Attn: Veterans **UPDATED**
ATTN: All military veterans
A few years ago, I had an idea and now I feel a strong desire to get it going. Below is my idea and what I want to do. Please give your input on my idea and what I need to do to improve it please.
Thanks,
Mark Cooper
MSgt/USAF Retired
After reading a lot of threads and thinking, should I keep the focus on military but expand the eligible persons to include law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMT's? These people too serve our great country and put their lives on the line every day just like military personnel. Their "enemy" may be different in most instances, but the bottom line is the same.
CAMP ECHO OSCAR ONE NINER
Background: There are two Armed Forces Recreation Centers in the United States. One is at Disney World and the other is in Hawaii. Both of them are quite expensive to stay at. Talking with soldiers returning from the war in the middle east, I was told by many that they were going to Lake of the Ozarks to get reacquainted with their families. Many of them were paying up to $300 per night. I then thought there should be something more centrally located in the midwest that would not cost a soldier an arm and a leg to stay at. I developed the plan to build a not for profit recreation area for not only active duty military, but also disabled veterans, retirees, and national guardsmen/reservists. The plan was to find the land and build cabins on it for our military and their families to stay at. I then expanded the idea to have enough land so that the visitors to the camp could hunt, hike and fish. The next stage was to come up with a name for the camp. I decided on Camp Echo Oscar
One Niner. Echo is the phonetic spelling for the letter "E". Oscar represents "O". The E is for Enlisted and the O is for Officer. Enlisted and Officer ranks both go from 1 through 9. Therefore Camp Echo Oscar One Niner is for allmilitary personnel without regard to their rank.
In 2007, my wife and I purchased 51 acres in South Central Iowa. It had 5 ponds on it and a 12 acre area that used to be a campgrounds. This reignited my desire to get EO19 going again. The neighbors to the East of my property have 260 acres and one of their spouses also owns another 100 acres that adjoins the property. Both the neighbor and the spousehave been talking of selling the property soon. This would be the perfect place for EO19. It has about 120 acres ofCRP land and the rest in timber. There is already electricity run to the property. Not only are their excellent places
for the cabins, but there are a lot of deer and turkeys on the property.
PLAN
Step 1: Locate Sponsors to Purchase the Property and Build the Facilities,with a total of 15 cabins,a community center,anda general store which could be in the pole barn on the property with some renovation. All corporate sponsors will be recognized in the welcome packet and with plaques in the individual cabins, the meeting hall, and/or the general store. Each cabin will be named after a prior military person whose actions command respect with no regard to enlisted or officer status at the time of their action.
Step 2: Incorporate EO19 as a not for profit organization.
Step 3: Set up a big name hunter (w/TV Show) to guide disabled soldiers on a spring turkey hunt, a fall shotgun hunt, and a winter muzzleloader hunt. This will not only bring awareness in the hunting community to these brave men and women, but will also help the guides career by increasing his/her visibility in the military community.
Step 4: Advertise EO19 through press releases to branch newspapers, internet forums, and a website. This advertising will also
include a free week every year for one member of each branch.
Step 5: Until business picks up, my wife would run EO19 day to day business andI will do paperwork and alladministrative and agricultural duties in the evening and weekends. Once bookings are filling up,I will go to work for EO19 full time.
Step 6: Add more personnel as necessary to run EO19 in a efficient and professional manner.
Step 7: Any funds not required for the next year's operating expense and not earmarked for purchasing more property will be donatedto a military charity/organization (i.e. USO, Disabled Veterans Association, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Enlisted Association, Officer
Association, etc).
Sorry for the length of this post, but it is important to me and would like other prior service members feedback on this.