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!

I came from SE NM and left after work Friday. Drove to Eastland Texas and spent the night. MapQuest picked a route to travel that I thought was not the easiest or fastest. So took Texas 6 most of the way. For you non-Texans, most two-lane state highways or FM roads are 70 mph so you can make good time without traveling Interstates.

Got to Crawford about 9:30 and recognized Kristin and Dr. Raoul immediately. It was already seriously hot and Kristin was sweating profusely. Introduced myself to Basil and grabbed a stapler to finish my sign (which is reproduced in my tagline below). A group from Ft. Benning, GA had the very large American flag with patches from various groups sewn on supporting our troops. Also, I think they were largely responsible for the large tent that made the early afternoon heat somewhat bearable. The firemen had their barbecue going but what they probably didn't need to turn up the heat very far as ol' sol provided a goodly amount of warmth. However water was everywhere in cattle drinking troughs filled to the brim with ice.

About 12:45 the caravan rolled in including Jim Rob. Though supposed to start 1:00 p.m., it was delayed 15 minutes because of the traffic jam. Once it got started, there was the Pledge of Allegiance, singing of the National Anthem and an invocation. Some of us brave souls ventured out into the area between the tent and the stage to wave our signs high. The sun was brutal and I had to retreat to the shade a couple of times. A number of people came up to me to thank me for my service and today's servicemen thanked me for my support -- Lots of thumbs up from folks. (A number of pictures of me and my sign were snapped but I've not seen any posted -- lots of pic on the main thread have X's through them).

I was asked by Dr. Rauol to ask anyone with derogatory signs about Cindy to put them down. I went up to one man who had a sign calling her a "ditch bitch" to take it down. He refused, got indignant, talked about free speech, etc., and asked if I was going to fight him to make him take it down, that the rally wasn't about Cindy but about our troops and their mission. About that time some of the press saw the sign and the confrontation and swarmed over like flies on honey. To avoid drawing any further attention, I let him be but later he worked his way up behind the podium so that the press couldn't help but see his sign in the background. He was publicly asked to put it down, but refused. At that point he was escorted out by the police, only to return after the rally for whatever reason I don't know. However, the police were called back, but he left before they arrived.

This incident was different than the one where the Protest Warriors were mistaken for anti-war protesters and set upon. This occurred even though they were identified as on our side. The emotion apparently overcame close reading of their signs and they too were escorted off the site.

The Gold Star families who opposed their son/daughters name on Camp Casey crosses were asked to meet in a tent by the podium to go over and remove them. Then an announcement came that said all crosses were removed so that the families couldn't have a press moment in all the Cindy coverage. However, I drove by both Camp Casey 1 and 2 at dusk and crosses were present at both locations. (BTW, CC2 has a huge very white tent, almost looks like a permanent structure, not canvas. It is located at the southwest end of Prairie Chapel road opposite that road's entrance to the Bush ranch.)

Two of families there lost sons from the same unit, but didn't know it until they met up in the tent. One of the two was the family from New Jersy sent down there by Hannity. Following the rally, I stayed to help break down and clean up. I started to assist but suddenly felt sick, weak and very hot. I had stopped sweating so I thought I was maybe experiencing the first stage of heat stroke. A couple of ladies got ice cold towels for my head and a cold water bottle for my neck and after a while I felt better and continued to assist Kristinn, who was not about to leave the site without it being pristine (I took about a dozen loads of trash in my pickup to the dumpster). We took chairs back into the community center where I encountered FFforFreedom suffering from severe heat cramps. His cell phone was dead so he took mine and called 911 for help. They came and gave him an IV solution which was administered by other EMT's in the center.

Following the cleanup, I drove over to Camp Casey 1 where I joined other in protesting until an evening dust and wind storm sent me back to my truck and I decided it was time to start back to NM.

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