Dove Hunting With LT Bobby Ross

by Lt. Bobby Ross, Staff Writer 

On September 1st, in Northern California, dove season opens.  For us, here at the hunting club, it marks the opening of the 2009/2010 Hunting Season.  Most of the owners showed up Monday night for a huge feed.  I took a break and went to the grand hotel at Travis Air Force Base, but returned yesterday morning to help cook breakfast and be the official Club Photographer.

We harvested our two fields of safflower about 2 weeks ago, and then mowed the stubble.  This always brings in the doves.  They love the safflower seeds that the harvester does not capture, and there are plenty of them.  So opening day of hunting season always affords us a good time and a good shoot.  This year was no different.  Everyone got great shooting and took home 10 dove limits.  And the camaraderie is wonderful, always, and the hunting stories are infamous.

Of course, the food is spectacular.  The Monday evening feast before the shoot, then the morning breakfast after the first shoot, and then the evening meal on opening day always affords us the luxury of our cooking talents.  This year was no exception.  Elk steak dinner on Monday night, Sausage and Eggs feast yesterday morning using only our fresh eggs from our Chicken Prison, and last night we had Bar-B-Qued chicken thighs and legs with real Italian Pasta, and all the trimmings.

Tonight, me and my  Baby Brother will be solo.  All the rest of the hunters have returned home.  We are both Screaming Eagles from the 101st Airborne Division, and we both served in combat in Vietnam as 1st lieutenants.  I was there first in 1968 and 1969.  My Brother went next in 1970 and fought it out with the 502nd Battalion, and got severely wounded out in the bush.  

He was in 3 hospitals in Vietnam, and then sent to Japan.  We almost lost him 3 times.  When I picked him up at Letterman in San Francisco, he was just a shell of the man he was when he left.  But, I’ve included a picture of him here, and I can assure you, both of us wounded Vets are up and at ’em now!

I have just finished my new record project in Nashville.  I have 4 songs that are ‘Master Demos’ and I am now ready to present them to the major record companies, or whoever for the funding to do a real state-of-the-art record honoring our Troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.  You can hear these 4 songs here:

http://www.rassio.com/songs/Nashville.php

I’m also back in the music business in Nashville with my Ole Buddy, Fred Vail.  We go back a long ways.  You can read all about it here:

http://www.rassio.com/echo/

We are going to be having a "Cotton Tail Hunt" in a week and I’ll be back with that report. Until then, keep your powder dry and your aim high!

LT Bobby Ross