Saturday, June 4, 2011

Rick Crawford Funeral and graveside.


Distinguished people. Most of these badges have Rick Crawford's fingerprints all over them.


Service Rifle Team wreath.


L-R: David Keys, David Guthry, Daniel Miller, Brandon Jacobs, Gregg Foster, unknown, Katye Foster, Will Foster, unknown, Emily Hogg, Mont Bartling, Alan Wilson, Rusty Hogg, Becky Wilson, Gary Shannon, Karl Schultz, Mitchell Hogg, Mrs Shannon, Ken Gaby, Alan Long, Nez Rongero, Mrs Rongero, Wallace McDaniel, Mark Turner, Tony Miller, Justin Utley, Rol Coggins, Robert Langham, Michael Carter, Keith Stephens, Dave Wilson, Jeff Lin, Ron Chatelein, Tommy Laing, Dick Curry, Ray Diaz, Blake Smith, John Dunaway, unknown, Gregg Troxell, Charlie Wallis, John Izlhoefer, Michael Wilson, Dan Gilmer.

Very impressive to see his shooting family at the church. More Distinguished Rifleman Badges in one place than ever before in Texas. We counted 34. Since there aren't 2000 Civilian DR badges yet, this was over 1 1/2% of all badges given since 1876.

Nice service. Heard stories I hadn't ever heard. Old faces showed up. Wonderful to see his other families.

Laid Rick to rest in a very good spot just inside the Smith County line. Problem is: Rick hates to rest. He likes to drive. He likes to work. He likes to DO things. Big plan and small detail kind of guy. Very rare. From the pallbearer line I saw grown men crying behind their sunglasses. Bitter to leave him there. We want Rick with us. We want to be with him.

My friend.

He's in heaven. I'm glad for that but as a matter of fact I've been with Rick in heaven. Lots of times. In Heaven with a blank scorecard and a full bullet box as the targets come up in the dawn at Camp Swift. In Paradise picking up the last few pieces of brass and policing the line at Bayou Rifles as they put the targets away. In Nirvana nodding off to the hum of the truck engine as we drove the last few miles of Kentucky on the way to Elizabethtown. Rick coached us through heaven dozens of times in team matches sitting behind the scope at 600 and calling the wind....3:00 Ten. 3:00 Ten. 3:00 X. Straightaway.

So heaven must be very, very, very good. Better than being bunked up in a hut at Camp Perry after lights out listening to Rick and Ivy cellphone chat like two teenagers. Better than sitting back at Mon Ami with a margarita mixed by a yankee. Better than Camp Perry NRA week after the crowd has gone home. It must smell like burnt Varget and Hoppe's #9 and have good range flags. The target carriers must run smoother than Panola. LaBerge must run the pits. The brass never stretches and your barrel throat doesn't erode. You don't have to struggle with your own government for human rights. You must be able to see the front sight AND the aiming black. Probably everyone has good hair.

Rick will get it straightened out. This good-dying-young nonsense seems like a policy developed by folks who have lost touch with the common folks. Corporate blindness. With Rick in charge, the Evil won't make puberty and the Good will be hale and hearty at 140.

We are going on. To Camp Perry and beyond. We are going to stand up a VERY competitive team on Viale range. Panola will shoot. Swift will shoot. If you are working on Distinguished or just getting started you will have your opportunity. Thank God we had him as much as we did. But when I get to Heaven there better be a most excellent explanation of why this was a good idea or flaming angels will be falling from the sky like the old days.

Update: Sunday spent emailing and phoning to make a list of what we need to do to support Highpower Rifle in Texas. Four of us will probably do badly what Rick accomplished effortlessly.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Robert for the excellent remembrance. For everyone who attended today; thank you. For everyone, like myself, who prayed for Rick but did not attend; thank you.

And most of all Rick Crawford. You are surely in heaven now. Thank you for the wide scope of your efforts here. Be with us and smile down on us at our matches.

Jim Burke

Old NFO said...

Thanks Robert, sounds like yall sent him home in style.

Hat Trick said...

I'm sorry to hear of Rick's passing. You've eulogized him well here.

Anonymous said...

Agree with Hat Trick, Robert you worked up a very nice eulogy here.

Anonymous said...

Your job as a future mother is to learn the god's ways and to help your child understand despite the negative reinforcement and conditioning of today's society. Without consciousous parents the child will have no hope, and may even exaserbate their disfavor by becoming corrupted in today's environment.
Your ultimate goal is to fix your relationship wiith the gods and move on. You don't want to be comfortable here, and the changes in Western society in the last 100 years has achieved just that.
1000 years with Jesus is the consolation prize. Don't be deceived into thinking that is the goal.

The gods tempt people for which they are most weak. Artificial Intelligence will create desire in people's minds for the following sins:::
1. Alcohol
2. Drugs
3. Preditory "earning"
4. Homosexuality
5. Gambling
6. Something for nothing/irresponsibility (xtianity)
7. Polygamy/superiority over women/misogyny (Islam)
Much like the other prophets Mohhamed (polygamy/superiority over women/misogyny) and Jesus (forgiveness/savior), the gods use me for temptation as well. In today's modern society they feel people are most weak for popular culture/sensationalism, and the clues date back to WorldWarII and Unit731:TSUSHOGO, the Chinese Holocaust.
It has been discussed that, similar to the Matrix concept, the gods will offer a REAL "Second Coming of Christ", while the "fake" Second Coming will come at the end and follow New Testiment scripture and their xtian positioning. I may be that real Second Coming.
What I teach is the god's true way. It is what is expected of people, and only those who follow this truth will be eligible to ascend into heaven as children in a future life. They offered this event because the masses have just enough time to work on and fix their relationship with the gods and ascend, to move and grow past Planet Earth, before the obligatory xtian "consolation prize" of "1000 years with Jesus on Earth" begins.

The Prince of Darkness, battling the gods over the souls of the Damned.
It is the gods who have created this environment and led people into Damnation with temptation. The god's positioning proves they work to prevent people's understanding.
How often is xtian dogma wrong? Expect it is about the Lucifer issue as well.
The fallen god, fighting for justice for the disfavored, banished to Earth as the fallen angel?
I believe much as the Noah's Flood event, the end of the world will be initiated by revelry among the people. It will be positioned to be sanctioned by the gods and led for "1000 years with Jesus on Earth".
In light of modern developments this can entail many pleasures:::Medicine "cures" aging, the "manufacture" of incredible beauty via cloning as sex slaves, free (synthetic) cocaine, etc.
Somewhere during the 1000 years the party will start to "die off", literally. Only those who maintain chaste, pure lifestyles, resisting these temptations, will survive the 1000 years. Condemned to experience another epoch of planet's history for their ignorant pursuit of xtianity, they will be the candidates used to (re)colonize (the next) Planet Earth, condemned to relive the misery experienced by the peasantry during history due to their failure to ascend into heaven before the Apocalypse.
Never forget:::It is not a house of Jesus.
If this concept of Lucifer is true another role of this individual may be to initiate disfavor and temptation among this new poulation, the proverbial "apple" of this Garden of Eden. A crucial figure in the history of any planet, he begins the process of deterioration and decay that leads civilizations to where Planet Earth remains today.
Which one is it? Probably both:::
One transitions into the other, allowing the gods to wash their hands of obligation to their Chosen One.

You are faced with a lifetime to work and prepare for your next chance. Too many will waste this time working, etc.

Cincinnatus said...

Ignoring the weird spam ...

Robert, I find myself speechless. I wish that my life was able to generate 1/10th the legacy you list for Mr. Crawford. But there is no way that I could.

Robert Langham said...

I think I will just leave it up for it's awesome wacko-ness.

SB said...

Robert, very well said and enlightnening and touching. I never met Rick but wished I had known him, I am glad you did know him.
Susan B