From your post Frank, I take it that you have never served in any of the armed forces and most certainly have never had experience of hostile situations where large numbers of people are trying their level best to kill you. If you had had such experience then you would know that there is no such thing as a "rigid military view" on anything. History has shown that anyone adopting such a view in military situations loses, the best example of that being Napoleon.

"Rigid military view" eh? Another old adage goes something like this Frank, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy" so in the military you are deliberately taught to think on your feet and adapt to the situation that presents itself, the popular perception by the anti-war crowd of the military being mindless "Yes Sir, No Sir, Three bags full Sir" types is a myth.

"Your facts reflect your opinions but do not necessarily qualify as truth. Most of what you say I interpret as distortions based on your mindset." - Stringsinger/Frank

Facts are facts Frank, plain and simple, they are neither yours nor mine. How those facts are perceived is the problem area where the marked differences appear, the facts however remain neutral. Anyone who has done any sort of specialist job, when it comes to interpretation of facts relating to their field of expertise and experience will have greater perception of what is going on than someone who does not share their training and experience. My past experience, knowledge and understanding are useful when reading reports of conflicts and military operations in various places, but Frank that is the only time my supposedly "rigid military view and mindset" is applied, the rest of the time for almost all other situations in life I relly on the application of logic and common-sense.

The verse of the song you quoted is "Teribus", and it outlines the story of how the town came into being in 1514, how a group of boys aged between 9 and 14, when faced with attack from an English raiding party from Hexham Priory, banded together, armed themselves as best they could and mounted a pre-emptive strike at a place called Hornshole between Hawick and the village of Denholm. The boys of Hawick had to do this as all the able-bodied men from the town had been killed the previous year at Flodden. They attacked the English raiding party while they were corralling live-stock taken as plunder, the men of Hexham Priory were also at a disadvantage due to the fact they were drunk. They were all killed and their bodies dumped in the River Teviot. The "Callants" (boys) of Hawick returned to the town carrying the Standard of Hexham Priory, which to this day is the Town's flag. The Earl of Drumlanrig, of the Black House of Douglas, could not meet his feudal duty of protecting the town so he granted the town its charter as an independent burgh of barony. The infant Earl also granted the town its common lands on the proviso that the young men of the town - Hawick's Callants - ride the boundaries every year to prevent encroachment on the town's land by outsiders. It's recently been voted as one of the most successful local festivals in Scotland and is called The Common Ridng.