Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, USMC, 1984-2004

Chance Phelps

Yesterday I visited the grave of Chance Phelps at the cemetery in Dubois, Wyoming. The cemetery is located on a hill overlooking Dubois. This was the information that I got from a gravestone and a grave marker:

Chance Russell Phelps
July 14, 1984-
April 9, 2004

Lance Corporal
U.S. Marine Corps

Bronze Star with Valor
Purple Heart

Operation Iraqi Freedom

KIA, Al Anbar, Iraq

I then walked to the elementary/middle school on the north side of town. There was this little park with a sign that read: "Chance Phelps Community Memorial Park".

In the past year, there was a film about Chance Phelps starring Kevin Bacon: Taking Chance. It was a 2009 Sundance Film Festival Award Winner. Kevin Bacon won The Golden Globe and Screen Actor's Guild Award for his portrayal of Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl. I have yet to see the film; I have heard that it is very good.

I remember well back in 2004 I was hitchhiking in the Dubois-Riverton neighborhood and I got dropped off in some town and I looked at this newspaper. There was a photograph on the front page of the Casper Star-Tribune. There was a casket and it had an American flag draped over it. The casket was carrying the body of Chance Phelps and it was being transported to the cemetery with a wagon and a team of horses. You could see the Wind River Mountains in the background.

Freedom is not free. Lance Corporal Phelps sacrificed his life so that others could live free.

The Chance Phelps Foundation
Tears of a Warrior
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Hand on the Helm
At a Cafe in Merriman, Nebraska
Fisher House
Dubois, Wyoming
Freedom to Bear Arms
Alvin C. York
No Jump Tonight!
Two Cabins in the Wind River Mountains
Chris Kyle:  An American Hero
GUNS UP!
A Conversation with a Vietnam Veteran
The American Flag:  A Christian Symbol
They Tortured My Father. That's Why I Fight

Execution of SEAL Team 6

 

Dubois, Wyoming

I got dropped off here in Dubois, Wyoming earlier this afternoon. I will spend some time here at the library typing some things up and then camp out by the river tonight. God willing, I will head to Riverton tomorrow.

This is a popular saying in Wyoming: "There are two seasons in Wyoming: winter and road construction."

There was some road construction as I walked north out of Jackson this morning. Looks like there will be road construction on U.S. 26 between Moran Junction and Dubois later this month. Without road construction we will be a people no more. Road construction is the basis of a sound economy--transportation of goods and national defense. The Romans built roads all over their empire. At one time, all roads led to Rome. Later, all roads led to London. Now, all roads lead to Dubois, Wyoming.

Road construction is eternal.

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Luke 9: 58: "And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

"The Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

Sounds like the Son of man had no certain dwelling place. Reminds me of someone I know very well.

If I have money, I will get a motel room. I made some money working for some friends out west, so a motel room is well within my grasp--till the money runs out.

I have slept in abandoned cars, barns, hay stacks, corn stacks, under bridges, homes under construction, homes under slow deconstruction (abandoned), fields, pastures, city parks and what have you. The Lord helps me find places to sleep: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."

I have slept in post offices and in a couple of truck stops. I also have a two-man tent that I use whenever I can. I have stayed in missions and shelters and slept under trees. A hitchhiker has to get his sleep somehow.

I once slept in a pickup near these railroad tracks in a small town in Nebraska. I woke up and walked to U.S. 30 and started thumbing for a ride. A half hour later, some guy walked up to the pickup and drove off with it. I am glad that I didn't sleep in that morning.

I am sure that someday the Lord will let me settle down some place. It doesn't really matter where--I am pretty flexible. It doesn't matter where I lay my head . . . as long as I abide in the powerful Presence of God (Zion).

Zion is my home.