{"id":133475,"date":"2026-06-16T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/behind-rodeo-opener-veterans-carry-americas-flag-into-montezuma-county-arena\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T01:31:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:31:04","slug":"behind-rodeo-opener-veterans-carry-americas-flag-into-montezuma-county-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/behind-rodeo-opener-veterans-carry-americas-flag-into-montezuma-county-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind rodeo opener: Veterans carry America\u2019s flag into Montezuma County arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Joel
Joel Theriot, a retired Army sergeant first class with Frog-X Parachute Team, prepares to land Friday night during the Ute Mountain Roundup Rodeo opening performance. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It took four minutes for the skydivers to land \u2013 the last guy down at exactly 7:11 p.m.<\/p>\n

The retired military serviceman had dropped out of a plane at 10,500 feet, as one towed a gigantic American flag. The aerial display to \u201cGod Bless The USA\u201d gained a roar from the audience as it opened the Ute Mountain Roundup Rodeo at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds on June 12.<\/p>\n

Before the men were spotted as tiny dots on the blue sky, a video board recounted 250 years of American history.<\/p>\n

A narration went back to frozen valleys of the American Revolution or the \u201ccovered wagons pushing West\u201d to the Civil War, World Wars and the Civil Rights Movement. The video portrayed the national story as a story of struggles, wars and setbacks, yet a country that came together and persevered \u2013 one built by \u201cdreamers\u201d who advanced aspects of life from large-scale manufacturing to cellphones.<\/p>\n

\"Joel
Joel Theriot approaches the rodeo arena during Friday\u2019s aerial demonstration. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As the parachutists came to view, the message became about recognizing men and women serving in wars. It emphasized sacrifice, resilience, loss and freedom as red, white and blue smoke provided high drama to the men in Army fatigues touching ground.<\/p>\n

The crowd roared and professional rodeo emcee Jody Carper announced each of their names as he welcomed fans.<\/p>\n

The crew giving the opening demonstration was the Frog-X Parachute Team, led by retired reconnaissance Marine Marc Hogue. The team, made up of veterans from the U.S. Marines, Army, Special Operations Forces and Navy SEALS, travel across the U.S. jumping for rodeos, sporting events, golf tournaments and military tributes.<\/p>\n

\"A
A member of the Frog-X Parachute Team descends into the Ute Mountain Roundup Rodeo flying a POW\/MIA flag. The black-and-white flag honors American Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action. (Courtesy of Jessica Nix)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hogue has done about 16,840 jumps over four decades, and other group members jump frequently as part of their second careers at his skydiving center in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes it interesting is every single jump is a little bit different,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the heat, wind and the altitude, there\u2019s always little things and that makes it more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jumpers deal with different elevations, changing wind directions and American flags that vary in size and weight.<\/p>\n

What Hogue calls \u201cmore an art than a science,\u201d demands prep.<\/p>\n

\"Frog
Frog X Parachute Team snaps a photo of the rodeo arena during the jump. (Courtesy Photo of Frog X)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The crew arrived hours before the show to assess the weather and run a test \u2013 all to gauge a safe landing that\u2019s precisely on time. They told rodeo organizers just hours before the jump the winds were on the edge of what they could accept.<\/p>\n

Ground safety officer Andy Davidson remained at the fairground gathering data and relaying readings to update the plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs normal, as you get near sunset, the winds tend to die down,\u201d Hogue said, explaining that wind speed for this type of jump is limited at 15 mph.<\/p>\n

Nearing start time, Davidson didn\u2019t gauge a reading above 12 mph.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s plane was flown by senior pilot at Skydive Phoenix Jennifer Black. Parachutists were Hogue; retired Army Sergeant First Class Joel Theriot, who carried the flag; and Chris Altman, a chief warrant officer, who\u2019s since retired from the U.S. Army after 30 years. The crew opened the Saturday rodeo, marking the second year in a row they performed for local fans.<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, Andy Davidson, Chris Altman, Marc Hogue, Joel Theriot and Jennifer Black at the rodeo\u2019s hospitality suite. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The dive takes about a minute of free falling before parachutists open the chute, somewhere around 3,000 to 5,000 feet above the ground. It requires a great amount of experience and an expert parachutist certification, what\u2019s known as a pro rating.<\/p>\n

Each jump brings risk and technicalities, Hogue said, depending where the team performs, including demonstrations encompassing major cities, at various high elevations, terrain, or structures, like sports stadiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, we\u2019ll jump and they\u2019ll play the national anthem. When we get to about 2,000 feet, they\u2019ll start the music and the big flag lands on the last note of the national anthem,\u201d Hogue said, before Theriot added \u201cthere\u2019s not a dry eye in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogue\u2019s team demonstrations are a regular at the LIV Golf tournament, performed for Major League Baseball World Series games, at the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Ravens and Minneapolis Vikings stadiums, as well as jumps for five home games at the University of Arizona\u2019s football stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite is the patriotism,\u201d Theriot said. \u201cWe\u2019ve not gone to one place where they\u2019re not like, \u2018I love America.\u2019 And when we come in and that flag comes in, you can see everybody stop or put a hand on their heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s just fills me up with pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meticulous preparation, spot-on timing and a dose of patriotism make for a dazzling display<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,60,2105,29,937,6419,2295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-fair","tag-newsletter","tag-rodeo","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-ute-mountain-roundup-rodeo"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135261,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133475\/revisions\/135261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133475"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}