{"id":582447,"date":"2010-05-28T00:35:48","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T04:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/?p=20170"},"modified":"2010-05-28T00:35:48","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T04:35:48","slug":"rooting-for-the-joshua-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/582447","title":{"rendered":"Rooting for The Joshua Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Capt Guide, the Marine at the helm of the Navy Construction Battalion at FOB Payne in Afghanistan thinks it is important for the \u201cSeabees\u201d to have something to love, honor, and nourish.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince pets are not allowed in the theater, he sent guys out to the river valley to find us a tree,\u201d said Seabee CECS (SCW) Thurmond Oliver, who is on his 6th<\/sup> deployment. The whole C.B. detachment was sent in as part of President Obama\u2019s order to send 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Oliver says the first tree the guys brought back was worse than the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. \u201cIt looked liked the guys planted it upside down. It was not up to Captain Guide\u2019s standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So the Captain sent the Seabees out to find another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second one was a good lookin\u2019 tree. But it came with a visitor.\u201d Oliver said referring to the poisonous Viper snake that had hitchhiked in on the tree\u2019s branches.<\/p>\n

The Seabees built a large, wooden planter for their tree and set forth caring for it. It was doing well, until one fateful day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CECS (SCW) Thurmond Oliver<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe guys were taking turns watering the tree,\u201d Oliver explained, \u201cand one day the Seabee whose turn it was used water from the showers. That\u2019s chlorinated. Naturally, the tree died. So, here we have tree number three.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys made a wooden sign for their pet project, calling it \u201cThe Joshua Tree\u201d.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not a reference to the funky looking trees that grow at the national park near the Marine combat center in Twenty-nine Palms, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain Guide\u2019s first name is Joshua, so we named it after him. It\u2019s his legacy. It was his dream that we\u2019d have a tree,\u201d said Oliver.<\/p>\n

Things are not looking good for Seabee tree number three. Due to a road job outside the wire, it hasn\u2019t been properly watered in a few days. The leaves that were once green are turning brown, blending in with the dust and dirt all around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s doing as well as that snake on a board over there,\u201d Oliver joked, pointing to a snakeskin nailed to a 2×4 piece of wood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But Capt Guide is not giving up hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have faith in that tree. We\u2019re gonna bring her back,\u201d he said, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna baby her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys are using coffee grounds as fertilizer in hopes of perking the tree back up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives the guys something green to look at,\u201d Capt Guide said, admitting having the tree named after him is a bit embarrassing.\u00a0 But he\u2019s willing to take some ribbing for the good of the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs fun and entertaining this is, having a living tree is meaningful around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Capt Joshua Guide with The Joshua Tree<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capt Guide, the Marine at the helm of the Navy Construction Battalion at FOB Payne in Afghanistan thinks it is important for the \u201cSeabees\u201d to have something to love, honor, and nourish. \u201cSince pets are not allowed in the theater, he sent guys out to the river valley to find us a tree,\u201d said Seabee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}