Community invited to Dove Hunt closing ceremonies, Saturday at 6 p.m. Spring Creek Fellowship
This week the local D.A.V. (Disabled American Veterans) will be hosting the 7th annual Dove Hunt. The honorees will be treated to a weekend of hunting and show of appreciation for their service to our country. Their weekend will wrap up with the Dove Hunt Closing Ceremony at 6 p.m. inside Spring Creek Fellowship. Once again, four veterans will be honored; those veterans include: Sgt. Deon R. Mealing of Big Spring; Petty Officer Dustin N. Cripe of Midland; Army veteran Charles Limer and Tomas Martinez of Georgia. The community is encouraged to show their support for these four veterans and all those who have served.
“This started as a way to honor veterans after having been a part of a Purple Heart Deer Hunt in another community,” Mike Tarpley, organizer of the local Dove Hunt, said. “I felt the need to do something here in Big Spring after experiencing and realizing what it meant to veterans to be honored.”
Limer joined the Army in April 1966 and took part in basic training at Ft. Dix in New Jersey before heading to Ft. Sill in Oklahoma for artillery A.T. Training.
Limer was deployed to Vietnam with the 319th Arty where he drove a jeep for the Battery Commander and worked in the fire direction center as a radio operator.
Martinez joined the Army on May 20, 2006. He is currently assigned to Alpha Company 3-47 Infantry on Sand Hill out of Fort Benning, Georgia as a Drill Sergeant since February 2019.
Cripe, a Navy veteran, also known by his call sign – Cowboy, served as a