6th Plt, FAST Company August 20th-24th : Four Creeks Ranch, Big Timber, Montana
In 2001 and 2002, the Marines of 6th Platoon, 2nd FAST Company guarded nuclear refueling operations at naval submarine bases nationwide. In 2003, the platoon was disbanded, and the Marines were scattered across infantry battalions. Every one of them saw extensive combat, some over multiple tours. With a few exceptions, they never saw each other again.
It took 23 years to get them back in the same room.
Jeremy Pitman led the effort in getting them back together. However, when his teammates had already arrived in Billings, his own flight was grounded. Jeremy rebooked a flight into Bozeman, and after the rest of them were dropped off at Four Creeks Ranch in Big Timber, our Chief of Staff, Tim Lynch, drove out to pick him up. The welcome Jeremy received from his teammates when he arrived said everything.
Around the table sat tech executives, business consultants, security systems analysts, and a power lineman
In his 16 years of service, Gunnery Sergeant Scott Coffin served as a “Red Hat” instructor at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. He climbed in Patagonia, Korea, Switzerland, France, and Italy. He taught Marines and Special Operators to use pack mules to carry heavy weapons, ammunition, gear, and how to ride and care for horses.
They also had individual weights to carry. Cpl. Ryan Weemer fought in the Battle of Fallujah and was wounded in the infamous Hell House.
So why would men like Scott and Ryan say they wouldn’t trade their time in the Marine Corps for anything? These Marines kept the tribe. The self-discipline it gave them built the men sitting around that table.
What they needed most wasn’t a vacation. It was each other. They had stories that needed telling, and only to the people who would understand. One of the men had this to say of his time at Four Creeks.
“It felt as though an amputated limb had been grown back! I have never had friends that close since leaving them. Hearing their struggles and challenges, how they overcame them, and seeing them doing so well now was food for my soul.”
For another, the four days raised a hard question about the twenty years before them:
“This trip and course would have been really helpful before deploying or shortly after a deployment. It would have saved 20 years of lying in bed at night trying to figure those ‘demons’ out on my own.”
Almost every veteran will tell you they would attend a reunion. Almost none of them will plan one.
The Bar X Project makes the call. We book the flights, secure the ranch, and arrange the fishing so a team separated by 23 years can sit at the same table again.