king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Best of 2007 Feb-March 2008 - Index

has
a history
dating back to 1494
when Christopher Columbus fi rst
called the bay Grande Puerto. It
wasn’t until 1898 that a battalion
of U.S. Marines landed here
and made camp nearby as the
fi rst U.S. troops ashore in Cuba
in the Spanish-American War.
In 1903, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed the original
lease agreement with Cuba for
Naval Base Guantanamo Bay and,
in December of that year, Cuba
turned the base over to the
United States.
Everybody on the base
was eager to tell me stories of the
whitetail deer that the brass had
brought over for hunting many
years ago. The deer roamed the
island in great numbers, along
with African guinea fowl and
nasty banana rats - a strange
mix of wharf-rat, possum and
koala bear that fl ourishes in the
tropical vegetation. I was invited
to join the troops for a silent,
.22 rifl e, nighttime, spotlight rat
hunt, but the violent weather
Parting Shot
90 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
prevented
us from giving it a
go. A once overpopulated herd
of deer had been reduced by a
culling operation, but there were
still sightings here and there. The
wild goat population had been
wiped out years earlier, as their
voracious appetite was destroying
the habitat.
As a sportsman, my eyes
nearly blew out of my face when
we drove over the fi ngers of land
jutting out into the estuaries and
marshes. Shorebirds and ducks of
various species were rafting along
the reed-infested shoreline by the
thousands begging for a decoy
spread, duck blind, a 12-gauge and
an eager Labrador retriever. It
was surely the most ducks I had
ever seen in one place in my life,
and the setting was absolutely ideal
for hunting. I am talking with the
authorities now to see if it is at
all possible to go duck hunting on
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Cubans (like Mexicans on our
southern border) continue to take
their lives into their own hands by
trying to sneak into the U.S. base
at Guantanamo Bay. We all know
“Almost lost it” sent in by Jeff Branson
why. Communism,
in all its various
forms, is just another
name for slavery, and
people created in His
image and likeness, by
God, have freedom and
individualism burning
in their souls. It is the
heroic dedication of the
U.S. troops who secure and
protect freedom wherever
you fi nd it. All people want
in except, of course, the slave
masters and their henchmen.
To hang out with the protectors
of freedom buoys my spirit and
makes me a better man.
As a victim of a failed
education system in America
back in 1967, I was totally
clueless regarding these
historical facts of good over evil
and the essentiality of waging
war against Nazis, communists,
tyrants, dictators and all evil
monsters wherever they showed
up. Ignorant of it all, I was not
called nor did I volunteer to
serve. Now, as a middle-aged
American, I take a cue from the
warriors whom are better than
I, and now I too go into harm’s
way to Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq
and beyond to say thank you to
those who serve and protect.
We must all do whatever we
can to say thank you and show
real support for the good guys
waging war against evil. But, by
the sacrifi ces of warriors go we
the people.