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The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

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Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#61

Post by hcrean »

mrob wrote: post #53

Ocarinas have the great advantage over recorders that you can safely play them without hearing protection. I have personally measured the loud notes on both a soprano recorder and an alto recorder and the SPL meter measured over 100dB(A) at the ear (indoors, so this includes reverberation too, but most recorders are played indoors). Note that standard recorder fingering allows for almost no control over dynamics; eac…

Hello, Ocarina maker and long time player here! Ocs are unfortunately almost always significantly louder than recorders...

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#62

Post by amluto »

dofm wrote: post #40
nephihaha wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did recorder in primary school. One of the things I dimly remember along with certain games and rhymes. (I think in Irish schools they do the tin whistle.) I gather a lot of schools are adopting ukuleles now. Ukes have a bad name, unfairly I think. (Listen to Eddie Vedder's "Ukulele Songs" album, very underrated). The ukulele is more forgiving than the recorder in my opinion.

Music shops sell a lot of ukuleles. Huge numbers at Christmas, it's a very popular gift. It's a fabulous instrument, nuanced and subtle, and you can buy beautiful instruments these days for really not much money at all. But AFAIK its popularity in school as a teaching instrument has as much to do with Spongebob as it does its capability :-)

You can also massively improve many inexpensive ukuleles by restringing them.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#63

Post by helterskelter »

This reminds me of my very first internet purchase. Back in the late 90's, when Ocarina of Time first came out, there was a website that a friend of mine found (back when you really felt like you found something on the internet) that sold basically perfect replicas of the titular ocarina, it even came with a silk pouch and a booklet that showed you how to play all the songs from the game. I think it was just some rando making clay instruments out of their house and figured they'd try to sell them on this new marketplace. I've still got it somewhere.

It feels like the internet is missing stuff like that now, or it's at least harder to find. Nowadays Nintendo would shut that seller down, or the seller would just be drop shipping them from Alibaba for a 500% markup.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#64

Post by mrob »

hcrean wrote: post #61
mrob wrote: post #53

Ocarinas have the great advantage over recorders that you can safely play them without hearing protection. I have personally measured the loud notes on both a soprano recorder and an alto recorder and the SPL meter measured over 100dB(A) at the ear (indoors, so this includes reverberation too, but most recorders are played indoors). Note that standard recorder fingering allows for almost no control over dynamics; eac…

Hello, Ocarina maker and long time player here! Ocs are unfortunately almost always significantly louder than recorders...

Thanks for correcting. I haven't actually played an ocarina, so I was relying on reports from people saying they are quiet instruments. It's very difficult to find objective SPL comparisons for musical instruments. But lots of people think recorders are quiet too, so I should have suspected that complaints about ocarinas being too quiet could be inaccurate too.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#65

Post by topgrain2 »

pasc1878 wrote: post #36
jeffbee wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite WW2 morale detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge

The British did better Put beer into drop tanks on Spitfires https://planehistoria.com/flying-pubs-spitfires-flew-beer-to...

> When we get over the beachhead drop out of formation and land on the strip. We’re told the Nazis are fouling the drinking water, so it will be appreciated. There’s no trouble finding the strip, the battleship Rodney is firing salvoes on Caen and it’s immediately below.

Oh god. Yeah just follow the path of the 9 x 16" gun salvos from Rodney blowing big-ass holes in the ground, you can't miss it. LOL. Now those are some directions!

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#66

Post by Jcampuzano2 »

TomK32 wrote: post #16
throw93949449 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In peacetimes, yes, but if it's defensive war I don't see many arguments against a draft, it can't be generalized though.

There certainly are arguments against a draft at the individual level - Example being if the people being drafted do not believe in their own governments ability to lead.

A draft is by definition forced labor either way - because if enough people volunteered there would be no need for a draft in the first place.

But usually it doesn't matter either way. Either the people believe in their own government/territory and see it as worth defending, or alternatively they don't believe in it, but their government is authoritarian and will force you at risk of punishment or death into being drafted.

In both cases a draft is still forced labor for those who did not volunteer to participate.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#67

Post by Jcampuzano2 »

throw93949449 wrote: post #4
jhbadger wrote: post #3

The US military thought a lot about how to entertain its soldiers because there was a lot of downtime during a war and most of them were draftees who didn't necessarily want to be there, Another thing they did was publish pocket paperback editions of books back when paperbacks were less common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Services_Editions

[flagged]

Not sure why this is being downvoted.

A draft is by definition forced labor and a form of slavery. If you are drafted, you are being forced to do something you did not volunteer for.

If enough people volunteered there would be no need for a draft in the first place.

People can argue whether they think its "correct" or not all day, its still forced labor.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#68

Post by Jensson »

WJW wrote: post #57
esafak wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The occupying power may be interested in your country's resources rather than its people.

How does that change matters? If anything that makes it even worse. If not enough of your people can't be bothered to join the military even when an enemy army is invading, perhaps the country in question should draw the conclusion it's not viable as an independent nation.

What happens in those cases is that the majority vote to force everyone to defend the country. Its just easier that way since it means you wont be defending alone, if everyone defends together then its very unlikely the country will fall while if just volunteers does it then almost any country will fall.

Thinking you can defend a country just via volunteers is like thinking you can pay for a country just via charity, we vote to tax everyone for a reason. And people do that voluntarily afterwards, they are fine paying taxes as long as everyone is required to pay, same with defending the country.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#69

Post by crims0n »

helterskelter wrote: post #63

This reminds me of my very first internet purchase. Back in the late 90's, when Ocarina of Time first came out, there was a website that a friend of mine found (back when you really felt like you found something on the internet) that sold basically perfect replicas of the titular ocarina, it even came with a silk pouch and a booklet that showed you how to play all the songs from the game. I think it was just some ran…

Hey I remember that site! I bought one from there as well, although I couldn't afford the actual replica so settled on a brown squarish one that came as a necklace.

Re: The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II

#70

Post by tracerbulletx »

pasc1878 wrote: post #36
jeffbee wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite WW2 morale detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge

The British did better Put beer into drop tanks on Spitfires https://planehistoria.com/flying-pubs-spitfires-flew-beer-to...

Even though this is tongue in cheek, an ice cream barge with the requisite refrigeration and dedication of ship space 1000s of miles out in the south pacific is on a whole different scale of investment than this and they also had beer on the ships already. Though it probably wasn't as good as the british beer.
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