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Man of Steel- Walter Lukesch, Hptm
Author: Heinz Rainer | Posted: 01-05-2007 | Comments: 0 | Views: 5 |
Heinz Rainer

April 10th, 1975, Kaisersteinbruch Garrison, Austria

0600 a.m., sharp call : Tagwache !

Everyone's up in a second, some try to procrastinate.
15 min later, the last sleepers are thrown out of their beds.
Morning toilet, fetching breakfast by the corporals of day, 07.30 we are ready.

Standing in formation, the captain appears. He has returned from his daily 1 hour jog in the woods of the Blue quarry, the Emperors quarry, where granite was broken for the famous Vienna Ringstrasse in Imperial Austria.

When he appears, the company is quiet. No-nonsense expression, a man of steel, he won't demand more than he can deliver himself. Problem - it is a lot.

No one i have ever seen with more a will of steel, a massive amount of stamina.

One shout, plain and clear, comes out from 140 recruits : "Good morning, Herr Hauptmann !"

When the jog begins, we all sigh. The more we pant, the more he gets agile. Never ending strength, a bear, who is a real soldier.

After 1 hour, we are near exhaustion, the daily astronautic exercises start.
12 x 12 standard exercises. Close to exhaustion we make it through this morning.

With every day passing, our stamina gets stronger, our bodies harder.
Each muscle hurting, we have been turned into physical powerhouses.

Trained by Walter Lukesch, a statement that carries weight in our Army's chronicles.
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Article Tags: Austria, Burgenland, Uchatius Barracks, Walter Lukesch, Austrian Army

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The longest march

The Longest March
Author: Heinz Rainer
Heinz Rainer

Austria, County of Burgenland, Uchatius Barracks

Early morning. As usual, on the dot 06.00 AM. a loud voice throws us out of our bunks.

T A G W A C H E ....

Robot like, we stumble to our feet, daily routine, our limbs sore from strenuous exercise. Tuck your bed, grab your rations, gear, equipment, all ready for the longest march to the alpine glaciers.

Prime mountainous region of the Wechsel, training ground for the Austrian Army. 07.30 sharp our trucks begin to roll. The drive takes about 2 hours, and we reach our destination, Mariensee.

The captain, Walter Lukesch gives instructions to his junior charges and off we go, right from the start its up the mountain, through dense pine forest, firs. We continue in a sharp pace, one after another, zig - zagging along the mountaineers trail.

Within half an hour we all feel the tremendous efforts it takes to carry near 20 kg of Alpine gear, rifle, helmet, and personal supplies up a steep trail. The Hauptmann is a powerhouse and pulls the company along the trail, without the slightest hesitation.

Whilst carrying the heavy radio equipment on his shoulders, he has no back gear unlike us.

Our panting becomes unbearable, the speed of the ascent is almost barbaric. Well into 2 hours, our first victim of exhaustion collapses on the steep trail, the company for mates and takes cover like in real wartime situations, we are on maneuver after all.

Here, in the alpine wilderness, no sound can be heard except the occasional song of a cuckoo, and the mountain buzzard.

Whilst we welcome the unscheduled rest, we are concerned about our colleague who collapsed because of exhaustion. And we know the worst is still ahead of us.

The captain shoulders our colleague's backpack onto his chest and off we move to higher grounds. Up and up and the lower parts hardly visible through the dense forest. Within minutes, Herr Lukens has out walked us and we have problems to keep up the pace. With a double weight to carry he shows no sign of the slightest exhaustion. His stamina is unequivocal.

When we finally reach the top, and the trail goes on a less steeper slope, we are instructed to carry our chemical masks. We nearly suffocate under the rubber mask, the sweat runs down our faces.

Nobody has time to think about his own misery, we all are tired and worn out, finally the command to remove the masks is given.

At the time we were angry, frustrated and saw a beast in our Hauptmann. But we knew, he was doing his part to turn us into real Soldiers, nothing less.

In those days we knew what exercise meant, and it felt good at the end. Without pushing your body to the limit you will never understand how much you can give.

Long after, well into the afternoon we reach our summit, the highest point in the massive glacier. When we pass the first masses of snow, the Captain forbids us to drink the ice cold water that emerges from under the ice bed. The risk of contracting pneumonia was not a welcome thought, and we observed, although with difficulty, his instructions.

The first stop is after the peak, we are taking a break of 30 minutes.

From here the trail now went downhill, through harsh landscape above 2000 meters altitude. Alpine meadows will harbor cattle in summer, but stand empty now in early spring.

The "Feistritz Sattel", a pass between two mountains comes into our view, still far away. We know there are still hours till we finally reach our target.

After reaching the town of Trattenbach, the trail steepens again and we take a final onslaught to our day's destination, unknown to us.

The mountain ranges around us, the view towards the glacier we have climbed, we notice how far we have come. All around us beautiful nature, un spoilt, untouched by humans.

Towards 18.00 PM finally we come to a standstill, the Hauptmann giving us lectures about the final days of World War II when Storm troopers of the Nazis defended this last stronghold against Russians invading from Hungary. Tracks where once rails were laid, up here in the mountains, carrying ammunitions to the heavy Artillery positioned up here. The Well built, the entire command post, did it nothing to stop the Russian Army to finally enter this last area of Nazi Germany.

We assemble to take instructions for the night camp, preparing our tents, logging fires and start the night watch. We are amidst fir trees, above a mountain stream where we fetch our water.

Finally, we take over the night watch in turns of 2 hours, and relax on the forest ground, separated only by a thin sheet of plastic from the wet undergrowth.

To be continued ..

Next : Kummerbauerstadl / Trattenbach / Lower Austria County



Article Tags: Austrian Armed Forces, Kaisersteinbruch, Uchatius Kaserne, Garrisson, Hauptman Array Walter Lukesch, Hochwechsel, Feistritzer Sattel, Steiermark, Burgenland, Kummerbauer Stadl

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Give a Speech? I’d Rather Die!

Jerry Seinfeld famously joked that at a funeral, the average person would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. Indeed, according to national surveys the fear of public speaking is America’s greatest fear, surpassing the fear of illness, fear of flying, fear of terrorism, and amazingly, the fear of death itself.

Nearly everyone suffers some level of nerves when speaking in front of a group. But for some people the anxiety can be overwhelming.

These people fear public speaking so much, they experience nausea, cold sweats and sheer panic. In these cases the regular advice – exhortations like ‘be prepared’ or ‘imagine your audience naked’– simply does no good.

Having spent years coaching people with intense phobias, I’ve learned techniques that can help you overcome these debilitating fears. One of the most effective is a technique called Anchoring.

How You Create Fear
To beat your fear of speaking in public, you first need to understand how you create fear in your mind and in your body. The way you feel at any moment in time is a direct result of two things: your Focus and your Physiology. Focus is the way you are using your mind: what you are thinking, and the language you use inside your head. Physiology is the way you are using your body: your posture, your breathing, and even things like how tired you are.

Every feeling you have is a result of a recipe composed of the Focus & Physiology you are using at that moment. Change Physiology and Focus and immediately your feelings change.

It is physiologically impossible to feel afraid while moving around with your head up, breathing full healthful breaths and thinking and talking about things you are happy and excited about. Try it and see.

Anchoring Yourself
Jumping around like an acrobat and singing your favorite song will definitely shift you into a much more positive state, but you’ll need a more discrete strategy for use before an audience!

The answer is Anchoring, a simple technique that taps into your neurology’s system for linking feelings to experience. You have already experienced anchoring thousands of times. It works like this: whenever something unique happens and you are in an intense emotional state your nervous system creates a link between the two.

Perhaps the first time you fell in love, there was a song that you heard on the radio. At the time that song played over and over again, and you were in the intense emotional state. Maybe it even became “your song.” Now whenever you hear that song that feeling of falling in love comes back.

In this case your mind created a link – an anchor - between a powerful feeling and a stimulus.

We can use this same sort of anchoring to transform how you feel about public speaking. You deliberately create a link between some kind of unique stimulus - one you control and can use whenever you want - and the kind of calm, confident emotions you want to experience when speaking in public.

So, begin by choosing a stimulus. I find that a simple, discrete action such as squeezing your fist works best. Next, practice tying that stimulus to positive emotions. Think of a fond memory, spend time with a loved one, or perhaps imagine yourself at your favorite vacation spot. Practice your stimulus during these times. Repeat this until you find you can recall the desired feeling anytime you want by using your stimulus.

This technique works like a savings account. The more you put into it, the more useful it becomes.

And, like a savings account, the reward can be huge: a vast reservoir of calmness and confidence you can draw on whenever you chose.
Why not give it a try?

Seymour Segnit is the President of Change That’s Right Now, a New York based company that has helped hundreds of people overcome chronic phobias. Visit him at http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/fear-of-public-speaking.asp.

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Talking Business

Copyright (c) 2007 The College Of Public Speaking

In business, there's no time to lose. Grab the audience's attention and make sure that you retain it.

The key question is - what is the purpose of your presentation? What do you want to achieve?

Do you want to inform, persuade, inspire, entertain?

Make the context crystal clear. Spend a long time considering your subject and gathering appropriate material that will punch your key messages home. How long will you be speaking for? What is your place on the speaking programme? Do you have to tie in with someone else's contribution? The auditorium and number of guests present can have a big impact on you and your speech. Find out who'll be there? Could they have an impact on your speaking career?

What visual aids equipment will be there? (or do you want to be there)? Know how to use it properly - and carry spares! Ensure that you know the requirments of the auditorium. Agree them up front with the organizers.

Get the sequence of your talk right. Would an agenda help? You will need a logical and 'signposted' structure with a definite conclusion (do not leave it in the air!). Have a strong opening with impact, something that the audience will remember long after. Similarly, the ending should be memorable. Research shows that your audience will probably remember the beginning and the ending if they are delivered convincingly.

Establish your audience's level of knowledge by research before the event. The army has an interesting saying: Ascertain as much as you can about your audience and the auditorium.' Ensure you adapt your presentation to their level of knowledge and interest.

Check for rapport with your audience. Are they nodding with agreement. Win them over. Smile, talk of 'we/us', and never talk down or patronize your audience.

Keep them awake. It's better without a written script (unless you have to). Aim for variety of voice - word pictures can be highlighted within a long talk - visual aids, maybe (with pie charts rather than tables) or break it up with a 2-man act.

If you have any briefing materials, distribute them before the event. Or tell them at the start if they'll get notes at the end. Be prepared for questions. Note and remember who asked the question. With Q&A sessions, always repeat the question.

Never lie to an audience - they'll never forget you for all the wrong reasons!

There is no substitute for preparation: preparation - preparation - preparation.

Explore all three in great detail and you will probably succeed in your assignment.


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Improve your speaking skills. How to make friends and influence people. Overcoming the fear of public speaking. 5 Regular mistakes made by speakers.
http://www.collegeofpublicspeaking.co.uk

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How to Overcome Your Stage Fright

Most performers have had stage fright at one time or another. Most of the time people can't help but be a little nervous, and that's fine! The trick is to control it.

Let me paint the picture: You're about to perform. Maybe your band is playing a gig, you're auditioning for a contest, you have a solo in your church choir today. You get on stage to do your part, and your rapidly beating heart is making it difficult to breathe. That fact alone is making you MORE anxious, and rather then concentrate on that high note you need to hit in two seconds you're trying to calm yourself down and slow your heartbeat to a normal level. Adrenalin rushes your body, and your voice cracks, or you 'sort of hit it', but flat, or sharp, because your throat was probably so tight that you over-shot it.

Sound familiar?

Don't worry! There ARE things you can do to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Having too much stress before you go out on stage will compromise your performance. A little bit of nervous energy is good, and can fuel your performance, but too much will hurt it. Not to mention damage your confidence for future performances.

A lesson on confidence

The core problem for many people is a lack of confidence.

Confidence is the answer to overcoming stage fright and having good stage presence. It's having confidence that will allow you the freedom to dance around and enjoy your experience on the stage, and because of that your stage presence will come out naturally!

Over-active nerves and the fear that your audience won’t like you causes stage fright. The fear that after you are done, no one will clap for you. That fear can be overwhelming it causes you to choke. Here are some basic concepts everyone needs to understand before going on stage:

1. You are your own worst critic. Read that again.

2. Any mistakes you make are amplified in your own ears, and sound worse to you then anyone else.

3. You can recover from any mistakes you make by simply moving on right away and not dwelling on them.

You just have to develop the ability to make yourself relax, and understand that it isn’t a big deal if even if you do have a less-then-perfect performance. Developing confidence on stage is also going to come from facing your fear and just doing it. Just getting up on stage and performing.

It'll be uncomfortable for you the first time, but after you do it a few times, you'll naturally become far more at ease with it. You will notice your heart rate won’t be as high before going onstage, and because of that you'll be able to breathe easier, and singing will be a thousand times easier.

It just takes practice and repetition.

Another thing that helps is if you're old enough, hit a karaoke lounge to get some practice. Even though it isn’t quite the same as singing with a band, you'll still get the feel for being on stage in front of an audience and the words will be displayed on the screen, so you won’t have the added pressure of trying to remember the verses.
This is also a good thing to do when practicing a song for the first time in front of an audience. As long as the karaoke provider has the song, you'll be able to practice it live.

If you aren’t already confident on stage, here are some tips to help get you there.

• Make sure first of all that you know the song you are singing.
I've made this mistake myself. I'm a karaoke host and at one of my shows, I started singing a song to open the night that I wasn’t too familiar with and hadn't practiced before, but thought I could pull it off anyway. OUCH! I was so wrong! I ended up stopping the song halfway through and apologizing. I then proceeded to sing a song I did know, and everything was fine after that. It was still pretty embarrassing.

Simple to prevent that, just make sure you know what you're singing!

Proper preparation is key for giving a good performance. If you know the song you're about to sing really well it's much easier. Here are some tips for preparing properly. Use them and you won't have anything to be nervous about!

• Make sure you warm up properly before you sing. Take a few minutes to do humming warm ups, and you'll have more confidence going onstage that you won’t crack or break because you warmed up properly.

• Take a minute to do some relaxation and breathing techniques like shoulder and head rolls. These help a huge amount in preparing you for a performance. Your voice is greatly affected by the amount of stress you bring to the stage, so the more relaxed you are, the better you will be. Here are a couple of them:

• One of my old teachers taught me this one: Sit down in a chair and put your back evenly and straight against it. Take a breath and as you do, pull your pelvis up and open your back so that is spreads against the back of the chair. At the same time, you should sink into the chair and squeeze the gluteal muscles together to support the diaphragm. Then, slowly blow air out of your lips like a quiet whistle, feeling your pelvis rise, back expand and glutes tighten. This is great for developing breath control for beginners, and illustrates the term “sitting on your breath”.

• Take a breath and hold it for a count of ten. Blow it out slowly, for a count of ten. This helps you control the amount of breath you let out over a specified amount of time.

• Don't drink alcohol in an attempt to relax yourself for your performance. This does not help; it dehydrates you and makes you sluggish. I assure you that you will not be focused properly if you have had a few drinks before you sing. Sure you may feel more relaxed, but you will be sacrificing other important things that you need to focus on.

• This is to be done while onstage: if you can, try and start your night with a duet. Your ability to do this will depend on what type of performance you are doing. If you are in a competition for example, this probably won't be an option. However, if it’s just a karaoke night or a band performance, you can probably begin this way. Having the added voice on stage with you will help to ease the nerves because you won’t be going at it alone, and not all of the audience attention will be on you.

• And one last thing to mention that's extremely important is to not take yourself too seriously. Do not be afraid to laugh at yourself if you screw up. It’s not the end of the world, and by having this ability to take it lightly; you'll be a better performer because of it. We all mess up onstage. We all go flat and sharp. We all forget the words. It’s not the end of the world, or your career as a singer. Lighten up!

Having good stage presence stems from being confident on stage. It starts with getting rid of your stage fright, and getting yourself comfortable to the point where you enjoy performing. After you've mastered that, you can move on to completing your performance by adding some stage presence. Having good stage presence means that a singer incorporates some form of movement coupled with singing that suits the song and is appropriate for the audience.

I was once on a panel of judges for a singing competition, and one of the things the performers were being judged on was their stage presence. Or lack thereof. The people that scored the highest overall were the people that danced a little while they sang and made motions and gestures to go along with the lyrics they were singing, instead of standing still like a stick with a microphone.

For example, there was this one guy who was singing a phrase that included the words: “I would get down on my knees for you”, and while he sang that, he got down on his knees right in front of us, and placed his free hand over his chest while singing. It was great! He showed feeling and emotion in his singing through the use of body language.

That is an example of great stage presence.

You don’t want to over do it by dancing around too much and compromising your voice, but you definitely want to do a little acting. The idea is to get your audience to feel what the song intends the audience to feel. You do this by getting the feeling of the music yourself, and portraying it with your own body language and voice to them.

Just keep in mind what the song is trying to make the listener feel, and act it out.

Some tips?

• Practice some signature dance moves that you can easily do on stage. Nothing too crazy, again, you don't want to compromise your voice.

• Have fun when you're singing! The best people to watch are the ones that are noticeably having fun. (Even if they don't sound so great, they're still the best ones to watch!)

• Practice your songs before you sing them on stage, and look for places to add some physical personality to them!
Make sure that you're not inappropriate. If there are young children around for example, don’t sing something inappropriate that might bother them. Be considerate of the audience that you are performing for, and tailor your stage presence and overall performance to that.

Inappropriate stage presence can be offensive to audiences, and is distracting from the vocal performance itself. It can leave people with a bad taste in their mouths over you.

I'm sure you get the point. Keep in mind exactly who it is that you're performing for. Make sure you're well prepared, and by doing that you'll see that the confidence will be there, and you'll enjoy yourself as a result.

Elisha Rae Ewonchuk is a recognized authority all over the world on the subject of vocal training. Her website, www.sing-like-a-pro.com, provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you'll need to know about singing, learning to become a singer and taking singing lessons.

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10 Essential guidelines for writing an effective essay

Essay writing is one of the most important writing skills. It not only tests the ability of a writer to understand the implication and scope of the subject but also his capacity to organize his thinking about the topic and to communicate himself in clear style. In university or college context, it gives an opportunity to students to explore and clarify their thoughts about the topic or subject. The following guidelines will help you through the essay writing process for an effective essay.

Choose the topic carefully:
Careful selection of the topic is the first step towards success in writing an essay. Topic of an essay may belong to a field, which may be vast, but for essay writing, you should keep yourself limited to the particular aspect of the topic and do not deal with the subject exhaustively.

Sort out the facts related to the topic:
Sort out the details of the topic in your mind and transfer them to paper in the form of notes. This mental exercise will also help you in finalizing a topic for an essay and finding out the information related to your topic.

Draw an outline of your topic:
After jotting down your ideas on paper, organize your notes and arrange ideas in a logical order. Reject any ideas and remove those points, which are not related to your line of presentation.

Give your essay an appropriate beginning:
The beginning of your essay should be such that it should give the reader or examiner the impression that you have a firm grasp of the subject. Beginning should be good enough to launch the reader into the next part or body of the essay.

Follow the basic rules of paragraph writing:
Each paragraph in the body of your essay should contain relevant information and details of one point.

Write a logical conclusion for the essay:
Conclusion provides a final view and perspective on your topic. It should emerge from the arguments or discussion preceding it, with simple review of main points and brief description of your feelings about the topic.

Use simple English:
Use simple and plain English for writing an Essay. Avoid use of slang, abbreviations and jargons or any fashionable words while writing an essay. Plain English writing software can help you to remove redundant words from your Essay to make it more concise and readable.


Do not overload the essay with figures and diagrams.
Complex diagrams, figures and statistics are very important for business presentations and meetings. However, you should resist the temptation of using these statistics and diagrams in essay writing.

Revise, edit and proofread:
Always proofread and revise your essay before handing it over as a finished product. Editing of an essay is required to improve clarity and readability. Use English editing softwares for editing your essay, so that you can save time and you can focus on writing an essay.

Polish and perfect your essay:
Like a finished product, the essay should also be polished and perfected to the best of writer's ability. Writing software can be used to polish and perfect your essay. Some of the writing software also has text enrichment tool, which enriches text without changing the meaning of the sentence.

For more information on writing software with text enrichment tool or for plain English writing and editing software for essay, please visit http://www.truevalue4money.com website.


For details on English writing software with text enrichment tool, please visit
English Writing Software and for plain English writing and editing software plain English writing and editing software website.

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The 7 Levels of Publishing, Part Two

Previously � in Part One.

The First Level of Publishing is to print one copy. The Second Level of Publishing is when you receive five copies. The Third Level of Publishing is when you want 50 copies.

Now - Part Two.

The Fourth Level of publishing is next. For the Self-Publisher or Internet Publisher, this is when they aim for sales of 500 copies. This means they have exhausted friends and family, all of them, including long-lost aunts, uncles, and people you used to work with years ago. It also means people you meet in Libraries and cafes, at Book signings and at Writers' Workshops. As one Literary Festival organiser told me a few years ago, it probably means you're a 'regional writer', quite well known in your own particular area, your neck of the woods. You will have been featured in your local newspaper and on local radio, maybe even TV. It's quite a high target and a place that some Internet Publishers never reach. Strangely, this is a level not even noticed by Traditional Publishers. If one of their signed authors stops at this level, Level Four, they would be viewed as a complete disaster, a huge loss of finanical investment and someone not worth bothering about in the future.

Similary for Level Five. This is where a single book's sale amount to five thousand copies. This would be laughable for a Traditional Publisher. Sure, some hardbacks launched in the UK never sell more than a few thousand copies, but this is mainly to get the critics interested and establish some kind of presence. The hardback that gets noticed through this initial launch would be followed by a paperback edition that would be expected to sell in the tens of thousands. Anything less, and the author would be quietly dropped, (even if a long-term contract had been agreed) and swiftly replaced by a new hopeful. For the Internet Publisher, this is a far more significant level. It means that the Self-Publisher will start to see an important contribution to their income. It starts to look as though they can really think about planning to give up the day job. It seems that they might finally make it into the realms of the 'full-time, professional author'. Why the big difference? Because an Internet Author doesn't have to make a huge profit for the publisher who signed them up. Those publishers need big sales to pay for all their glossy offices and expense account lunches, all the Conventions and Festivals they have to attend, plus the hangers-on, the Literary Agents, the publicity people, the photographers and layout artists, the book jacket designers. An author who has followed through on publishing their own book (with the help of an online publisher like Lulu) will be pleased to reach Level Five and will start to feel their careers are finally taking off. For a Traditional Publisher, looking at one of their authors at Level Five, means that if the person has peaked at this level, then they have completely failed.

Traditional Publishers want Level Six, at least, that is, sales of fifty thousand. Even then, the author isn't a 'success'. They won't be on the Bestsellers list, (they need the next level for that) and will be on the cusp of being 'profitable'. Still, with an author at this level, the Publisher would probably be willing to risk the next book and may even put some effort into it, perhaps even providing an Advertising Budget, at least.

(To be continued in Part Three)


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Mike Scantlebury is an Internet Author. He is offering novels for sale at Lulu dot com and has several web sites, listing books and stories he has written in different genres. He also enjoys a good argument and has set up the highly controversial Discussion Forum http://www.PublishingisDead.com where the debate can be faced and fought over (and the title speaks for itself).

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