By Army Staff Sgt. Mark Patton
4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo., June 9, 2015 – A white cross
memorial juts from the rugged terrain as a group of bow hunters start their
trek into the heart of a 7-by-4-mile island surrounded by some of the
Caribbean’s roughest waters.
“It’s a reality check that this island has taken people’s
lives,” recalled Army Capt. Stacy Beasley, the chaplain for the Fort Leonard
Wood-based 5th Engineer Battalion, 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, 1st
Infantry Division.
Beasley was speaking about Mona Island, Puerto Rico, an area
billed as one of the most hostile environments known to man. It’s an island
that, except for seasonal rangers, remains uninhabited by humans. What the
island does offer is scorching heat, venomous centipedes, poisonous plants,
sinkholes, razor sharp coral and a disorienting cactus maze.
Avid Outdoorsman
For Beasley, a native of Carthage, Missouri, this island
became his temporary home late last year. It also became the site of the avid
outdoorsman’s television debut.
Three other bow hunters joined Beasley on Mona Island as
their efforts to cull an invasive colony of boars infected by the highly
contagious and deadly Brucellosis microbe were documented for an “Animal
Planet” television show.
By hunting the feral hogs, the team hoped to reduce the
spread of disease on the island and prevent it from being carried to the
mainland by illegal migrants. Mona Island is also home to endangered animals,
including an endemic iguana subspecies, and Beasley said their hunt aimed to reduce
the disturbance of the ecosystem.
‘Animal Planet’ Docudrama
The docudrama, dubbed “Monster Island,” aired May 21 as part
of “Animal Planet’s” Monster Week offerings.
Being one of the few Americans to have hunted on Mona Island
wasn’t something that Beasley had penned out on his life’s roadmap, but an
email from Bright Road Productions quickly put the island within his sights.
The company was looking to pitch a show idea to “Animal
Planet” revolving around hunting on the Puerto Rican island. Beasley’s presence
on social media bow hunting groups drew the attention of the company’s
employees, so they contacted him via email, saying he fit what they were
looking for.
“I thought it was a joke,” Beasley said during a recent
interview.
At auditions a week later, he soon learned that it was far
from a joke.
A veteran of two tours in Iraq, three grueling National
Training Center rotations in Fort Irwin, California, military assignments that
stretched from coast to coast in the U.S., and hunting trips to a variety of
challenging locations, Beasley’s experiences helped to prepare him for his most
challenging hunt to date.
Challenging Terrain
“If Osama bin Laden had been hiding on Mona Island, we may
have never found him,” Beasley quipped. “It was worse than any NTC rotation
I’ve ever been on.”
As Beasley and his crew settled in for the hunt, left alone
with only what could be carried on an island with no source of fresh water,
Beasley remembered his thought.
“We’re a bunch of castaways,” he said.
At one point during the show, Beasley, fresh from shooting a
boar, scrambled to locate both his arrow and the injured hog in the dwindling
daylight, while being careful to avoid sinkholes hidden underneath palm fronds,
falling coconuts and a plant whose leaves can cause painful blisters and even
blindness.
Lack of sleep, walking over 60 miles of rough terrain during
filming and the mental challenges weighed heavily on Beasley, but he credits
his military training for being able to maintain a positive attitude and
survive the physical demands.
“I never dropped out of the hunt,” Beasley said, who shed 10
pounds during his stay on the island.
Beasley compared the production and film crew to that of a
well-tuned and precise military team and admitted he was amazed at how much
work went into the show.
“I have a newfound respect for actors and actresses,”
Beasley said.
Lifelong Friends
Tim “Spike” Davis, a bearded primitive bow hunter from
Chicago who also starred in the show, said the experience and camaraderie was
the highlight of the adventure and he met friends that he hopes to hunt with
for the rest of his life.
“Working with Captain Beasley was an honor and a blessing,”
Davis wrote in an email. “We both share the same faith, and it is good to know
that when you’re on a dangerous island away from home. Even though I have never
served in the military, my brother and father did, and I knew having Stacy on
the team was an asset.”
As the group faced an imminent storm and dwindling supplies,
they were forced to finally pack up, having shot three boars in total.
“One more day, one more day, one more day,” the determined
Beasley pleaded, but reality set in and the group knew they had done what they
could to help the island.
This month, Beasley is slated to depart the Army after more
than 10 years of service. Although the Missouri native mentioned he’s looking
for a new line of work, Beasley said he would enjoy the chance to be involved
in another docudrama in the future.
Whatever path he takes, it’s inevitable that Beasley will
stay in camouflage at least part time, just a different shade.
“I’ve been on two tours of duty in Iraq and I’ve seen a lot
of bad stuff,” Beasley said on camera. “When I got back from Iraq, it was very
difficult and the one thing that brought me back to reality was hunting.”
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