Answering the Call

The Desert Cowboys are “Answering the Call” of Freedom. Their choice to volunteer to enlist in the United States Military was a tough decision but they stepped up! They did this when most of America stepped back in awe and disbelief, after 9-11. America is at war even if people try to say otherwise. No matter what they call this exercise, or operation, we are at War!

The Desert Cowboys have once again raised above all others volunteering to go outside the safety of the walls of the FOB (Forward Operating Base) to help out local communities rebuild. Security is always the main issue or focus that we look at when we roll out. Let’s just say that these American Cowboys always watch each others backs when others are just watching there own buttock (trying to keep it clean). You can see by the Cowboy Photos and their Cowboy Tattoos that work is fun and hard all at the same time, just the way all American Cowboy’s, especially those in the military, like it. You can also hear it in the Cowboy Slang or Cowboy sayings that they use during their day to day business that this group has what it takes to “get-r-done” and “Cowboy-Up”.

While on this operation there were several issues that came up.

Flat tire
External Security
Internal Local Nationals
Civilians
Children

A flat tire happened when traveling back to the FOB. The tire shredded itself and the rim began being dragged on the pavement. When the driver did realize that the rim was dragging he could not stop on the side of the road because of our External Security force, which kept on rolling. Once one of our Desert Cowboys got on the radio and finally told him he was stopping the rest of the Convoy our security force did stop about 5 miles up the road. The tire finally got taken off and we were back on the road and headed back to the FOB with no more incidents.

Having External Security (another U.S. Military Company) is always a danger when we start looking at off the FOB missions. For the most part the 1-56 Infantry did an outstanding job. They took on all security issues and this cleared us up from our own personnel being used for security and then working on top of that. They cleared out the town and pulled 24 hour OPS (Operations) around us. These Men where tough and dedicated to what they were doing. The danger I was speaking of would come in at the point of if we were to actually get attacked. No-one knows each other when you join any two groups together. This did not happen on this trip but that is one of the key points that leaders always have to keep in mind when on these types of missions. We had several key Desert Cowboys players out on this mission and if something were to have happened then believe us America these true Patriots could have handled it.

Internal Local Nationals are another issue that is a big concern when you are outside the wire. No matter how much you want to include the local nationals that the United States has hired, you always have to be cautious when dealing with them. At any point you know that anyone of them could be an Insurgent. Also, they do things a lot different then the rest of America. Safety isn’t an issue to them as it is to us. A barrier of communications also becomes an issue when things are moving at such a fast pace. We had three running cranes and several other large pieces of Construction equipment and another platoon of Vertical guys building structures, running water lines, working with electricity and the motor pool kept working on all the trucks to keep up with maintenance.

Civilians on the Job site are always a concern, because you cannot just clear an entire town, you must leave people who live there, in their homes and that becomes dangerous. On this trip there was no animosity that we could see between the Americans and the Iraqi’s, as a matter of fact we saw just the opposite. These people were happy to see us there rebuilding their town. There was a stand that sold food and it was outstanding, definitely better than the chow hall at our hosting (staging) FOB. For only $3.00 you could get two sandwiches (pita bread, fresh vegetables, and something that looked like a chicken nugget that we never could figure out what it was, but it was good) and two Cokes. We could all live with that easily.

Children around is a great boost to our entire moral. Most everyone who deploys over here fights with depression, a never ending battle. Just being around the children seemed to lift our spirits. Most of the older Soldiers seem to already have kids and it gives us a chance to reflect back to why we are over here. It is for our own children or our brothers and sisters, which most of us view as young still. The kids were funny and kept asking for dollars, seeming to already know which pocket it was in and pointing at that exact pocket (sounds just like your baby Cowboy or baby Cowgirl doesn’t it?). (It reminded me of Mexico when I would take my family down there for a visit while they were on vacation, down in Cochise County Arizona, at The Thomas Ranch.) We passed out Bennie Babies and candy, I only wish I could have had those cheap little straw cowboy hats to pass out to them, that would have topped it all off perfectly. To all of our Children we would like to stop and Thank all of You for being part of our lives. We know you don’t get to choose your parents but we are all happy to have you in our lives. You are the most precious things that we have on this earth. Each night if you can hear people sobbing it would be because they are thinking of their children, or spouse (husband or wife). If we only touched one of those children’s lives in that town then I believe our trip over here was worth all of our separations and own heartaches (not being selected for the Sergeant First Class board seemed unimportant at the time). That one child could be a future leader of Iraq and we may have just given them a new impression of America. They may know what a Real Cowboy is now and how big our own hearts are. Most people think we are here to kill and destroy everything; this is exactly the opposite of what we are trying to do. We are here to rebuild Iraq and to secure the future of all Iraqi children to grow up and have equality like we already know.

The mission was a complete success and we even finished about a week ahead of schedule. When you have been outside the wire, for more than a week, you are ready to head back and be able to strip out of the extra gear, which is quite heavy. You always sleep like a baby (something I never understood, babies wake up every two hours and cry) when you come back from a mission like that. You don’t sleep much when you are outside the FOB because even when you are sleeping you always keep your senses keen to anything out of the ordinary. This only explains the majority of soldiers, some of these soldiers can and do fall asleep if you get a break for only five minutes. (I wish I could.)

Other happening were we had four “Hero of the Week” and a rifle range that we had a 100% qualification by everyone that attended.

“Hero of the Week” winners.

SPC Rosa – working with the Crane on several key operations.

SGT Clark – putting together a vehicle within 28 hours, after it was hit by a mortar, to get it mission ready. It did roll out two days after being hit on another mission.

SSG Carson – who rewired our entire motor pool and taking on the Shop Foreman position.

SPC Eichholz – serviced all generators during our Service Crunch (18 days of Heck) acted as a squad leader while SGT Clark was outside the wire and entirely redoing the tool room to make it more efficient.

SPC Leckie – for our “18 days of Hell” when we worked round the clock to push trucks in and out of the bays to get them serviced and lubed. We had fallen behind around 50 services and it seemed that SPC Leckie had his hands on at least 75% of each of these trucks.

Great Job to all of them for all they have done and continue to do on a daily basis. These American Cowboy Soldiers have been selected because they stood above everyone else. That is not to mean that those who’s name do not appear as Hero of the Week are not doing outstanding work, but there is only one “Hero of the Week”, we still have 40 weeks left, so there is still time.

Bibles from the Lane Frost Family arrived and the Desert Cowboys decided to do the same as a return gift for them, signing 4 military Bibles. During this endeavor some of the not so great communication that we have over here, SSG Anderson’s and SFC Dunnaway’s Cowboy Bibles got signed by the Desert Cowboys by mistake; which were personalized with there names and signed by the Frost Family. It was quite a disappointment when they found out that happened, but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Thanks to the Frost Family once again for what you are doing.

On the radio MWR (Moral Welfare Recreation) announced that there are two big Country Western Stars that were going to be putting on a concert at one of the other FOB’s. No matter how hard the Desert Cowboys tried to get there it seems that destiny wasn’t on their side. They are known to be the only group in Iraq to have brought their Cowboy Hats and were disappointed that they could not go see the concert or to be able to meet them in person.
“If we ever do get a chance to meet any of them we will definitely get you some pictures.” - Russell J. Anderson, Leader of the Desert Cowboys. He also added, “If any Country Western stars are visiting and want to visit please stop by and ask for us by name!”

Since the last report the Desert Cowboys lost their computer, it crashed. They are currently scrambling trying to restore all lost data. It is not as simple as dropping it off to a local computer store. They are isolated and do not have the capabilities that they have in the states for these types of things. So a hard drive hard boot is called for and is currently underway. Let’s all just pray that they can get the data that they have on their computer restored. SPC Pel one of our own Desert Cowboys is working as a technician for us and LT Thornton stepped up and loaned some money to purchase a 300 GB external hard drive to keep and store all the information for the Cowboys.

Well America until next time Cowboy-Up and try to keep our families safe, back home. We will do our part here in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stand behind your Military Cowboys, American Cowboys and Cowgirls who are “Answering the Call of Freedom.”
Thank you America, for giving all of us the opportunity to secure “Tomorrows Freedoms.”

Your American Patriots,
Desert Cowboys