8 I The Lovell Chronicle I December 27, 2012
WARD RESCUE
area used the McCain as a "lily
pad" to refuel, Ward said, "and
Ward piloted as a coxswain a sev-
en-meter rib to look for survivors,
teaming with a search and rescue
diver.
%Ve searched boats, cars,
houses, metal containers and
anything else that was float-
ing," Ward said. "We would mark
something with spray paint if no-
body was on board so it wouldn't
be searched again.
"There was a massive amount
of stuff, and it was snowing like
crazy. It was really cold. There
was debris everywhere. We
couldn't move very fast. There
were a lot of boats that washed
out to sea. There were the tops of
houses, buses - a lot of stuff."
One of the things U.S. Navy
ships hadn't anticipated was the
partial meltdown of the Fukushi-
ma Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant,
which exposed the ships and sail-
ors to radiation. As a precaution,
the ship and sailors were tested
for radiation, but no serious expo-
sure was found, Ward said.
The McCain followed a grid
search pattern, but the ship's area
was further out to sea than other
search grids, so the ship found no
survivors, not even any people at
all, in the cold water, Ward said.
Still, the search made an imPres-
sion on the young sailor.-
"I was really happy to help
them out," Ward said of the Japa-
nese people. "The country was in
a panic. I think Japan appreciat-
ed America a lot more after that.
They had been protesting our nu-
clear vessels, but after that when
we would walk around town peo-
ple would say hello and smile at
me. It was a good experience to
bring the United States and Ja-
pan closer together."
After Operation Tomodachi
wrapped up, the USS McCain
worked a joint operation with Ja-
pan and South Korea, then this
fall participated in Operation
Keen Sword, allied with the Jap-
continued from page one
PHOTO
After six years of sea duty, 2006 Rocky Mountain High School
graduate Cody Ward, right, pictured here receiving an award,
is being transferred to Jacksonville, Fla., for three years of
shore duty.
anese Navy in an exercise with
other American ships to train
for ballistic missile defense, ana-
lyzing and tracking missiles and
tracking submarines in defense
of Japan.
Ward recently received two
Navy-Marine Corps commen-
dation medals - one for opera-
tions in January and February
of 2012 and the other for work
he performed getting the McCain
ready for a detailed inspection
that takes place every five years,
a process that required him to
work 14-hour days for six days a
week.
He also recently received
the Junior Sailor of the Quarter
award for October-December for
the McCain.
After six years at sea (the
normal time period is five years,
he said), Ward, now an E5 Boat-
swain's Mate Second Class, is
in the process of transferring to
Jacksonville, Fla., for three years
of shore duty, where he will work
in the personnel transfer unit
and corrections facility at Naval
Air Station Jacksonville.
That transfer allowed him
to come home to visit family for
Christmas. He arrived Dec. 12
and will be home until heading to
Florida on Jan. 10. He has been
enjoying spending time with his
family, who spent Christmas at
sister Calli Alvarado's home in
Douglas.
Helping in the aftermath of
the Tohoku earthquake may have
been an adventure for Ward and
his fellow sailors aboard the USS
John S. McCain, but their service
surely illustrated the Navy's un-
official motto: Honor, Courage,
Commitment.
REACTION TO DECISION cont. from page one
citizens to pay fines by phone or
on line, the decision to close three
satellite courts was made and ap-
proved by the Wyoming Board of
Judicial Policy and Administra-
tion in September of 2012, accord-
ing to the Supreme Court release.
"While local government(s)
have expressed a desire to provide
financial support in keeping satel-
lite offices open, the Board (of Ju-
dicial Policy and Administration)
concluded that to do so would be
'taking several steps backward for
the state court system, which be-
came unified over 12 years ago,"
the Supreme Court said. "Satel-
lite circuit court offices have been
closed in many Wyoming com-
munities in the past, and it is al-
ways a difficult decision to make,
but one made necessary by budget
concerns."
COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
County Commissioner Grant
is not pleased with the decision,
which comes on the heels of an
effort by the commission and the
Lovell Town Council to meet the
costs of maintaining the circuit
court office in Lovell.
"We're going to have to lobby
our legislators to do something
about it in the next session," Grant
said when contacted Wednesday
morning. "I don't know if we'll be
successful, but we'll give it a lot of
effort. It's ridiculous for them to
close it when there's no savings.
It's an arbitrary and capricious ac-
tion on their part, especially when
we've offered to pick up the costs.
"It's just a political action to
force the legislature to give them
more money."
Big Horn County once oper-
ated a justice court system using
county funds, and the state later
instituted the circuit court system
in the county.
'WChen we went to a circuit
court, I believe they promised to
keep our court the same and not
change it," Grant said. "At the
time we did that there was con-
cern about losing local control,
and we were assured that that
wasn't the case. They make prom-
ises and hang out the carrot and
then the carrot goes away.
"I was really happy and im-
pressed town had decided to help
the county fund it and keep the
court here. And I believe Powell
was offering the same thing. It's
apparent that everybody in the
area feels the need for it. Take the
people from Frannie and the miles
to Basin. It's going to be a huge
impact on them."
Keeping the satellite office
open in Lovell has had the sup-
port of Circuit Court Judge Thom-
as Harrington, who expressed his
concerns to the commissioners
recently.
"When Judge Harrington was
talking to us he told us the work-
load is heavier in Lovell than in
Basin, and he is against closing the
office," Grant said. "It's more work
for him to come to Lovell, but he's
willing to put in the extra effort to
serve the citizens. He mentioned
that this hurts the most vulnera-
ble who don't have the ways and
means to get to Basin."
Grant said legislators from all
four Big Horn Basin counties ex-
pressed support for keeping the
Lovell satellite office open during
a recent meeting involving legis-
lators and commissioners ahead of
the upcoming legislative session.
"All four counties in the Basin
were in support of keeping these
courts in Lovell and Powell," he
said. "I think we'll have a lot of
support in the legislature to put
something together.
"This makes no sense at all.
They come right out and say they're
doing it for cost saving, and when
there's no cost savings, why do it?
They already took away the em-
ployee that was costing the state
money - 20-some thousand dol-
lars. That left the judge with three
staff members. Judge Harrington
told us two of the staffhave agreed
to go to work part time, so it still
would have worked out all right."
VEZAIN WINS
bareback, saddle bronc and
bulls for 12 years, took a spe-
cial interest in his nephew,
teaching him about horses,
rodeos and saddlemaking.
"In the summer, I would
stay with him and we would
break 50 or 60 head of hors-
es," said Vezain. "Since I was
a little itty bitty kid I want-
ed to be just like my Uncle
Duncan. He's a true-to-the-
flesh cowboy. The way he
lived is how I wanted to live.
Everything he did was what
I wanted to do."
Vezain recalls how his
uncle had to wear his pants
unbuttoned because they
rubbed against a scar on his
abdominal area.
"He unbuttoned his
pants, so I unbuttoned my
pants," chuckled Vezain. "As
a little kid, I would copy ev-
erything he did because I
wanted to be just like that
CHASE HAWKS continued from page one
guy. For one, he rodeod and
that's all I ever wanted to
do. And two, he trained colts
and that's another thing I re-
ally wanted to do. And three,
he built saddles."
At age 14, Vezain rode
bareback for the first time at
the local rodeo held during
Cowley Pioneer Days. Since
he was too old to ride steers,
it was suggested that he try
bareback. Vezain said he
was happy to ride anything
and he practiced a little on
an old saddle horse using
homemade rigging from the
1960s right before the com-
petition took place.
"My very first rodeo, I
placed something like third
or fourth at Cowley Days,"
said Vezain. "Then I rode
something like 12 or 13 high
school rodeos and then Dun-
can gave me a real rigging
and showed me what he
knew and told me 'good luck'
and sent me on my way."
At age 15, Vezain met
his father for the first time.
"I always wondered
how does a kid who grew up
in a town like Cowley end
up wanting to rodeo," said
Vezaln. "When I met my dad
I understood why, because I
discovered for the first time
that I had a whole family in
rodeo. It's in my blood. That
whole side of my family is ro-
deo oriented."
Vezain said the first time
he got on a bucl ing bronc
it scared him but he said it
was an "excited scared.:
"I wasn't crying because I
wanted to get off, it was more
like 'come on turn him loose,"
he said. "That was that day at
Cowley Days when I placed
third. It was the first time I'd
ever rode a bronc."
As a teen, Vezaln took
advantage of every opportu-
nity he could to get on the
back of a bucking horse. In
the summer, he participated
in the Cody Night Rodeo just
about every night and didn't
think twice about asking ev-
ery pro he could for advice.
Now he mainly works
on staying strong through a
combination of weight lifting
and CrossFit training, which
is a core strength and condi-
tioning program. He also use
a "spur board" to strengthen
he spurring ability and rare-
ly finds it necessary to use
actual bucking horses for
practice anymore.
"My goal is to, of course,
break every record, but also
to use this rodeo career to
set myself up with a place
where I can raise and de-
velop a well known perfor-
mance herd, sell perfor-
mance horses and cows and
be out of debt by time I'm
30 or 35," said Vezain. "I've
always set goals and I al-
ways reach them. I love to
work hard and I love to win.
If you can believe it you can
achieve it. That's one of my
favorite sayings."
Vezain rode in 75 rode-
os this year: He won close
to $200,000 in the PRCA
and another $68,000 from
his winnings in Canada and
added another $5,000 from
his Chase Hawks win.
"That's not bad for a
20-year-old punk kid who
doesn't know what to do
with all that money," chuck-
led Vezain, who )m cests all of
his winnings with an eye to-
ward his dream ranch.
$45,000
s45,000
40,000
35,000
s40,000
000
000
000
-$-25,000
v20,O00
,000 ,
15,000
10,000
*-15,000
-10,000
rs,ooo
Digital onversion Fundraiser
