, gained no traction.

As it stands, the illicit opium poppy crop, grown mostly in southern provinces, is a thorn in the side of coalition forces. In 2006 and 2007, shortly after the Taliban returned to the region, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that insurgents and warlords made between $200 million and $400 million off the crop. Meanwhile, opium addiction is a mounting problem among the Afghan population.

But by the time Nelson, who has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of New Hampshire, was recruited for the project, the anti-poppy campaign had shifted course, instead focusing on creating incentives for farmers to grow legal food crops like wheat, which sells for a fraction of the price of opium. But the biofuels idea did not die.

The Marine Corps alone uses 200,000 gallons of fuel each day in Afghanistan, Greenwire reported, and fuel convoys are an especially easy target for improvised explosive devices set by insurgents -- a fact that has not escaped the notice of military leaders. All the services are taking steps to cut their fuel dependency and switch to alternative sources, and shortly after Nelson deployed to Afghanistan, the Marine Corps commandant issued some of the most aggressive energy-reduction goals of all the services.

"By tethering our operations to vulnerable supply lines, it degrades our expeditionary capabilities and ultimately puts Marines at risk," wrote Commandant Gen. James Amos in the Marine Corps' new expeditionary energy report, which was released this week. "Transforming the way we use energy is essential to rebalance our Corps and prepare it for the future."

The marines' targets are especially notable because they include energy usage cuts for the tip-of-the-spear operations Marines are known for, such as those happening out of Camp Leatherneck. By 2025, the Marines aim to use half the amount of fuel they do today, Greenwire reported.

So Marine Corps leadership was eagerly scouting out ideas for alternative fuels when they learned that a newly reopened cotton gin in Helmand province was producing an excess of cottonseed oil. The Afghans were using some of the extra oil for animal feed, but the Marines realized it could also make a good biofuel.

The Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office told Nelson to test the idea of making a biofuel out of cottonseed oil with a pilot project. Nelson succeeded in obtaining four barrels of cottonseed oil and only recently just burned the last of those initial 220 gallons after running experiments through the winter. He concluded that the fuel holds promise.

"As long as the temperature stays pretty warm, we have some great results," he said. "It burns just a little bit slower than JP-8 (Jet Propellant 8), the generators require just a little bit more maintenance, but it was easy to clean out the filters and it burns just a little bit cleaner without putting so much nitrous oxide in the air."

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who has made energy security his touchstone, touted the nascent effort in written testimony to Congress earlier this month. The pilot project is "simultaneously demonstrating to Afghan farmers that there are alternatives to opium, and demonstrating to Afghan leaders that they can power their own economy from within Afghanistan," he wrote.

Cape League Baseball...America's Game played in Diamonds by the Sea....

Cape League Baseball is and has been the best showcase for what Baseball is really all about - playing for the "Love of the Game"...I have been lucky to be able to see about 45 seasons of it and all have been a great experience....I cheer my town's team, The Cotuit Kettleers, on to victory, and they have been a great team to follow.....here's some words about it from the WSJ...

Take in a game, you won't be dissapointed.

The Amateur's Big League
By SKIP ROZIN WSJ
Cape Cod, Mass.

Tired of big-league baseball—of paying about $50 for a typical bleacher or top-deck seat at a Yankee or Red Sox game, only to cringe among beer-swilling fans and watch superrich players unwilling to run-out ground balls? Welcome to the Cape Cod league, where admission is free, no booze is allowed and everybody hustles.

On paper, the Cape Cod Baseball League resembles most other summer leagues, where college-age athletes play 30 to 45 games. But it is during real, live baseball that this league stands out.

This is Cape Cod, one of America's favorite vacation spots, a finger of land in the Atlantic Ocean. From mid-June to mid-August, residents and tourists can enjoy golf or the beach and then watch the very best amateur players. They're here to impress major-league scouts who, equipped with note pads, stopwatches and radar guns, decide who to draft next year or how much to offer this year's crop.

"The Cape Cod League is the big leagues of amateur baseball," said Matt Merullo earlier this summer; he's an Arizona Diamondbacks scout, a former player in the Cape league and the majors. "Other leagues have good players, but the competition doesn't compare."

The league is proud of its record, with 217 alumni in the majors in 2009. But those 217 came from 17 Cape seasons; the odds are against players in any one summer. Still, the fantasy burns bright. "Historically, guys who get to the Cape not only get drafted but go to the major leagues—that's my dream," said outfielder Steve Selsky, son of a former major leaguer and now in his second Cape league season.

Few of the locals who populated the league at its birth—in 1885 or 1923, depending on your source—had such dreams. Now, with teams in Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Cotuit, Falmouth, Harwich, Hyannis, Orleans and Yarmouth-Dennis on the Cape and Wareham across the bridge, they are rampant. Credit two changes: switching in the mid-'60s to all college players, and converting in 1985 to wood from aluminum bats, still popular in high school and college.

This combination draws scouts, who cannot accurately assess potential professional hitters or pitchers when aluminum bats are used, and are delighted to view 10 teams no more than 50 miles apart, the distance from Orleans in the east to Wareham in the west. All this attention draws the best college talent and offers a boost toward the pros; Tim Lincecum, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis, Chase Utley and Carlos Peña were all 2009 All-Stars who played here.

But this is more than about launching careers. The Cape experience separates itself from a pro-sports model that deifies talent. All players, no matter how highly touted, stay with host families, renting a spare room for $50 to $75 a week. The teams reimburse players about $250 for travel, and those needing additional expense money are offered jobs, either at the youth clinics the clubs use as fund- raisers or at a local business.

And while players are selected for their baseball skills, behavior counts. "We want players who are gentlemen and can fit in with the host family—host families are that important," says Cotuit manager Mike Roberts. "I don't want jerks."

The league, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, could not function without community support. While field managers, coaches and umpires are paid, volunteers fill all league and team administrative posts. The more than $2 million budget comes from national and regional sponsors, club fund-raisers and donations given at each game. As it does with other wood-bat leagues, Major League Baseball gives an annual grant reported to be $100,000, a figure unconfirmed by the league.

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce estimates that the league boosts the local economy by more than $2.6 million every summer, calculated from the nights spent and food eaten by family members and friends of players and coaches, scouts and fans who are attracted to games. Furthermore, league volunteers collect food for needy Cape families at Thanksgiving, ring Salvation Army bells at Christmas and work on the annual March of Dimes telethon. "We ask fans to come out and support us all summer long," said league president Judy Walden Scarafile. "The flip side of that is that we need to do our part to support the community."

But it starts with baseball. Games are redolent of this place and its people. While attendance early in the season is sparse—only 600 showed up for the opening game in Wareham on June 13—by July, when school is out and tourists abound, crowds often reach 1,800. Stands fill early, and at Eldredge Park in Orleans, where the preferred seating is on the terraced hill behind first base, beach chairs and towels are positioned long before the first pitch, marking places for fans who return at game time. Dress is casual; pets are common.

Nature is the X factor here. Even the hottest days end with cool evening breezes. Rain canceled 65 games last season—64 were made up—and fog rolls in thick enough to suspend play. A pair of red tailed hawks likes to dive across Veterans Field in Chatham during late innings; at Hyannis's McKeon Field, two ospreys nested in the old right-center field lights in the 1990s, prompting the club to turn them off so the hot bulbs wouldn't cause fire. (New lights were installed in 2007 with a platform for the birds.)

This is the stuff of Cape Cod baseball, where everybody plays hard but winning is secondary. "We're not here for wins and losses as much as the player's development," says John Schiffner, manager of the Chatham Anglers. Harwich manager Steve Englert agrees: "Winning is just not the end-all."

Such thinking is antithetical to big-time sports, but a good fit here. Mike Bordick played only three weeks on the Cape in 1986 before signing with Oakland and playing 14 years with four major-league teams. "Back then, you're going to the beach and playing the game you love—it's just great," he said in a telephone interview. "Later, when you get signed and money enters into it, everything changes."

Even when big-league dreams come true, a Cape league summer is an experience to be savored.

Mr. Rozin writes about sports for the Wall Street Journal.