“Cowboy Up! You’re Going on a Spur Ride...”

By SSG Lyndsey Prax

"Golden Spurs" were something we had no comprehension of during the first two months of our deployment to Kandahar Airfield. But when the 1^st Cavalry Division took command in July everything changed. All of the ordinary was overshadowed by BIG, black and yellow, cowboy hats and a horse named Trigger.

Being a small National Guard Unit surrounded by such magnitude has the potential to be overwhelming.
Fortunately for the eight of us from Utah, the hearts of these Cavalry men are almost as big as the patch on their arm and they welcomed us immediately with their Texas charm.  

However we could never be real cowboys until we earned our spurs.

On September 28, the members of the 128^th MPAD were officially inducted into the 1^st Cavalry Division with the tradition of the “Order of the Spur.”

According to tradition the “Order” stems from knighthood where the awarding of spurs symbolized entry into the ranks of mounted warriors and it was the spurs that symbolized a man was a knight, not his sword, horse or armor.

Since the beginning of the U.S. Army Cavalry, troopers have carried on the tradition of the “Order of the Spur” and legend has it that when amateur Soldiers arrived at their new cavalry assignments they were assigned a horse with a shaved tail. They were in need of extensive training, especially in the area of swordsmanship from atop a horse. Only when they were able to prove their ability to perform with their horse and saber were they awarded spurs.

Presently Soldiers are inducted after successfully completing a “Spur Ride,” a rite of passage established by the commander that puts Soldiers through a series of physical and mental tests. Lucky for us, (depending on your perspective of course) the only other way to be sanctioned into the elite group is to have served during combat as a member of the Cavalry unit.

Of course the spurs were not just handed to us on a silver platter with a, “thank you for all of the hard work you’ve done.”  Thanks to our very own SPC Ariel Solomon, our work went beyond the hundreds of stories and images produced, straight into the front leaning rest position where we stayed until every member of our unit had a pair of golden spurs buckled to their combat boots.


Thank you to LTC Luedeke, MAJ Brautigam and SSG Dubee for not only honoring us with such a coveted souvenir, but for teaching us the significance of “First Team.”