Busted!...Well, almost!...

...The 102nd PA regiment from the western PA area had a male bull terrier they called Union Jack for their regimental mascot. Part of the regiment was at Gettysburg, and there is a monument to this regiment on the field north of the Valley of Death.

Lori and I had some time to kill earleir today, so we went looking for their monument. Now, for those who do not know, Lori has two female bull terriers, Fannie and Maybelline. Besides being pampered pets, they both are show dogs. Lori has great interest in the breed, so we wanted to see if there was any mention of Union Jack on the regimental monument. We, were unsure of its exact location, though. I thought it was along Crawford Ave. It turns out, I wasn't that far off. It is near the Weikert (Alsop) Farm along the lane. As we passed by the Devil's Den, however, we saw something a bit more interesting than any monument.

A group of college age kids had ropes strung across the rocks on the face of Devil's Den and were rock-climbing. We pulled into a parking spot. Lori took a few pictures, and we made a few phone calls,and were told a ranger was on the way. The kids overheard my loud mouth (must've been talking louder than I thought I was! My bad!)on the phone and skedaddled before the ranger got there, but we did show the ranger our pictures and gave him the license numbers of the vehicles of those involved. We were told that the matter would be taken care of.

I might mention that as the group was leaving, they made a few rude comments to me, calling me "A dick!" among other things. I informed them that the battlefield was an historic park, not a jungle gym, but they left in a hurry! Guess they figured that nothing good could come from them sticking around.

Sad part is that this type of ignorance and disrespect occurs all too frequently. I blame it on a total lack of education and a total lack of any common sense. How thrilling is it anyway to climb the Devil's Den? It isn't much of a challenge because it's not really that high! Go figure.

If the people involved read this, or if they tell teir friends what jerks Lori and I are, oh, well! I'd rather be a jerk who cares than to go through life with no respect for the past or with no understanding of what the Gettysburg battlefield really is about!