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Lets Support our Military and get them Hunting

Maj. MS Darin L HarperOur military is one of the finest group of men and women in the world and each and every day those men and women support and protect our freedom to speak, shoot, hunt and fish.  These men like also like to take time out of their busy schedules and enjoy the pleasure of getting outdoors and hunting with friends and family.  Our military is certainly not the best paid men and women and I know most all of them are not serving our country for the money, that is for sure.

After getting this great letter from Maj, MS Darin L Harper(US Army), I am proposing that we reward our military with resident licenses in all 50 states.  Each state controls their resident and non-resident costs for licenses and every state has the option to declare military members as exceptions to the rule.  In fact I am pretty sure that most level headed politicians and game and fish officers would stand right beside me in saying we need to support our US Troops both at home and abroad.

Lets work together to give our United States soldiers the right to buy resident tags and licenses for hunting in every state of our great country so they can enjoy the outdoors no matter where they are stationed.

Letter From Maj, MS Darin L Harper(US Army):

Mr. Paulson –
My name is MAJ Darin Harper, I am an active duty officer in the US Army, and am currently a student at the Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth KS. I have served in uniform since 1987 when I enlisted after High School graduation and have served in a variety of assignments all over the world. In the course of my profession I have been assigned to seven different locations in the continental United States as well as four overseas assignments including a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am an avid outdoorsman and enjoy hunting and fishing whenever I can. As a service member I get the opportunity to apply for a resident license in whichever state I am currently assigned. I am extremely appreciative of this benefit as the cost of seven different out of state licenses over the past 16 years would be pretty expensive! However, because my profession often sends me to locations that are not of my choosing, if I want to hunt with family or friends in other states (even ones I had lived in before) I loose my resident status. For most hunters, the additional cost of hunting out of state is just a part of the game, if you don’t want to pay…don’t play. Over the past four years I have been deployed twice and have found it challenging and expensive (when I am home) to attend a family quail hunt over Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, summer fishing trips with other family members in Colorado, and Spring turkey hunting with friends I just left in Kentucky.

The operational tempo of the US military, over the past eight years, has forced many of us to change assignments and locations at a rate higher than ever before. I think that states should allow active duty servicemen to apply for resident licenses regardless of their current location. The states themselves would benefit from this as their total number of sold licenses would increase among service members as opposed to them not buying one at all because of the high out of state costs. I think it would also increase the total number of sportsmen in the military if the costs and availability of licensing was reasonable.The views expressed are my own and are not the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

Thank you for your time,

Darin L. Harper
MAJ, MS

Well Darin, I agree with you 100% and I think that if you are out there working to protect my freedom to hunt, fish and shoot and raise my family, then you should absolutely be allowed to hunt and fish in every state of our great country and with your military ID you should be able to buy a license and tags just like a resident.  I believe our politicians should get to work and communicate with their game and fish officers and make this happen.  We need to support our troops and we should help them to enjoy our great outdoors they work so hard to protect……

Kevin C. Paulson

Founder of HuntingLife.com

Kevin Paulson

Kevin Paulson is the Founder and CEO of HuntingLife.com. His passion for Hunting began at the age of 5 hunting alongside of his father. Kevin has followed his dreams through outfitting, conservation work, videography and hunting trips around the world.

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