Desert Cowboys Meet Charlie Daniels
Desert Cowboys meet the
Charlie Daniels Band
Charlie Daniels is coming and people are starting to approach me to help with the security detail that top has said we are going to be getting. I am not sure of what I am expecting to get out of doing this detail perhaps a picture next to him. I wanted to make him an honorary member of the Cowboy Crew and the Desert Cowboys too. (Yes that is from the song.) I will not talk to him about our song, because I already know every budding musician that ever meets him says they have a song for him. So when he comes I am just going to try and talk to him and see what type of person he is in real life. I am going to try to be the professional to the core that should be impressive. His song is the first one I ever memorized when I was a child and it was because I could say,
“I told you once you son-of-a-bitch, I’m the best there ever was!”
I was able to curse and get away with it. I had to sing the entire song to get to that verse, which was at the end. I still have it memorized but so do about a million other people. I also heard that he has turned real religious now-a-days.
13 April 2006, today I had a meeting at 1430 at the BIOP (Brigade Operation) for 4th ID, to go over the details of the security. After that I went back to the motor pool and the only one there was SGT Clark and I told him we got approval to wear t-shirts as long as we are all matching. So SGT Clark and I took off for the t-shirt shop and ordered twelve of them. On the front we put the Desert Cowboys, Cowboy Crew design and on the Back we put an American flag with SECURITY in black with a white outline. We talked about having the band sign it and then putting it in a shadow box. I am also going to try to get him to sign the National Day of the Cowboy flag that I am going to be giving to the Thomas Ranch. I also talked with the t-shirt shop again about getting our own flag made and he said to bring in our own material. What? Is he kidding where am I going to get Flag material? Oh well at least we got our t-shirts made. It is going to cost us $14 ea. That isn’t too bad to be able to get them in time for this, and only getting twelve of them. When we returned from that I decided to go talk with SFC Dunnaway about asking Battalion for nine of there “HammerTime” belt-buckles, so we can wear them on the security detail. He took us into see CPT Holt and she said she didn’t have any, but that she would look around to see if she can scrounge up nine of them for the detail and we would have to return them. No problem. I think we can handle that. The CSM said, “I’m going to give you mine so I know who I have to rap in the head if I don’t get it back.” So we laughed about it. I’ll get it back to him and he knows it. With the making of these shirts I really want to get our Desert Cowboys shirts made. It is really jumping up and down on my chest. I do have to give SGT Clark credit he put up the money for the SECURITY t-shirt money and we are all going to have to owe him. He was hoping to be able to wear his John Deere hat but that was not to be so. We can all wear our Cowboy Hats on the detail but not the ball caps.
18 April 06
CDB day, meet up time is 0730 in front of Battalion. PT test for SPT PLT today, the PT test has been postponed until further notice.
The day started early, with barely any sleep. Was it the anxiety of meeting Charlie Daniels? Ya, probably, but at 0700 I was up at the company meeting awaiting my notes in my unofficial uniform, consisting of my Bailey Cattleman Cowboy Hat, our Desert Cowboys Security t-shirt and the Battalion Belt Buckle. Talk about a fish out of water, it was great. Our setup crew was wearing their regular ACU’s (Army Combat Uniform). Once the meeting was over I headed down to the Battalion area where our pickup point was for the detail. Our pick-up time was 0800 so I had everyone standing out there at 0730 so I could react incase something was wrong or in case the people showed up early. Well around 0830 I decided enough is enough and headed into the Battalion to call the SFC that was to pick us up. When I finally got a hold of him after 5-6 minutes he tells me that Charlie Daniels landed late last night, around 0200, and our new pick up time was 0930.
Once we finally got picked up and taken to the stage area our set up crew took over and started downloading the equipment and had to wait on Charlie Daniels Setup Crew to arrive. We were supposed to meet the plane and take over security from that point. Well that didn’t happen so our next time was to link up with him at the PX. The PX was also to have David Price from CBS doing a live broadcast. Mr. Price was the first one to show up and we met him at his vehicle and escorted him to the stage area where his manager was already positioned.
From this point we stood around securing the stage area for his program. I did get a chance to get my phone out and hand it to SPC Coppock and tell him to call my wife and for her to record it. Well apparently she couldn’t get CBS and had to call SSG Carson’s wife, Mary, who did end up recording it. While towards the end of the broadcast Charlie Daniels walked around the corner and went into the Bazaar (a shop set up for local nationals to come sell stuff). We did not get the heads up he was that close. So we broke off in two teams and I headed up the team with Charlie Daniels and SGT Clark kept the team with the CBS crew. Once Charlie Daniels came out of the Bazaar he wanted to go to the PX and walk around, we escorted him into the PX and he was just as happy as could be to stop and talk with people. He was truly down to earth, this was something I could pick up on as soon as the second person stopped and started talking to him. It was hard to keep him moving on the schedule that they wanted but we just let him basically do what he wanted to do. We just controlled the access to him, but if he wanted to walk over to the people and talk to them he did just that. After he got bored with looking around he decided he wanted to go outside and sign autographs and it was my job to find him a spot. Now at this point I have to tell you there is more than just my group there. We have a One-Star-General and his aids and then you have Charlie Daniels aids. So you have three groups, plus at this point you still have the MP’s and Infantry with him as well, I almost forgot to mention that. So I took the MP’s outside with me and decided to do it at the Bus terminal it has overhead cover and it would be easy to secure with one entrance and one exit point. It looks like an old bridge from some of the older movies. I told the MP’s to clear that area and I would bring Charlie Daniels back out to them. Upon returning inside Charlie Daniels decided he was not going outside and he liked the AC inside the PX (Who out there could blame him?). He is not getting any younger and that was one of the main concerns being looked at with him, was his age. So I was happy to hear he wanted to do it inside. He is one of those types of celebrity that he will wait on you to be able to sign an autograph. At several points people were scrambling trying to purchase something for him to sign and he would be waiting just trying to talk with people. I would have to say around 100 people got autographs and another 50 or so shook his hand. During the middle of the autograph signing some of the AFFEE employees put on one of his CD’s playing in the background and cranked it up pretty loud. Once it slowed down and we were starting to wrap it up the general wanted us to get our shirts autographed by him. So of course he is a One-Star I have to follow orders so I called all the Desert Cowboys in and we got the back of our shirts autographed (Three of the Security detail was still guarding the performance stage and was not with us at this point). We also got some pictures of us around him.
It was my job to make sure his water was around for him to drink as well. I was the closest to him for all of this point. Once the autographs were done it was told that we needed to take him to the latrine. No problem the manager has a Porta-John right outside his door. So we secured the area. The importance about this is that he handed me his water bottle for me to throw away but we were on the move so I just shoved it into my right cargo pocket. I’ll throw it away when we get stopped again. Once he got done talking with the AFFEE Manager we had to escort him back out to David Price for a live remote broadcast interview. We were pulled to the side prior to the event and the manager / director for David Price wanted us to be interviewed on the National Broadcast. I had to decline because we were not in proper uniform and could not be on being interviewed. I am sorry for all of you who have been following us that I had to decline to be interviewed. There was a crowd of soldiers that did get to get on the show and I felt happy for them. At several points during this broadcast we were all stopped and asked if we can take pictures with people and if we would sell our shirts, or if we had more shirts we would be willing to sell. I am sorry to say but we were not there to make money this time we were there to pull security for Charlie Daniels. So we had to decline offers to buy our shirts.
Once the broadcast was over we left and headed to the stage where we would finalize our last sweep of the area. We had about two hours before Charlie would arrive back at this point. This was our down time as well to get out of the sun which had beaten us pretty hard at the PX this morning and afternoon. I had to separate the group back into two again, one set on the inside and one around the stage on the outside. It was the people who stayed behind that would go inside with him this time and the rest would stay out around the stage. You have to understand the military has a reverse pyramid affect when it comes to Divisions. 4th Infantry Division has more brass than our whole company has soldiers combined. This means that everyone who is 4th Infantry Brass just became VIP’s. Poor Mr. Daniels had to talk with every officer in the building and every one who came running over. I do believe that Mr. Daniels would have been a lot happier talking with all the soldiers instead of the brass, but attention is attention and the brass has the power. The Desert Cowboys are not about the power as you all know who have followed us, most all of us are support MOS’s (Military Occupation Specialists) we are here to make others look good. We make people in the fields of the Engineers, Infantry, MP’s and the Calvary look good and perform at there best.
There was a fellow who we call “Joker” his appearance is similar to Charlie Daniels just about twenty years younger and about 50 pounds lighter. It was funny to watch him and to interact with him through the night mostly prior to Charlie Daniels actually coming out. He was the driver for all his gear and is stationed on this base with us. He wore a tuxedo t-shirt, and had his beard trimmed like Charlie Daniels. There was a female Major who came up and asked if he was Charlie Daniels, I laughed and told her that he was his brother Jack. The two of us were just busting up laughing. Why is it that these officers are coming to this and they don’t even know who he is? Why is it that they are so naive? Why did she believe me and couldn’t figure out that he isn’t Jack, Charlie’s brother? For those of you who don’t get it right now if he had a brother named “Jack Daniels” he would be a drink, or a shot.
Mr. Price was the first to enter onto the big stage after the United States Army Country Band finished their sets up. They were actually a lot better than I thought they would be. Good Job and Congratulations to them! David Price did a 30-40 minute stand up routine as an ice-breaker. That was my cue to go back stage in the 4th ID Headquarters building and pick up Charlie Daniels. So off I went. I heard that David Price did a pretty good show, although I can’t attest to it myself. I did hear the beginning and had to laugh, so I would imagine that the rest of his show was like that. I led the way for Charlie Daniels to come out and led him straight to the stage we didn’t let anyone shake his hand or stop him. We were tired of that by this point. It is only a 50’ walk to the stage from the main door and we figured we could make it. We almost did until right before the stage I had to pull back some and move people off to the side and told them to talk with him after the show. I was very happy at this point that I wasn’t in uniform. The biggest problem out there was the Brass once again, I believe they think because they have rank that they can intimidate most people into getting there way. Most of the time they can but I have the backing of the one-star-general remember. So with tack we backed everyone off and positioned ourselves at the sides of stage. Wouldn’t you know as soon as he got on stage they came rushing up making us change our original plan of standing off to the sides to being directly in front of the stage we had to keep a five foot clearance. It was not a problem most of the night after we moved about 5-8 people back. The instructions to my guys were we would create a wall with all of us spaced out and they don’t go past us.
For an older man Mr. Daniels moved around and horsed around like I would be able to do and I used to be on Ritalin as a kid so that is saying something about me now. He moved back and forth and even did a little dancing. I just couldn’t believe it. I cannot tell you exactly what went on onto of that stage do to the fact that I had a job to do and was going to perform it to the best of my ability but you just had to stop and watch him some of the times. I was awestruck with what I witnessed. Some people said they have already seen him two or three times. Well for me this was a first and it was a toss up during the concert what would be better to be one of the crowds and watch this outstanding performance or to be the Security. Well that didn’t last but about 30 seconds and I decided that this Security detail was a lot better gig and moved a couple of people who where trying to record the complete song on there camera right next to the stage. We really didn’t mind if they came up close snapped a picture and moved back again but don’t stand right next to the stage and block everyone’s view.
SPC Gill, SPC Nye and PFC Sanders showed back up, these were some of the people who were on the setup crew. I handed SPC Gill my camera and she was able to get some pictures of the show and even one of me standing next to the stage with Charlie playing in the background.
Once the band started playing the Devil Went Down to Georgia song our guys pulled away from the stage and moved to the back where we had a Gator (a motorized vehicle) ready and waiting for Mr. Daniels to drive him across the parking lot to a secure building where we would shuttle everyone of these soldiers and Civilians thru to get there picture with Charlie Daniels and get autographs. It was estimated that we had around 3,500 people show up.
It took us hours to get everyone thru the line. Once again I saw what I believe is the epitome of Country Western Hospitality from Mr. Charlie Daniels. He refused to stop and refused to leave until each and every one of these soldiers made it thru to see him.
I saw some guitar picks on the table and wanted so bad to go up and get one for myself but I have a job to do and being professional around this particular group was utmost on my mind. So as I walked the entire line of people standing outside and back inside again, I watched them all disappear. This was the same thing with the extra sets of drum sticks. Oh my tears I had to hold them back, I am just kidding about the tears but sometimes I think I miss out on a lot because of my professionalism. If I would have asked them for it they would have bent over backward to get them to us. But, it is not our mission to look out for us it is our mission to look out for these people.
Once everyone was out the door and we closed the area it became our time. I had all nine of the Desert Cowboys Security team take off the Battalion Belt Buckles (which were loaned to us by different people just so we would all match) we had Charlie sign all of those. I returned each of those to the people who loaned them to us as a thank you to them. I also got Charlie to sign our copy of the ‘National Day of the Cowboy’ flag that we brought over here to Iraq with us (The flag was donated to us by Starline Brass with the stipulation that we give it away when we return. The Thomas Ranch was selected to receive it.). I am hoping that when we present it to The Thomas Ranch that the Thomas’ will be really impressed by that. If we get any other Country Western Singers in here I will also be trying to get there signatures on it as well. But, I did decide we would not fly it outside in the rain anymore because of his signature. As a matter of fact since his signature it is hanging inside. We will fly it on the 22nd of July this year for the National Day of the Cowboy celebrations that will be going on across the country.
The band was getting up and trying to move out of the way so that the Desert Cowboys could get the autographs from Charlie Daniels and everything and SGT Clark and I stopped them and asked each of them for there autographs on our shirts.
Out to the clear blue one asked, “Why do you want to ruin the shirt by having us sign it?”
The Desert Cowboys are support MOS’ and we know the feeling of being over looked or unappreciated! Without the band the show would be kind of boring with him fiddling and singing without the keyboard, bass, drums, lead guitar right with him.
So we wanted to say to them, “Thanks for coming over here and playing for us, you will never know what it means to us that you took time out of your lives to do this for us!”
Many people stand up and say, “They Support Our Troops”. Look around at different businesses that have that sign and ask the store owner or business owner what they have done for the troops. This band just put there lives in danger and believe me they did. This is no picnic over here in this area. But not only did they do that they have been flying all around this country playing in every little outpost that is around so that the bulk of the soldiers could get a chance to see them.
Did all of the Desert Cowboys get to see them?
No! We have over 50 member right here with us as of now, it would be almost impossible with this battalions pace and slowing down is not in there vocabulary at this point in the deployment. We have a non stop mission going on here. One of our very own who I personally think is in Love with the man (Charlie Daniels), SSG Carson was outside the wire for over 10 days and didn’t return until late the night of the concert and never got to make it over even to get an autograph. Do I feel bad that happens? Of course I do, but we all know that there is a mission and nothing comes before the mission. We did take care of him though we got a signed picture of the entire band and gave it to him. Several of our guys were outside the wire with him but each and every one of them knows that is the sacrifice that must be made. If I got called away someone else in the Desert Cowboys would have stepped up and took over.
So once again, “Thanks to the entire CHARLIE DANIELS BAND!” We really do appreciate you taking your time to help our moral over here, also a special thanks to Dave Price and David Corlew (the Producer for Charlie Daniels).
Well America until next time keep your chin up and Cowboy Up because the Desert Cowboys are still here and aren’t planning on going anywhere for quite some time.
