The religion of deer hunting

[Robert Rowland]

When I joined the National Guard in '81 there was an unwritten rule that we would not drill on Mothers Day weekend, Super Bowl weekend, and Firearms deer season. Several years later a new Battalion Commander scheduled a drill on opening weekend. He found out why we never did that when about half of the people in the battalion did not show up, and they have not tried it since.
Since I retired from the Guard, the unit has been sent to several hot spots and many of my friends have not only had to be away from family, but also miss multiple deer seasons. I have missed one season in the last 32 years and it just about made me sick when it happend. I have tried to make it easier for the troops by sending care packages, although the D&DH magazines may have made it harder on them. Many of my old friends are now in Bosnia serving as U.N. peacekeeping troops and they will miss another deer season.
If you have friends, or even a guard unit near you that has troops deployed, get the address from the guys at the armory and send your magazines among other things to these guys. They need that kind of stuff to keep their spirits up.

[hunter480]

ORIGINAL: Robert Rowland

When I joined the National Guard in '81 there was an unwritten rule that we would not drill on Mothers Day weekend, Super Bowl weekend, and Firearms deer season. Several years later a new Battalion Commander scheduled a drill on opening weekend. He found out why we never did that when about half of the people in the battalion did not show up, and they have not tried it since.
Since I retired from the Guard, the unit has been sent to several hot spots and many of my friends have not only had to be away from family, but also miss multiple deer seasons. I have missed one season in the last 32 years and it just about made me sick when it happend. I have tried to make it easier for the troops by sending care packages, although the D&DH magazines may have made it harder on them. Many of my old friends are now in Bosnia serving as U.N. peacekeeping troops and they will miss another deer season.
If you have friends, or even a guard unit near you that has troops deployed, get the address from the guys at the armory and send your magazines among other things to these guys. They need that kind of stuff to keep their spirits up.

 
Outstanding post!
 
It`s very easy to get caught up in the preperations for our own upcoming deer season, and forget about the warriors, (men and women), who are away from home, missing deer season, to keep us safe.
 
God Bless all our troops, and God Bless America!

[passin through]

I know what you mean!  Directly across the stateline from me, in south Arkansas, school is let out for the Friday before the gun opener for deer.  In south Louisiana everything closes for opening day of squirrel season...and I mean everything!  It is good to remember the folks that can't make it for whatever reason--- we have a guy that does mission work every year in South America and when he does make it home it is only for a few days before he is gone again.  His stands are always ready to hunt though.  The year Katrina and Rita hit we had lots of absent brothers and sisters helping with the recovery effort and most of them were LANG just back from a 1 year hitch in the sandbox.  To be that close to being in your home woods again and then called back to duty was very tough.  Those of us that could did everything we could to make things better, Calls and e-mails and pics, as well as some fresh meat snuck on a south bound convoy were very appreciated by them.  The coolest thing that ever happened to me with absent friends was a couple years ago we were playing around with our cb radios talking deer hunting and the cell phone rang--- it was a friend of mine working in west virginia and he was picking us up as skip chatter on his cb---- that was cool.