TO THE RESCUE!!
Reading this title you would think that we did something outstanding, wouldn’t you? Well that is not what this article is about. This article is about overcoming boredom when it hits you the hardest. Five months into this deployment is a milestone for us. It seems only yesterday that we boarded that plane and headed over here.
Our daily jobs seem to be mundane to say the very least. This is why you see my group always volunteering to go outside the wire. We all joined the Military for different reasons. I personally joined back in 1989 and had to go back to school to get my GED / High School Diploma, because I was on a Patriotic kick, the Gulf War was about to start and after school in 1990 I finally got my chance to go. I stayed in the Military thru Basic and AIT because I didn’t want to be a failure in the eyes of people back home. This list would include my Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, Fiancé, My Child (who was just born), and a slue of other people who have influenced me along the way. It seems trivial to some of you of what others would say or do, but to me it means the world. I have stuck it out thru some of the worst times of my life due to what others may think about my decisions. This also has kept me from making some bad decisions throughout my career in the Military. No matter what reason that members of the Desert Cowboys joined the military it is important that they did.
It is beyond reproach that they left their Home-Towns, their Wives, Husbands, Children and Loved ones to travel half way across the world to fight for a Country that seems that they don’t even want us here. It is important that we stay on task. It is also important that we do our job here. We don’t get days off here and I have been without one for over 130 days and boredom, fatigue, depression, and homesickness are all part of a normal day over here in Iraq. As a Non Commissioned Officer it is my job to watch the Soldiers under me and make sure we give them time to recuperate and down time to relax. But as far as we go it is a different story. We know that we will get to take leave when this is all over and we give our all everyday until we leave this country. I personally watch my fellow NCOs to make sure that they are doing well, and I make sure they get time off as well.
So, “To the Rescue” comes the
American Cowboy Culture! Starting things off,
Chronicles of the Old West sent us their Newspaper, which provided hours of entertainment. Not only by reading their Newspaper but by coming up with our own accounts of what if we were back in that time knowing what we know now. Mr. Dakota Livesay also sent us some CDs of his show so we could listen to them. The Desert Cowboys sure would have made great bandits.
Western Jubilee Recording Company LLC sent us an exorbitant amount of CDs and Cassettes for our guys to pass the time with. This was also a start for us to kick off our own song writing ability and we picked up on it by writing and working on our very own song,
Ride with Pride. Look for us to finish our song up by the time we leave here. It gets as much time as the million other projects we have going on here. You can see SPC Hafley working on the rift with our broken up guitar but let me tell y'all it still sounds great to us. Over here you work with what you have and never look back.
Then
Fast Back Ropes stepped up sending us our own set of ropes. If you think that the Desert Cowboys would make some pretty funny Bandits, you should see some of the newest Cowboys try to Rope. Take a look at some of our Desert Cowboys trying to rope a trash can, which has become a nightly tradition in our neck of the Trailer Park. It is not only us who are taking up Roping but it is also soldiers who we have never even met before coming up just to talk with us and try roping for themselves. Thanks guys you have really made a lasting impact on all of our souls for this one. The Excalibur is one of the quickest break in ropes I have ever owned.
Watson Cattle Company stepped up after hearing about the Desert Cowboys computer crash and volunteered to send a replacement over so we could keep these WebPages updated. This story is a sad and long one but I will try to break it into a comprehensible story for you. Mr. Watson bought a brand new Laptop and mailed it certified and Insured to the Desert Cowboys. After about 30 days he came home from work to find a box sitting on his front porch. It was the Laptop back from Iraq, according to the post marks. When he picked it up it jiggled, so he opened it (Shipped in Original Packing) to find that it had been opened and beaten with what he could only guess was a hammer. It had a stamp saying insignificant funds on it and was returned to him. The Desert Cowboys felt as if our world had just feel apart the same people that Mike was trying to help just destroyed the one precious thing that he was trying to help out with. It must have been heart breaking for him to find that. At that moment I called up Bethany who is our go between from National Day of the Cowboy and told her how sorry I was to hear about it. I was told he had bought a nice used one for Chris, from In the Saddle with Chris, and was sending it to get us up and running. Well within about three days of that conversation our Laptop arrived in a plain box with No
FRAGILE stamped on it and it was not insured ‘nor was there any inkling of what was inside of it. That’s the way to do it Mike. Once you add Fragile to a side of the box that all of you are sending over here it becomes a target to the people in the mail service. So I wanted to take this time and personally thank Mr. Mike Watson once again and say thanks for all you have done and how sorry I am that you had to go thru the troubles you did, when all you were doing was trying to help.
Knead A Cookie sends care-packets on almost a weekly basis for all of our Cowboys to enjoy. We have received Cowboy Cookies, American Stars Cookies, and a load of others. I do believe that Dawn Schwanke is using us as Ginny pigs to test out any new cookie that she comes up with. This woman out does herself every time we receive a set of Hand Decorated Cookies. I can not imagine the pains taking that she must put in to these things. I will have to stop the guys from eating these so fast and take a picture of them. These cookies do not last long and you basically have to fight to get even one. Thanks Knead A Cookie for a taste of home.
There is so much time to still go on this deployment that we are just trying to latch on to anything we can to remind us of what we left and what we have to look forward to. I am sure that the Thomas’ of
The Thomas Ranch are very happy to hear that I am still throwing a rope everyday so I don’t get rusty. One day soon retirement will come and a life of settlement shall come back to my family which at this point is used to picking up and moving and living without their Father and Husband for long durations. 20 years in the military sure takes its toll on a family and relationship, not many can make it thru so many heart aches and this is why at this point I would like to stop and Thank my Wife for standing by me for so many years. Thank You Baby, I Love You with all I have! This could also be said from every Desert Cowboy to the ones that they Love back home. We Love all of you America. Be strong and be safe until we return.
Desert Cowboys ©2006
