Obviously, this whole story about Ted Frosty Foster vs PGR leadership sounds like a huge personality conflict or something on that order but nothing could be farther from the actual truth. The fact is, we have local/state/regional leadership who have made mistake after mistake not the least of which is disrespecting other ride captains and blue hats (including Gold Star family members) and writing scathing emails (of a personal sort) with a cc to inappropriate parties. All of us have BJ horror stories. Most of us have refrained from sharing them except among ourselves. That was a mistake. I will spend the next few posts correcting that error.
Sometimes photos speak volumes - the disrespect for the flag and the behavior at the funeral (is a funeral really the proper time for a gal pal photo op?) staging is the source of contention in this debate.
This is Ride Captain Barbara Johnson scolding Ray Calvert after being complicit in what locals call the flag in the bush episode. The gist of the episode is while PGR was setting up for a funeral earlier in the year, 1) flags were stuffed under bushes around the side of the building (no photos here - the outraged vets who found them didn't think to take a photo but they were quick to pick them up and carry them back to the flag transport vehicle where they could be stored properly.) 2) photos of unattended flags leaned in the bushes were taken and posted on Facebook 3) photos were taken of ride captain Barbara Johnson and a blue hat friend (who has done enough missions to know better) posing for pics during the funeral staging with the two other flags leaning in the bushes and again these photos were posted on Facebook. When outraged PGR accosted the Johnsons (Mike Johnson was the ride captain for this mission), instead of owning the misbehavior they assigned the blame of misplaced flags to a hapless newbie and basically said - well in Mike's own words in a text "they can kiss my ass." Please note that local leadership makes a habit of calling anyone who challenges their behavior a liar and worse. Please also note, this is not a private message between two people and the person who sent it signs the email in her capacity as a PGR ride captain. Is this really the sort of email you want to see in your inbox from leadership. Accusing someone of a lie especially without specifying the lie is libel/slander.
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Sharing with the permission of Ray Tex Calvert.
To: TEXCALVERT@aol.com
CC: kend0715@gmail.com, mikelambert2@aol.com, txshotgun@gmail.com, jim.murphy.1902@gmail.com, pgrbuddha@aol.com, paulmiller1946@yahoo.com, Tedinez@att.net, dlgrim54@yahoo.com
Sent: 3/12/2014 6:32:45 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Tex,
Who are you to tell anyone about flag code when at the Ehlert mission (my mission) you got up in my face (along with Ted & Laura) to "inform" me that I had the American Flag & Navy Flag in the wrong place (oops, did someone interfere with another ride captains mission?). We all know how that turned out (you were wrong) that is what my Dad would have called "the pot calling the kettle black".
You made the decision to step down so why are you taking it out on Mike and I? You could have put your big boys underwear on, stayed as a PGR ride captain and dealt with me just as I was prepared to deal with you and your sidekicks, but you didn't, it's time for you to grow up and accept responsibility for your own actions!
One of these days all of the people that have trusted you are going to find out you have lied and used them and you are going to find yourself a very lonely man and more miserable than you are now.
You talk the talk, but don't walk the walk, that is not the actions of a ride captain in one of the country's greatest organizations I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and being a part of. Your actions are an embarrassment to the very people you claim to honor.
From now on if you have a problem with someone, act like a man and not a spoiled brat and take it up with them. Stop the back stabbing, bad mouthing and using others to do your dirty work!
Barbara Johnson
PROUD Patriot Guard Ride Captain
North Texas
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Sharing with the permission of Ray Tex Calvert.
To: BRBJO@aol.com
Sent: 3/24/2014 12:03:14 P.M. Central Daylight Time
After consulting with an attorney, he assured me I can respond to your letter with a rebuttal to your accusations without any repercussions.
In regards to the Ehlert mission, you stated that I got in your face and told you the flags were positioned wrong. At the time this happened, I truly believed they were positioned wrong, that you had them reversed. You told me to move them, I did not. After a discussion with another Ride Captain I was proven wrong, my mistake. I then told him that I owed you an apology and went to you and apologized to you. Usually when a person apologizes the matter is dropped, done with, period. You again brought this matter up at a meeting on the 14th of Jan.2012. Those in attendance included Steve Hertzel DSC, Mike Lambert ASC and a number of Ride Captains from the Red River area. At that meeting I asked you if I had Apologized and you stated "Yes you did". A lot of these people present at said meeting would be more than happy to testify to that effect in a court of law, if I decide to pursue this matter in a court of law. When you took it upon yourself to e-mail this letter to more than just me, you made it public. When you signed it Proud Ride Captain, NTxPGR, you unwitting became their spokesperson. I can only assume that you have their loyal support.
At this time, I have not decided on a course of action but can assure you that your letter and my rebuttal will be made public to the entire PGR membership in this area. If you can write a letter accusing me of the things you did, how long will it be before you start accusing other people of things they might or might not have done. They might be leery of attending your missions in the future. Unfurl or furl a flag the wrong way? Misplace a water bottle? Place flags on rebar the wrong way? Bring down your wrath upon themselves? I think not. People will not want to take that chance and bring on a slanderous e-mail upon themselves and sent to state leadership. Along these same lines, I have no idea just how many people you sent this to other than the ones that were closed captioned.
As for as I know, you have never offered an apology to anyone for some of the things you have said or done at missions that you attended and were not involved in as a Ride Captain. These are things that you have forgotten about. Things I could put in this rebuttal but will not. You should go back and try to remember what the Jan. 14th. 2012 meeting was about in the first place!
Another point you brought up was about me lying to people to gain their support. I invite you to bring them to me and I will personally apologize to them all, if they feel that I have lied to them in order to gain their support. Even my "sidekicks", as you called my friends, feel this is totally absurd. Not only are they mad and upset about it, they feel as I do, that you have insulted them as well. They have lost their respect, if they ever had any, for you. That is something you can never regain.
I have never been disrespectful toward the flag or to any veteran, first responder or to their families. I do not seek fame nor media attention. My actions speak for themselves and I am not, repeat, not lonely or miserable.
I was taught to respect and take care of the very people that you choose to chastise. My 1st. Sgt was one of the best teachers I have ever known when it came to leadership, respect, and honor. He forgot more about those three things than you will ever know.
As I stated in my response to a letter from Mike J., I never asked anyone to step down as a RC when I resigned. They all resigned because of the way they felt, not something that I tried to get them to do. Even the one who stayed shared the same thoughts as the rest of us. Apparently he had some "big boys underwear" to pull up, I did not, so I stepped down as a RC so the three of you can have a free rein with no interference from me. I have noticed the attendance is down now as compared to before your reinstatement as a Ride Captain. Again, before I am accused, I have not asked anyone to stay away from the missions. I might have more friends than you thought. I didn't see you at many missions standing the flag line with honor and respect when the active RC's had the year you was supposed to be a Blue Hat. Must have found that other way you mentioned to honor our veterans and first responders. As a matter of fact, your rarely in the flag line if you do attend a mission.
One more thing so there will be no mistake....I was "walking the walk" in the jungles of Vietnam before you ever thought about respect and honor. I fought my way thru a year of hell so you would have the right to belittle me, criticize me and try to make me into some kind of fraud to the very people you hope will respect you! Good luck with that. Actions speak louder than words, more so the empty words of some people.
Tex
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Sharing with the permission of Ted Frosty Foster
I have given much thought to the unfounded, defaming email that landed in my inbox a few days ago. I cannot imagine why you choose to dishonor a decorated war hero. Ray Calvert was awarded a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and a CIB (Combat Infantry Badge) among other honors.
This man is one of those that you purport to respect. Personally, I consider this man to be one of the most honorable men I have ever known and he is also my best friend. FURTHERMORE, LET IT BE KNOWN WHEN YOU ATTACK ONE OF US YOU ATTACK ALL OF US. Ray “Tex” Calvert has worked tirelessly and selflessly to further the mission and image of The Patriot Guard in the Red River Area – all without benefit of the fancy title you tout.
I have been in this world longer than most and have found one thing to be a constant truth:
YOU CANNOT BUY RESPECT - IT HAS TO BE EARNED.
For what it is worth, here is my opinion of what you should do:
1. Sit down in a quiet place and let your thinking catch up before you continue with knee-jerk petty mindedness.
2. Make a public apology to Tex and make it sincere.
3. If you decide this is something you cannot or will not do - then I believe the Red River Patriot Guard will be finished in this area.
4. One other thing that you both appear to have forgotten, I have ridden on dozens of missions with Tex and never once has he delivered us to the WRONG church. We had many new riders (Sports Bike Club) on that day and not once have they attended another mission.
Just something to think about…
Ted “Frosty” Foster
Former Patriot Guard Ride Captain
“PROUD SIDEKICK”
Ted "Frosty" Foster
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Sharing with the permission of Ted Frosty Foster
To: tedinez@att.net
CC: TEXCALVERT@aol.com, brbjo@aol.com, kend0715@gmail.com, txshotgun@gmail.com, jim.murphy.1902@gmail.com, pgrbuddha@aol.com, paulmiller1946@yahoo.com, dlgrim54@yahoo.com
Sent: 3/25/2014 2:28:25 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Ted,
I appreciate you stepping up in this because I only seem to hear about these things once they are posted to Facebook to show the disrespect being thrown around within the North Texas Patriot Guard in the Wichita Falls area.
It has never been a requirement for The volunteers who stand up for our veterans to like each other. However, there is a requirement to show honor and respect and that honor and respect needs to be extended to those people who stand as members of the Patriot Guard Riders as well as for the veterans we stand for.
The fact that two people apparently do not like each other has nothing to do with the Patriot Guard. The fact that a small group of individuals now use the Patriot Guard as their platform to voice their disrespect for each other, speaks volumes for everyone involved. The wearing of the red or blue bandanas is another example. We are not the "crypts and the bloods" and if they want to join with the American Legion, I fully support anything that will get the America Legion members to attend the funerals of our veterans.
I too served my time, my service was as a door gunner flying combat search and rescue in Vietnam but I will not dishonor my prior service nor will I dishonor my current service with the PGR by allowing any personal bickering to replace the Honor and Respect of the PGR.
This petty display of mutual disrespect has been going back and forth for over two years and was a prime reason the area could not be a stand alone region of the Patriot Guard Riders. If you can't respect the person beside you holding a flag, how do you respect the person you are holding the flag for.
I have stood missions in the area and I know there are honest hard working people who come out to honor our soldiers and I can assure you those people came out to join in a display of honor not to get involved in someone's personal dispute. I know none of you are out to destroy the Patriot Guard Riders, so please take the time to resolve your individual inabilities to cope with each other and move it away from the people who simply want to show honor and respect to those who deserve it.
Mike 'Gunner' Lambert
State Captain
Patriot Guard Riders of Texas
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Notice how Lambert claims he is always unaware of the issue? And then instead of addressing the flag in the bushes takes issue with biker apparel? What has a bandana got to do with anything PGR? Lambert orders PGR members around like they are a motorcycle club, denounces anyone who wears a PGR patch to other biker functions and then labels anyone wearing a red or blue bandana basically a gang member. I wear a bandana every time I ride out - color according to my mood and hopefully coordinating with the color of my shirt. Good grief. I think of particular note here is Lambert's assumption that PGR members are required to respect each other. As Frosty says - respected is earned. What is implied here is Lambert expects everyone to respect BJ but not necessarily the other way around. Lambert cannot mandate respect any more than he can mandate most of the other stuff he tries to put out there as Lambert's law. The proper thing for local leadership to do would have been to own that the behavior concerning the flags and posing for pics in the middle of a funeral as bad judgment and move on. Instead local leadership passed the buck and remains unaccountable.
We all have photos of ourselves at missions. Most photos are taken post mission. Most photos taken during a mission hopefully depict us representing the PGR in a respectful manner as in standing at ease with our flags in the proper vertical position.
Stay tuned - there's more coming on this one.
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