Sunday's work was no easy task. I joined 23 other people, most of them young Lieutenants of the Officer Basic Course on Fort Huachuca, to build a small section of the AZT north of Sonoita. Everyone present was a volunteer; no one was forced to show up today.
Steve, Brenda, her husband Gordon and Bernie also were there from the hiking club. Bernie was the organizer and another Steve, also in the club, was co-organizer.
It was back-breaking work in the heat of the day, and watching these young officers break ground with pick-axes and hoes made me think of the song "I've been working on the rail-road" although one young LT retorted with "I think of the song 'Chaingang'!"
I've been toiling in my own garden for the last month so the work didn't seem foreign to me. It did, however, get tiring: breaking into hard ground, pulling away bunch grasses and tree roots in semi-shaded slopes of the Las Collinas region for hours at a time was just too much for my arthritic joints. Although the group I was in had a shady spot, the group next to us, working uphill in the sun, broke the hardest part of the trail along a rocky, hard slope. When we were done with the section that group had built a trenched-in section three-feet wide. What an accomplishment.
It was a pretty area though, with Mount Wrightson once again poking its peak in the western horizon through a thick haze that I have no idea of origin. Where local wildfires to blame, or was the haze mere sand blown by the wind?
The dogs were with me, patiently waiting for me in the shade of nearby oaks as they watched my every move. Bernie was in charge of today's work detail, a man himself possessed with helping build the 880-mile AZT from the Mexican border up to Utah. In a few weeks he'll be hiking the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
"You don't know how long you have to live, so you might as well enjoy life while you can" said Bernie with a smile. Bernie is a svelte 60-something year old, a retired combat engineer who served a few tours in Vietnam.
Lunch was provided by Beyond Bread and the beer afterwards by New Belgium Brewery, makers of Fat Tire Ale. Both sandwiches and beer were excellent and much appreciated by everyone.
We helped build 1/5 of a mile. We finished at 3pm and some of us stood around for a while longer and enjoyed the microbrew.
I chatted with a very personable 2LT who claimed to be the oldest LT in his class. He said he was 40 but he easily looked like he was in his early 30s. (His youthful disposition helped!). His prior service in the Navy for 13 years as an enlistedman surely helped him become a better officer. We departed without ever exchanging names. He represents tomorrow's Army officer Corps, that together with the more demanding Enlisted Corps will fight future battles for our country.
I will always have a soft heart for our Enlisted Officers. But this LT really stole my conscience that day. I wish him well. No doubt he will be in Iraq within a year.
As I write this we have lost 46 servicemembers this month in Iraq, the most since last September. I don't see this war ending any time soon...
http://www.aztrail.org/
Steve, Brenda, her husband Gordon and Bernie also were there from the hiking club. Bernie was the organizer and another Steve, also in the club, was co-organizer.
It was back-breaking work in the heat of the day, and watching these young officers break ground with pick-axes and hoes made me think of the song "I've been working on the rail-road" although one young LT retorted with "I think of the song 'Chaingang'!"
I've been toiling in my own garden for the last month so the work didn't seem foreign to me. It did, however, get tiring: breaking into hard ground, pulling away bunch grasses and tree roots in semi-shaded slopes of the Las Collinas region for hours at a time was just too much for my arthritic joints. Although the group I was in had a shady spot, the group next to us, working uphill in the sun, broke the hardest part of the trail along a rocky, hard slope. When we were done with the section that group had built a trenched-in section three-feet wide. What an accomplishment.
It was a pretty area though, with Mount Wrightson once again poking its peak in the western horizon through a thick haze that I have no idea of origin. Where local wildfires to blame, or was the haze mere sand blown by the wind?
The dogs were with me, patiently waiting for me in the shade of nearby oaks as they watched my every move. Bernie was in charge of today's work detail, a man himself possessed with helping build the 880-mile AZT from the Mexican border up to Utah. In a few weeks he'll be hiking the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
"You don't know how long you have to live, so you might as well enjoy life while you can" said Bernie with a smile. Bernie is a svelte 60-something year old, a retired combat engineer who served a few tours in Vietnam.
Lunch was provided by Beyond Bread and the beer afterwards by New Belgium Brewery, makers of Fat Tire Ale. Both sandwiches and beer were excellent and much appreciated by everyone.
We helped build 1/5 of a mile. We finished at 3pm and some of us stood around for a while longer and enjoyed the microbrew.
I chatted with a very personable 2LT who claimed to be the oldest LT in his class. He said he was 40 but he easily looked like he was in his early 30s. (His youthful disposition helped!). His prior service in the Navy for 13 years as an enlistedman surely helped him become a better officer. We departed without ever exchanging names. He represents tomorrow's Army officer Corps, that together with the more demanding Enlisted Corps will fight future battles for our country.
I will always have a soft heart for our Enlisted Officers. But this LT really stole my conscience that day. I wish him well. No doubt he will be in Iraq within a year.
As I write this we have lost 46 servicemembers this month in Iraq, the most since last September. I don't see this war ending any time soon...
http://www.aztrail.org/
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