Soldier Wears Two Hats
(January 17, 2011) |
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Army Sgt. Toby Hall stands
outside Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam in
Afghanistan's Laghman province holding a belt buckle
from a benefit rodeo for his cousin. U.S. Army photo
by Staff Sgt. Ryan Matson |
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LAGHMAN
PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Jan. 13, 2011
Army
Sgt. Toby Hall, a team leader with Company A, 413th
Civil Affairs Battalion, didn't join the Army
because he was used to the rough-and-tumble life of
a rodeo cowboy.
His inspiration came from the
patriotic opening ceremonies that marked the start
of each rodeo.
“Before I joined, you'd hear
the national anthem and hear the speaker talk about
soldiers while I was trying to get all fired up to
ride a horse or a bull,” he said. “I'd think to
myself, ‘Man I'm nothing but a big sissy -- they're
over there fighting for my country and all I'm doing
is getting on some horse that's going to buck for
eight seconds.'”
“That was kind of a reason I
joined,” he said. “I wanted it to mean something
more to me when I heard that song play. If it wasn't
for us over here, I wouldn't be able to ride back
home.”
Hall is a civil affairs soldier
deployed to Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam as
part of Task Force Ironman. Appropriately, the task
force is under the command of the 1st Battalion,
133rd Infantry Regiment, a part of the 34th Infantry
Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, nicknamed the
“Red Bulls.” |
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Back home in Amarillo, Texas, Hall earns his living as a
professional rodeo cowboy, competing in the bull riding and
bareback bronco riding events. Possibly the only thing about
Hall that doesn't scream cowboy is his height. He's about 6
feet tall, a good height for a movie cowboy, but not the
ideal bull rider or bareback bronco rider's build.
“Most of those guys are between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 8, 130,
maybe 140 pounds,” Hall said.
Everything else about
Hall is the genuine article. He has a stockpile of 63 cans
of smokeless tobacco in his room and always has a dip in his
mouth. He has a deep voice with a bit of a Texan twang, and
though he's polite and friendly, always laughing, he walks
with a bit of a swagger.
His room is lined with
cowboy magazines, Louis L'Amour books, John Wayne sayings,
pictures of family and friends and their horses and ranches.
He can talk for hours about country music.
Hall said
he's ridden in rodeos all his life, and he has the scars,
bumps and bruises to prove it. About two inches above his
right eye is a slanted scar from where a bronco kicked him
in the head. His left pinky is mangled into a “U” shape and
won't straighten out. His nose has been broken three times,
his right wrist several times, as well as a finger, and
ankle. He had a disk in his back push against his sciatic
nerve and he fractured his right leg when a horse stepped on
it.
Hall said the back injury was the worst, and
often he'd wake up at night crying.
“To be a cowboy,”
he said, “you gotta be tough.”
Hall said he loves the
rodeo because it is a sport like no other. Unlike football,
baseball and some other American sports, he explained, it is
a sport that was based on work.
“Cowboys used to
break horses and have contests to see who could stay on the
longest,” Hall said. “That's really how the whole thing
started.”
Another aspect of the rodeo that he likes
is that money is not guaranteed.
“That's the
difference between rodeo and other pro sports,” Hall said.
“You don't get paid to lose. Anybody and their dog can buy a
permit to enter rodeos once they turn 18. But you have to
make so much money professionally before you can actually
get your pro card.” |
But above the thrill of riding a 2,000-pound animal
and the uniqueness of the sport, Hall said it is the
fellowship with the other riders he enjoys the most.
“The main thing I like about the rodeo, though,
are the friendships,” Hall said. “The cowboys you
ride with are your lifelong friends. The only way to
travel is by car or by plane, so we'd pile in as
many cowboys as we can into a car to make it cheaper
to get to the rodeos. We go rodeo to rodeo to rodeo
together.”
He said cowboys also help each
other out, paying entry fees to the next rodeo for
another cowboy who had a rough ride and didn't win
any money at the last one.
“I've done it for
other people, and I've had it done for me,” he said.
“Not everybody can be first.”
Hall said he
has two partners in life: his riding partner of six
years, Mark Owens, and his fianc�e, Army Staff Sgt.
Jeanine Pollard. |
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Army Sgt. Toby Hall rides the
bucking bronco Wildflowers at the Texas Cowboy Rodeo
Association membership drive rodeo in Shamrock,
Texas, in March 2006. Now, Hall, from Amarillo,
Texas, is conducting missions in villages throughout
eastern Afghanistan as an Army Reserve civil affairs
soldier. Photo courtesy of Dale Hirschman |
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Pollard, also a civil affairs team leader in Company A, grew
up on a ranch in Cloud Croft, N.M.
“We realized we
liked each other more than friends,” Hall said. “And we've
been best friends ever since”
Even though they are
deployed to separate parts of Afghanistan, Hall said, he
talks to Pollard every night possible, noting they cross
paths every now and again. Her family sends him a lot of
care packages, he added.
Pollard said one thing she
likes about Hall being a cowboy is she knows he is following
his dream.
“I think it's very cool that he's
upholding the tradition of being a cowboy,” she said. “I
like that he's a cowboy and he does what he loves, and I
also like that he takes time out to serve his country as
well.”
Owens said meeting Hall revitalized his
career.
“I was ready to retire when I met Toby,”
Owens said. “But we kind of feed off each other; I've had
the best years of my career since we became traveling
partners.”
Hall said he often spent holidays with
Owens' family, which he considers like his own. He said he
especially misses riding with his friend this year, since
Owens made the Prairie Circuit finals.
“Mark said he
still likes to rodeo, but since I'm gone, it's not fun like
it was,” Hall said. “He said it's more like a job to him
now.”
Owens said he misses his riding partner, also,
but he is proud of the things he's doing as a deployed
soldier.
“I think the commitment it takes to do what
he's doing is awesome,” Owens said. “Also, the selflessness
is amazing; most rodeo cowboys don't have that level of
selflessness.”
He said the other riders support Hall
whole-heartedly.
“Everywhere I go, I get stopped by
somebody and asked how he's doing,” Owens said. “The riders
always talk about how great it is what he's doing over
there.”
In Afghanistan, Hall is not riding bulls.
Instead, he is riding along with the Red Bulls' infantry
soldiers, going out on missions to villages throughout their
area of operations.
Hall, who joined the Army Reserve
right after he graduated from college with a degree in
agricultural engineering in January 2008, tries to assess
the climate of the town by talking directly with its people.
“I try to find the village elder, or malik, and try to
find out what they think of us,” he said. “I also try to see
what kind of problems the village has and if the enemy is
there. I have my own way of doing that, that I've been
trained to do, without coming straight out and saying
‘Where's the Taliban?' I try to build a relationship with
these people.”
The relationship is key, Hall said,
because the people need to know they can trust him and the
coalition's soldiers. He said in the past, civil affairs
teams built projects in villages just to say they've
contributed to the towns. He said his team tries to find
ways to help the villagers improve their town and make it
more stable for the long term.
“I try to ask them
about their farms, livestock, wells, hydroelectric power,
all sorts of things,” he said. “Without us going in and
talking to them, they're scared to death of us, and I would
be too, if somebody was rolling through my town in big old
trucks with big old guns on them.
“We let them know
we're not here to hurt them, we're here to protect them from
the Taliban and give them work so they don't have to join
the Taliban,” he continued. “I let them know we're not going
to be here forever, and we're not giving out handouts. So we
ask them, ‘What can I do to help you out, so you can do this
on your own?' I like that I actually get to interact with
the people here, and see first-hand how they live in their
homes.”
Travelling to the towns involves stepping
into any role needed in the convoy. Hall has served as truck
commander or gunner on the missions. When the convoy or
dismounted soldiers take fire, Hall puts aside his civil
affairs role to engage the enemy.
“If somebody's
shooting at us, I'm not going to stay back and be scared,”
he said. “We'll be right up with the infantry guys doing our
thing.”
As for the rodeo, Hall doesn't see himself
quitting any time soon.
“It all depends on how tough
you are and how long you want to keep taking that beating,”
he said. “I'm going to ride until my body won't let me any
more.” |
Article and photo by Army SSgt. Ryan C. Matson
Task
Force Red Bulls
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2011 | |
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