A NOTABLE THANK YOU
By Steven Bunting
War is exciting. Many would describe it as days and days of boredom followed by minutes of pure excitement. Well, this my friends is true. But, as with everything, you become desensitized to that excitement. That feeling we often describe as “chasing the dragon.” Many veterans come home to realize that the dragon is very elusive and may never be caught again. This leads to substance abuse, negligent behavior and subsequently mental health issues. Many vets survive war just to come home and die chasing the dragon. The Heli Hog hunt experience is about as close as it gets to touching the dragon. For the first 10 minutes of my first flight with Sam Brown, we didn’t say a word. We just sat there in awe as Jace Cole masterfully navigated that helicopter like a dragonfly. As I was lost in the vastness of all the land, Jace comes over the air, “we got one!” Within seconds we were on top of that hog and just like that we had our first kill. Sam and I let out some battle cries and smiled from ear to ear the rest of the hunt. That moment, was the dragon. Thank you for letting me touch it again. Words can’t describe what that does for my soul. There was something about it that spoke to my DNA. Thank you so much.