Hey everyone, this last contest stumped over 200 of you before we received the correct answer.

A lot of you guessed it was a part for a machine gun...Wrong Other's guessed that it was a gun sight...Wrong. One person said: "It is a government-issued safety catch for a two-hole privy." Definitely wrong, but it made me laugh; thanks EP.

It took until just this morning for the winning email to come in from Fred Orlowski from Wesley Chapel, Fla. who knew it was a Blast Attenuation Device (BAD) for the M252 81mm Mortar, a weapon which has been around for what seems forever. Turns out that Fred, like me, is a former Marine and was in the "Nam" about the same time I was there 1966-68.

The BAD is attached to the muzzle of the cannon assembly to reduce the blast effects on the mortar crew. Evidently the Dept. of Defense needed a bunch of them in a hurry for the war in Iraq and who's their go-to guy to build it? Gilby of course.

When the contract was signed Gilby had a couple of dies made for the 80 ton press, got the material needed and started banging them out. It's a pretty complicated deal to build but I'm proud to let you know that TEMCO delivered the first batch way ahead of schedule.

So Fred and his wife will be our guests next year at the 2009 Gatornationals and after talking with him on the phone for over an hour today I can't wait to meet him face to face.

In other news the team is racing up in Budds Creek, Maryland this weekend, I didn't go as one of my girlfriend's best friends is getting married tomorrow and we're doing both the wedding and the reception. Let's see, where would I rather be?  At a wedding dressed up in a monkey suit or in shorts and a t-shirt at the drags? You figure it out, first correct answer to the email above will win something stupid as this is a pretty easy contest to win huh?

Type at you soon...

BB