After Action Report From Crawford

So now it's all a part of history. Would that all of you could have been there to take part in this joyous day of celebrating our troops, our president, and our mission. Everyone who was able to attend saw different things, had different experiences, came away with a different idea of what transpired yesterday. That is the nature of how these things work.

My own perspective is that the event was a huge success. The number of people who gave freely of their time, their pocketbooks, their expertise, their muscle power, and their overwhelmning support was truly phenomenal! What a heart-lifting experience to be surrounded by good, all American Americans! What a contrast to those poor people on the left, with their sad faces, their misplaced loyalty, and in some cases, their desire to destroy this, the most successful country the world has ever seen.

My perspective on the day will probably be surprising to some, especially to those who have never been involved in the planning and execution of a large event like this. The truth of the matter is that during the event, you are too busy to see and hear what is going on up on the stage, and around the periphery of the event. There are always details to keep up with, people needing something taken care of IMMEDIATELY, some minor emergency or some request, that keeps you focused on that little subject, instead of what's happening a bit futher afield from your location at the moment. In actuality, in a lot of ways, I wasn't there!

There was never a time to just stop and listen to this speaker or that one---most of them, I didn't hear at all. The one thing I did hear was the lovely singing of our anthem by Mr. Bruce Odems, a career Austin Firefighter, and a veteran of the 1st Gulf War. No one could miss him, as his lovely voice was projected so beautifully out over the crowd. Then, it was time to turn back and take care of other details.

Many thanks to TXBubba for keeping a live thread going--(someday, I will have finished reading all of those 3 thousand plus posts). I was not very helpful as the phone connection was so bad for one thing, and for another, there were so many things happening that I didn't yet know about, so I couldn't tell her about them. And--well, I have to add that some of the things I told her turned out to be not true anyway, so maybe some of that bad phone reception was a good thing--LOL!

There are so many people who did a yeoman's job of making this thing a roaring success. It was incredible--people from all over the country just showed up with wonderful contributions, and went to work right away. I'm going to start a list of the ones I remember off the top of my head, and hope that The Sarce, Gracey, Drewsdad, and all the other freepers there will add to the list.

First of all, of course, is Kristinn. There are not enough adjectives in the English language to describe the contribution he made to this endeavor. Those of you who know Kristinn know what I mean--the rest of you will have to take our word for it. Kristinn is Kristinn and is one of FR's finest gifts.

While mentioning Kristinn, I have to interject and mention that 2 of my very good non-freeper friends who happen to live very near Crawford took over the duty of chauffering the non-driving Kristinn around all day every day from Wednesday through yesterday--when they even had to drive him about 100 miles to the DFW airiport, as the shuttle flight from Waco had mechanical problems. I won't mention there full names here for obvious reason, but Rich and Gail, you know who you are, and you have our gratitude!

One of our newer freepers, by the name of FFforFreedom-I think I got that right, but will check it to be sure-just literally connected with me, and got the ball rolling putting members of the Austin Firefighters Union to work, and rounding up supplies for the rally. The list of things they added is a long one, but one of the bigest things they contributed was sheer muscle power, hard work, heart, and sweat. They are the guys who furnished the barbeque and other food (and it was delicious). They hauled their grill and the power system to run it out to the site early in the day, and the smell of grilling sausage and brisket filled the air. They furnished water, ice, generators, fans, the EMS service, and on and on. They even hauled in a discarded old bathtub and iced down a load of watermelons in it! That's pure Texas, folks--LOL! Please give a word of thanks for these fine fellows. As the packing up, cleaning up was underway, FFforFreedom was nowhere to be seen--and then, all of a sudden, I spy him walking across the field, holding up his own IV! Seems he had finally been overcome by the heat and had to be administered to himself by the very EMS that he was responsible for getting onsite! He was on his way back to join his crew in cleaning up and packing up!

There were the two female dynamos from Ft. Benning, GA, who just came out of nowhere--with their 3 story tall flag, their balloons, their yellow ribbons, tents, and on and on. It was these young ladies who paid to rent out the air conditioned Community Center for EMS to have a place to bring in victims of the extreme heat for treatment. These gals were like a whirling dervish--came in, set up, broke it down, and carried it away. The engineering, heavy equipment, and all the details necessary to pull this off were just there--that's all--they just showed up.

The wonderful speakers, who truly spoke from their hearts, the families with loved ones serving in the Middle East, the bikers, the people on horseback, the true Gold Star Families--the people who made all the sacrifices to get to the rally from near and far--all contributed greatly to this wonderful day of patriotism and support for our fighting troops, their Commander In Chief, our mission.

Have no worry about lack of media coverage. (Is anyone really surprised?). Many, many cameras got this rally memorialized on film, and that film will find it's way to Iraq and Afghanistan and our toops will know that there is huge support for them in the U S of A! That was the point--that was our message, and our Service Men and Women will know this!

I will close with one personal incident that occurred at the end of this very long day. Forgive me, but I just feel the need "share" this.

We're finally on the road for home--it's about 8:30 PM or so, and Doctor Raoul is driving. He is an excellent, very safe driver (although he drives a bit slower than I do--LOL!) Anyway, after a while, he tells me that he has sort of hit the wall, and is having trouble keeping his eyes open. So we switch, and I take over the wheel. Raoul is now in the passenger seat, trying to snatch a few ZZZZZZ's, when he stirs, and says, "Is that a siren I hear?" I look out the rear window, and sure enough--I see these flashing blue and white lights, and the siren is growing closer. (Keep in mind, I've been behind the wheel for --oh maybe 5 minutes). Of course, I'm being nabbed--LOL!.

I pulled over , and my "new friend in blue" pulls in behind me. Also, you must know, we were on a back road, not a major highway, and there was very little traffic, and nothing but open road ahead. I didn't want anyone to get the idea that I was endangering anyone--but I was definitely speeding.

So the cop walks up and introduces himself as Officer so and so, from the Hutto TX police dept, and that he clocked me going 76 in a 65 mph zone. I tell him, "Guilty as charged, officer, and it is also my obligation to let you know that I am armed." He asked if I had a License to carry the gun, and I said yes. And then............................

and the message is that there is an erratic driver on the road, with a child in the car. The officer looks at me, and says. "Be on your way, and drive safely!" He hadn't even gotten around to asking for my driver's license! He ran back to his car and took off!

Doctor Raoul, who never opened his mouth during all of this, was wondering if he dreamt the whole episode. I told him no, it happened, and it just goes to show that there is a GOD! End of story--the rest of you take over with your details now, please--I've already been far too long-winded!

Usually Protest Warrior's signs are quite effective. This was not one of their best.

The incident is unfortunate too because of what I've seen since I read this post: MSNBC has a picture of what they called pro-Bush supporters stomping on a opponent's sign (not exact wording but something like that--it's in their slide show). The sign clearly had www.protestwarrior.com on the bottom. I don't think MSNBC realized it was a sign from a Bush supporter, but I'm sure plenty of goons on the left recognized the website. You just hate to give them any ammo.

Having said that, it was NOT PW's best effort, and it is certainly understandable how this particular sign could easily have been misconstrued, given the left's propensity for trying to break up counter rallies by disrupting them.

Minor quibble. I am very proud so many people came out in force to defend the Troops and our President.

Bless you all.

WOW!!!! What a turn out. What an honor it was to be taken in by Basil and Kristinn and allowed to provide our assistance. I had positive feedback from all the fire fighters who participated. They all volunteered their services if we do this again. I can't thank them enough for their hard work. Like Basil, I was so busy setting up, attending to other issues, serving food, or working EMS, that I missed the show.

I enjoyed working with Kristinn. He did a tremendous job.
He looked good up there in his Texas get up. A special thanks to Kristinn for allowing me to assist him and take part in the event.

A special thanks to our ladies from Ft. Benning who jumped in with the funds and the steam to get us over the hump as we realized the crowd was going to be three to five times what we had anticipated.

From the EMS side things went better than expected. We had a few minor heat injuries and a diabetic emergency but other than that no major issues. Marilyn Judy with Crawford EMS, who runs Crawford's single ambulance and is a school teacher, did a wonderful job for us. There were other ambulances in place that responded quickly when we needed them.

I got the honor of meeting Jim R. Unfortunately I was busy working on a patient next to him and didn't get the chance to thank him for creating this wonderful forum and for letting me take part in the event. JIM!!!! Thanks!

YES, I got an IV. This leads me into one of my stories. To start, most of the organizers didn't get any sleep the night before the event. I mean that quite literally. I know for myself the only thing I had to eat was a sausage wrap thrown to me by my good friend John about 11AM. Kristinn wasn't doing any better. He came in for something to eat just after the main event ended and got in on the scraps. Keeping up with our water loss was a struggle. HOT and HUMID!

Getting to the story, I was working in the Recreation Center assisting individuals who were over heated. I noticed a woman come in with her son. She was obviously over heated. She gladly accepted a couple of iced down towels we were handing out. Her son lovingly came to her assistance keeping her towel cooled with water. He soon became our biggest helper asking people how they were feeling and if he could get them a cool towel to make them feel better. Later in the afternoon, after working outside, I was on my last leg. I went to the Rec Center to cool down and get a second wind. I'd lost way too much water, and those darned old heat cramps were getting the better of me. That sweet young lady with her son, and now her husband, come up to me and tells me she is a nurse. She happily aided in starting a line and getting some fluids in me. That put me back in the game. A big thanks to that family from Killeen and to her husband for his service as a Sergeant at Ft. Hood.

The BBQ was a big hit. We served approximately 1000 people or more. We were ate clean. The Brisket and Bread went first. The Sausage and Tortillas went last. A couple hours into serving in that hot Texas sun my guys were about to become casualties. I asked Kristinn if he could round up some help. Minutes later, three young ladies from Belton, TX showed up ready to work. Earlier in the day I checked in on the guys serving and Chuck was in the process of bandaging up his thumb from a cut. It was an interesting scene when I made the rounds later and watched as Chuck tried to wrap up the thumb of one of these young ladies with his bandaged hand. The cuts weren't too bad, and we all got a giggle out of it when I called them twinkies.

Someone laughed and commented when I told someone I had to get the machetie to cut the water melons. They thought I was kidding. I chopped up a melon or two and a feisty red head with these young ladies decided that was the job for her. She was very proficient in the art of cutting melons. All the fire fighters were impressed, and I heard numerous comments about her enthusiasm in chopping up the water melons. My comment was, "You're doing a great job, but please don't leave any fingers down there with the melons." I was praying the knife didn't slip out of her hands. It very well may have landed in the peace neck camp off of main street.

I hang out in the freeper Canteen. I wanted to get some pics and a banner up to recognize their wonderful support of the troops. Sorry guys and gals, I was just too darn busy to make it happen. If it's any consolation, you folks are the reason I was able to be a part of this. A big thanks to the canteen for their support of the troops.

A small correction to Basil's explanation of the guys who were helping out. Many of them were Austin Fire Fighters and most accept for myself are union members. I organize Central Texas Conservative Fire Fighters and that was who was helping out. Many of these are not in the union. One of my primary activist activities is fighting union political abuse. Basil, no big deal, but my local union would get a real surprise if they thought I was representing them in Crawford.

A big thanks to Move America Forward for getting this started and of course a Big thanks to Free Republic for allowing me to help them with this event.

I'm very honored to be a part of Free Republic and to have had the opportunity to serve all those wonderful vets, families of vets, and supporters in Crawford.

God Bless you all, and don't hesitate to call on me if you need my services.

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