Does ANYONE really want this forum?

[Graybeard]

If so why is it being totally ignored? Just as I predicted it would be. It got the needed 12 yes votes to get it established but I don't think 12 different folks have posted to it since and not one single person other than the Moderator has started a thread. No one has made the offer of a hunt to a soldier which it was set up to do.

Is there any reason for it's existence? It seems to be folks always say the "want" a forum for helping our military in some way but this is the fourth time I've set one up and in all three previous times it was just like this. NO ONE USED IT and no one is now.

[hardertr]

Folks woud feel guilty if they said they DIDN'T want it.

It's a nice thought, but when it comes right down to it, you would be hard pressed to find folks willing to give much up....in the name of "patriotism".

I vote get rid of it.  (Before everyone starts shooting this way...I AM military.  As always, the thought is appreciated more than the follow through).

[Graybeard]

The entire concept behind this was a follow up to what Dave in the Bush has done. He's been taking servicemen who've served in Iraq on a FREE hunt up in Alaska. The idea was to have others offer to take our service men on a free hunt when the return where ever you can or to give them some kinda other support.

It seems to be folks only wanna say words they think folks wanna hear but have no interest in moving off the couch to help.

[S.S.]

I tried to garner a bit of interest with a thread in several of the other forums
a while back. Someone actually acused me of SPAMMING !
Frankly the lack of interest disgusts me !
It really shows the Character (or lack of) of a lot of folks !
Every one sure enjoys the freedoms that these soldiers are
defending but I have been hard pressed to get anyone
to care. People simply do not care about them anymore !
This is a sad state of affairs that is truely sickening to me.
I tried to SPAM again yesterday but my threads did not post for
some reason? It is probably a good thing because I told My real opinion
of the folks who do not support our troops. EVERYONE who uses this website
should appreciate and support our troops and SHOW IT !
(Deleted) bunch of lazy (Deleted)
I don't have any respect for anyone who does not respect and support our troops !!!!
COMMENTS ARE WELCOME FROM THEM !!
Replies may not be !
PM me if you don't want everyone to see it !

[S.S.]

OK.... I stirred the pot AGAIN..
Seems several folks are down right Angry...
If support for this Forum does not increase, I guess what
I said was correct.
most People don't care enough to even type a few words
of support.
Some instantly took it out of context a bit.
Here is what was meant....

"It is nice to see at least someone is reading this this time ?
Look at what everyone should be ashamed about !
What I said was that the most IMPORTANT forum on this site
was maybe about to DISAPPEAR due to  LACK OF INTEREST......
Everyone SHOULD BE ASHAMED of that!"

Anyone who reads this, Understand that no one else in this
Forum was involved so don't get pissed off at them !
And If you do not support the Troops of the United States,
(The folks I was referring to)
I do not care if you are pissed off at me anyway, cause I sure do not care much for you !!

[35Rem]

S.Sumner,

I believe the purpose of this forum was to take servicemen and women hunting/fishing/outdoors in general.

I don't think everyone has the ability to do such, myself included.  I don't have a private pond/club/lease to do such, as I'm sure a lot of the visitors to this site are in the same boat.

The idea of this forum is admirable, but I have to find other ways to support troops in my area, so this forum, as originally posted in the "forum guide" is outside of my abilities.

[Graybeard]

S.Sumner,

I believe the purpose of this forum was to take servicemen and women hunting/fishing/outdoors in general.

I don't think everyone has the ability to do such, myself included.  I don't have a private pond/club/lease to do such, as I'm sure a lot of the visitors to this site are in the same boat.

The idea of this forum is admirable, but I have to find other ways to support troops in my area, so this forum, as originally posted in the "forum guide" is outside of my abilities.

What you say is true, BUT only partly true.

Like you I don't have anywhere I can take anyone hunting. Other than on public land I don't even have anywhere to go myself.

But as I recall the original hunt Dave set up folks contributed to the cause to make it truly free to the soldier. Even small donations adding up to help cover the cost of the travel and license costs and such. In that way we could all help if we wanted to even tho we can't offer a hunt like Dave did we could assist someone else who could.

The forum could also be used to tell of other support folks are providing and might give ideas to others on how they too might do more.

I really don't care if the forum is used or not. In fact I never really believed it would be. But I'm willing to donate the space to try to make it work. Based on past experiences tho with any forum related to the military no matter the title it's been given it gets practically zero use or interest. It's as if it were a plague and folks avoided it as such. Why I have no clue.

But the facts are I really have too many forums here now and folks are asking for more new ones daily. So forums that do not get used are going to be dumped. So far this one sure seems headed in that direction. I have no set time frame in mind but if it doesn't pick up and get used it too will go the way of the three other tries and be deleted. For sure it's not the only one that's looking like that needs done and not by any means the oldest of those on shaky ground so it's not necessarily the "next" to go.

[35Rem]

Forum Guide for Supporting our Troops.

Well we have a new forum guys that will allow us to help thank those who are serving our country.  I think that many of us sportsmen and women have much that we can offer to our troops and I know from past experiences that they appreciate any support that we give them.  So if you can take a soldier, one of their children or spouse out for a hunt, a little fishing or anything that might be of interest to them, lets see what we can do.

As a general guide, if you would try to include the following I am sure it would help.

1.  What?  (Afternnoon bass fishing, weekend deer hunt, camping on Lake Beautiful)

2.  Where? (I am located in Southern Ohio, Lake Ontario near Sandy Pond, 90 miles north of Boulder Colorado.)

3.  When?  (Season starts Sept. 15th,  month of October,  Time is open)

4.  Cost?  (Out of state big game license, $300 elk tag, bring your own worms, I will cover everything)

5.  Other Expectations:  (I will provide lunch.,  We have a cabin where you can stay over night.,  Will need your own ATV, life jacket, tree stand......)

6.  Rules and regulations that they might need to know in your area:  (No expandable broadheads,  no lighted sights, Muzzle loading only,  doe season only.)

Hopefull this guide will help keep question to a minimun.  Lets see what we can do guys and gals!

This was what was set forth as a "guide".  As I stated in my post above, I didn't think I could support troops in this way. 

If this forum can be modified to encompass other ways to suuport troops, at home and abroad, I think it would be much more successfull. 
Tell us who to contact, where to go, what to do, would be more helpful.

Please don't tell folks they aren't supportive if they can't do what was set forth.
Myself, like other I'm sure, looked at this forum initially, and said they couldn't help and didn't come back.

[Graybeard]

Please don't tell folks they aren't supportive if they can't do what was set forth.
Myself, like other I'm sure, looked at this forum initially, and said they couldn't help and didn't come back.

Understood, I haven't.

The guidelines Dave posted are just general guidelines, they are NOT hard and fast rules that can't be altered. The purpose is to do something for the troops to show support. There are no written in stone rules as to what that "something" might be.

As stated it began as an offshoot of the hunts he was providing so naturally his guidelines were kinda with that or something like it in mind. Don't assume you're being artifically limited by me, Dave or anyone else as to what you can do. That's not the intention.

Heck if what you can do is to provide a subscription to a magazine to someone that's fine, do it and if that's all someone can do they've done something to support and boost morale.

An afternoon fishing trip or hunt on a WMA near you for someone close enough that it's not to expensive would still be worthwhile and cost you nearly nothing. Be creative and don't feel limited by us.

[Daveinthebush]

I am sorry to see that this forum is going this way.  While the thought of taking a soldier out to fish, hunt, do some shooting, camping, whatever was the original concept, it seems that it is too much to ask.

The current administration, war or any other political motive should have nothing to do with it. It is just a way to say thanks in some manner to the people that fight for your rights to be free, speak freely and live in the country we do.

I am not a rich person. I am a teacher and make about $25,000 less than the average personal income in a town of 3,800 people. I have taken three veterans bear hunting and four or five fishing for silver salmon.  Yes some donations were made for the first hunt.  Last year I paid for boat fuel, cabin, food, misc. and he paid his way up and license.  In the fall I had a caribou hunt planned that fell through for a veteran. 

How many times has anyone gone fishing and had an empty seat in the boat?  How many times have you had an empty tree stand on your property on a Saturday that someone could be occupying.   How many times have you walked up to a soldier, extended your hand and said, "Thank you for serving our country."

Kind of sad but I don't know what to do except to keep taking veterans out by myself. 

[S.S.]

As I asked in one of the other posts I made here..
Blame No one else for the comments I made !
Graybeard did not say it or Dave did not say it....
I DID ! And unfortunately what I said appears to be true....
I really figured that this forum would be full this morning !
If for no other reason than For every one to Vent at ME !
I expected to piss a lot of people off enough to at least
get them to take the time to type some nasty words here about me!
I am not even going to answer any of the Whining in the four or five
forums I posted my comments in.... I guess the pissed off ones
can't even come to the SUPPORT OUR TROOPS forum long enough
to be nasty towards me...

[Skwerlhunter]

          I think that most people visit Graybeard Outdoors because of their love of Hunting and firearms and the outdoors. I seriously don't think that just because they don't post in the Supporting Our Troops forum that their not supporting our troops. Its really a forum that is outside the scope of many of the topics covered. Should I be angry at all Kentuckians for not posting  in the Hunting in Kentucky forum.

[S.S.]

Absolutely Not !
I had several reasons for doing and saying the
things that started all this.
In a way it was to kind of test something.
Most have failed terribly, But I am not surprised by this.
I would wager that if I would have done and said these
things the day after 9/11 the responses would have been
very different. Americans have a way of forgetting incidents
and apparently people very easily. I at one time was guilty
of this myself. Most Americans (not all) were all Gung-Ho after 9/11
until it started affecting them personally. I.E high Gas prices and such.
Then it turns to Me, Me, Me. Watch the News and see how often
Afghanistan is mentioned. To The media It doesn't seem to matter as much when one
American soldier is killed or wounded in Afghanistan. as it does when a
couple are killed in Iraq There is a running tally of how many have died in Iraq,
can Anyone here tell me (without looking) how many have died so far in Afghanistan?
The number will be at the bottom of this thread. To most Americans it seems that most Troops are
"out of sight, out of mind" I guessed that there was a pretty good cross section of Americans Here.
So Looking at how many folks even browsed by the support our troops forum, (before I made the comments) Proves the complacency in attitude. Some may have honestly not have known that the
Forum was at the bottom of the list. But I am sure most did and never even looked at it..
350 dead Reported to this date.

[mitchell]

if i may put my nose in , you all knew me when i was just mitch from ohio with the good shooting handi's , and back then as a civi i was the same way , bitching out ppl for saying they want to surpport then not doing anything. well let me tell you this as a cav scout in the 3rd ACR , a simple hand shake will do . i havn't been to iraq yet but i'm training balls to the wall right now getting ready to go, (i leave this summer) . all these things ppl are doing for our troopers is great and i'm sure it make the soldier feel blessed , but hey this is our job, i picked it , i wanted it, i chose it!!!!  my dad's a electerision and nobody ever gave him a free hunt for keeping the power on(see my point)  if you can't give away some great hunt just say thank you

[Daveinthebush]

Last year I traveled back to New York to deer hunt with my son a bit.  Flying from Alaska is sometimes like crossing a stream on rocks.  As I boarded the plane in North Carolina a soldier in desert camo took a seat on the plane.  When it became obvious that First Class was not going to be filled, the flight attendant went back to the soldier and asked him if he would like to move to First Class. 

I think the flight attnedant was based out of Rochester NY where we landed, so......  An announcemt came over the intercom, thanking the soldier for his service and he was allowed to exit the plane first.  The actions of the airlines sure made me proud to ba an American that day.