By J.P. Plutt
Dillon Tribune staff
2008
Sgt. Bryce Cole of the U.S. Army can put a positive spin on just about any predicament. The Texas native enlisted in the service at age 26 and now at 29, after serving an 18-month deployment in Iraq where he suffered numerous injuries, dismisses any attempts at sympathy with a quick smile and upbeat personality.
"I'm actually blessed," said Cole when pressed on his injuries. "There are a lot of people way worse off than I am."
Cole didn't even get out of the United States before shattering his ankle training for the deployment. Once in Iraq he seriously re-injured the ankle "on some missions," and that wasn't even the scary stuff. On seven different occasions the vehicle he was riding in struck roadside bombs. In the most serious incident he "got a pretty bad head injury and was medevacked to Germany."
Dillon's Russ Kipp, owner of Montana High Country Tours, met Cole and his family last week as part of the Montana Guides and Outfitters Association's (MGOA) "Big Hearts under the Big Sky" program. Kipp hosted the Cole's for seven days and nights on an all-expense paid deer hunting trip and family vacation.
"This disability will affect the rest of his life and through the week he never talked about his disability," recalled Kipp. "It was always positive comments on what he wanted to do. It's just refreshing to see such a positive attitude. He's real excited about America. He says ‘God bless America’ a lot – and he means it."
Cole and his family were selected for the trip through Honored American Veterans Afield. HAVA focuses on helping disabled veterans make a successful transition from military to civilian life.
Cole met his wife Teresa at Texas State University before he joined the army. The couple has two sons Cooper, age four, and 16-month-old Caleb.
"When Greg Stube, who was the HAVA representative on the ground that selected me and my family to go, when he told me it was a trip for the whole family it was exciting," recalled Cole. "It was great to be able to come on the hunt, but it was much better to have the whole family with us."
Teresa agrees with her husband's assessment that the trip was a nice reprieve. "Bryce was gone for a really long time and we don't necessarily have extra money lying around to pay for a trip," said the military wife. "I've never been to this part of the country so we're just really excited to spend time together and enjoy a vacation that we normally wouldn't be able to take."
Teresa loved waking up in the morning at the Montana High Country Tour lodge and viewing the sunrise and taking in the mountain scenery. She took pleasure in watching her husband and sons try their hand at fishing.
"My son climbed a mountain the other day at Maverick Mountain and he loved it," interjected Bryce.
"We did some trout fishing at Russ's place. He has a wonderful setup out there with a lot for the whole family to do. One of the best parts was just spending time with my family. We got away from the stresses of everyday life and seen all that Montana has to offer."
As the week in Montana neared an end, the Cole family received an anticipated voice mail they had waited six months to hear. "Monday morning I'm going to go sign the paper work for my medical retirement," said Cole. "We've been waiting for a long time on that so hopefully things will get moving and my family and I can get on with our lives."
North Carolina's Fort Bragg has been the Cole home base for the past three years. As soon as they can, they intend to return to Texas where they can raise their children near their extended families.
"It was rewarding to see that we were able to offer something that meant so much to Bryce," said Kipp. "He was deployed for 18 months, he has two small children and he missed a lot of that. The trip was for him and his family so he was able to spend some down time with his family away from the army and have a reconnect. That was pretty special to see that he wanted to spend time that way."
Just prior to Cole's arrival, Kipp placed an ad in the Dillon Tribune asking for a place to take a disabled veteran hunting. In short order, almost 20 area landowners called and offered their land for Cole's hunting experience. Kipp found that there were many in the community willing to help with the mission.
Beaverhead Meat donated the processing, Grey Bull Taxidermy provided the trophy mount, Blue Bee Design created the "Big Hearts under the Big Sky" logo, and Sportswear & Design built the banner.
With so many hunting location options, Kipp started with the spots closest to Dillon. "He's hunted places where there has been whitetail but never a place where there has been mule deer so we just started close to town and we didn't make it very far," described Kipp. "We were just patient and spent the day to get that buck."
"I had an excellent hunting trip," raved Cole. "We went out there and looked at a bunch of wonderful deer. We picked a real prize, sat on it all day, waited for him to come in and finally took him."
Cole laughs when he says he downed the mule deer buck with two "well placed shots." Kipp chuckled in the background. They laughed again when talking about the size of the buck.
"It depends on what part of the country you're from I guess," said Cole of taking his first-ever buck and first-ever mule deer. "For us, it's a 12-point, but here I guess it's a 5-point. It sounds better from where I'm from so I'm going to go with that."
Cole didn't do a lot of hunting while he was growing up. As a youngster farmers would pay Cole to shoot varmits called water rats that would kill off the fish in the ponds. When he moved to college, he and his roommates moved up to deer.
"We were broke college kids so we were hunting does for the meat," said Cole. "That was the only reason we shot them. Public land is new to me. We don't have a lot of public land in Texas, it's all private land."
Cole and his buddies would harvest does off private farm land. The farmers were happy because there was such a large population of the whitetail deer. There were feeders on timers and the deer would come in to eat. The one stipulation was they couldn't take the bucks.
Cole went on two unsuccessful hunting trips around Fort Bragg while he was in North Carolina. He said the whitetail in North Carolina are very small, in the 80 to 90-pound range.
"That was pretty much my exposure to hunting," stated Cole. That was until he came to Montana and enjoyed "Big Hearts under the Big Sky."
The hunting experience reminded him somewhat of his recon duty in the military. "It was very similar to what I did with Russ," Cole noted. "We'd just sit there quietly for days and watch the target. If they come within range or do something that leads to action to be taken, we take action. It's pretty similar to hunting."
Kipp recalls walking with Cole to his deer just as the sun was setting. He told Cole to stay with the deer and enjoy the moment while he retrieved the truck. "He had the biggest grin on his face," said Kipp of his reward. "That was a pretty neat experience right there."
Cole's positive attitude and infectious grin stays with folks, even those who know him best. "Watching Bryce come home after he got the big buck," said Teresa of her favorite moment on the trip. "That was exciting. That was a good face. He was beaming."