Well, I'll just go from the start, I suppose! Alright, so way back in '05, while I was deployed to Iraq, I saw that a Sergeant of mines, Sergeant Allison, was making these pretty cool looking bracelets out of 550 cord, so I asked him to make me one. He did it free of charge, and it only cost me a single button off of my utes, and a little bit of a hard time for asking him to add the button to it, like he had in his own. I wore it pretty much all of the time for the rest of the time that I was deployed. I don't know what it was about it, but I just liked the damn thing! I don't remember ever actually using 550 cord for anything, but it's something I would always find on any check list of must have items while I served. I dunno, maybe that had something to do with it, some feeling that I finally had some use for this omnipresent item. I do remember seeing other Marines using 550 cord for all sorts of tasks (while I was deployed one of the guys in my platoon actually created an improvised rifle sling for his M16 out of 550 cord, but it was pretty crude in its design), but like I mentioned, that was never the case with me.
Whatever cord it struck with me (no pun intended, honest), it must have struck the same cord with other Marines, since I began seeing many more wearing 550 cord bracelets while I was deployed. After returning home, I began seeing Marines in my company returning from deployments with their own as well (in all types of styles and variations). It's just spread from there, I guess. According to the "Military Usage" section of the Wikipedia entry that I linked above, these 550 cord bracelets are worn by members of the military to signify having served in the Middle East. Sure, I served there, but I never actually wore it for that reason. I just thought it looked cool...
My Sergeant, that made mine, told me he learned how to make them by looking at one of the bracelets that a Iraqi interpreter (who was attached to the squad of MP's who tagged along with us on convoys) had made. According to my Sergeant, they actually referred to them as "friendship bracelets".
With that personal bit of knowledge, it's kind of funny to me that folk into "survival" stuff have adopted these and rebranded them and the reason for wearing them. Apparently, they wear these with the idea of having 550 cord (which, I suppose, does have many uses) at all times in case they end up in some kind of survival situation. That's fine and all, but the re-branding is where I think things get funny. I'll leave it to this gentleman to talk more about that (he definitely knows more about it than I do). That's a blog post that I found while searching for a tutorial on how to make one of my own, which is the topic I'll go into next...
Alright, so, I'm all prancing (not really) around Iraq, all happy with my 550 cord bracelet, but then, on my very last day in Iraq....I lost it. It was the morning of our departure, September 6th 2005, and while taking a shower (quit picturing me naked, pervs!!) I had taken the bracelet off and left it hanging on a faucet. That sucked. I've meant to get myself another one ever since, but I've never gotten around to it.
Fast forward to over 5 years later, two days after Veterans Day and a day after the Marine Corps Birthday, and I'm being woken up by a totally random nightmare where some old hag with long claws is chasing me down and killing anyone who got in the way (don't laugh!), at around 3am. I had previously ordered 300 feet's worth of olive drab 550 cord from Amazon, but it had just been sitting there, staring at me. Well, on this morning (not sure what got into me), I was determined to learn how to make my own goddamn bracelet! After reading through several tutorials I finally found one that I felt had the clearest instructions (disclaimer: I neither endorse their nomenclature nor [buy] their mythos behind the bracelet's purpose and/or origin) and began weaving my own.
It was around 8am by the time that I had finished, and that is when I produced the images to the left. It wasn't long before I posted them to Facebook, and not much longer before I was getting request from friends to make them one.
Now, maybe I'm just silly, but I didn't see that last part coming. And now, this turns into a bit of a rant about time management. Like, how do I sit and complain about time (like I often do in my TARANTULAS blog pots), but then get myself into things of this sort? Isn't that a little ridiculous?
Hm. Well, knowing myself, I probably prefer things this way. That's all I have for that one (says that as if this isn't enough!). Y'all carry on...
J, out.
