'All these snakes will be cooked and eaten'
FORT SILL, Okla. -- Golfing, hiking -- even a close encounter with a rattlesnake.
All are welcome distractions from life at Fort Sill in Oklahoma for the citizen soldiers from the Oregon Army National Guard Medevac Unit based out of Salem, Ore. as they train to deploy to Iraq.
Soldiers have not been allowed to get off post to savor steak dinners in the nearby town of Lawton, Okla. At Fort Sill, civilian pants, t-shirts and sandals are not allowed, and cold beers cannot be consumed on balmy spring nights.
Sgt. Tyson Pardun, a firefighter from Springfield, Ore., compared Fort Sill to a minimum-security prison during a town hall meeting.
“I’m going to be glad to go to Iraq," Pardun said, "because I have more freedoms in Iraq then I would here."
So to keep soldier’s spirits up during their time at Fort Sill, there is MWD -- Morale Welfare Day.
“We just came out for a golf tournament so that we could do something besides Army stuff,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jeff Blankenship, a seasoned golfer who organized the tournament.
Soldiers showed up at Ft. Sill’s golf course ready to play 18 holes.
They wore their IPFU, Individual Physical Fitness Uniform, black pants and a grey shirt, their most casual option.
The tournament was canceled the week before due to bad weather, the sun is bright and shaved heads, cheeks and necks turned from pink to red.
“It’s good exercise, a good opportunity to meet people, work with people you don’t normally work with. The enlisted, the commissioned and warrant officers, they all golf together,” said Blankenship. “Hopefully they enjoyed it and everybody’s camaraderie.”
Hiking, running and Ultimate Frisbee
Other activities that have kept the soldier’s spirits up are hiking, running and occasional pick up games of Ultimate Frisbee.
"Everybody has their thing, whether it's knitting, whether its watching movies, whether its Skyping online with families back home, or reading,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Natalie Miller, one of two women pilots, who has lived in Portland for the last five years
Miller often runs the rough six-mile route that most people refer to as a steep hiking trail. “This is my release,” she said as she looked over the bluff to a trail next to the river below. “Finding pretty places to go run.”
26th Annual Rattlesnake Festival in Apache, Okla.
Some Oregon soldiers attended the 26th Annual Rattlesnake Festival in Apache, Okla,, which will be there one last morale welfare event before leaving for Iraq.
“All these snakes will be cooked and eaten,” said Fangmaster Ron Orf as he walked through the snake pit at the Apache Rattlesnake Festival, which thundered with the sound of rattles. Dozens of soldiers gazed over the wood panel that separated them from the piles of snakes below.
Orf, a survivor of five snakebites, picked one of the snakes up with his hands and showed it to the crowd.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Scott Anderson volunteered to get closer to the snake.
“You know these are like a ticking time bomb,” said Orf placing the snake around Anderson’s neck, which solicited yells from the crowd.
For several hours, soldiers ate funnel cake and wandered around the festival grounds.
“I was hoping to eat snake meat,” said Sergeant Trent Grimm who instead settled for a hotdog.
Other soldiers visited the butcher shop where Sharly Lindsey cut into a snake to remove the meat, which will be sold for $15 a pound.
Next she laid the skin on the table and within the hour it sold for a dollar a foot. Rattlers were also sold for a dollar a piece.
At the end of the day the city of Apache gathered the soldiers together and thanked them for their service to the country. Soldiers rode the bus back to their last night at Fort Sill as thunder boomed in the distance.
Rooms at the barracks that night echoed with the sounds of soldiers saying goodbye to their friends and families via cell phone. The floors, once littered with gear, is clear except for green Army bags stuffed to the brim with clothing and equipment.
“I feel again how I felt when we left Salem,” said Miller before going to bed. “We’re going to do it. We’re going to perform our duty.”
