“Freedom is a team sport.”
So said veteran Nic Transtrum, former Blackhawk pilot and co-pilot of Blackfoot’s Blackhawk BBQ restaurant and fleet of mobile food trucks. His business partner, Bryan Boyce, was in the Air Force with plans to also be a pilot. Their service paths ended up being vastly different, but both were and are vital parts of Freedom Team. Our third Blackfoot veteran, Annie Gardner, also had a different function on that team as she blazed trails in the Idaho National Guard.
Both Transtrum and Gardner joined their service branches in 2001 when the world was largely at peace. And, both were either finishing their training or had just been deployed to their first assignment when the towers came down and the Pentagon was hit. Suddenly the world’s peace became very shaky and these young people who had joined during peace were now part of a war future. Despite that, their military paths were largely typical for the part of our team they were on.
Transtrum spent the next 9 years as a Blackhawk pilot, which he says are “the coolest aircraft in the world.” As a pilot he was transporting troops, medevac’ing out the injured, bringing in supplies, and flying 79 combat missions in Iraq. He characterized the combat he saw as “intense”, which I’m sure included the last “hard” landing he had which led to an early medical retirement from active service. He returned to his hometown, Blackfoot, his wife, and their six daughters. It was there he met Boyce via Varsity Scouts. Wait, he was a varsity scout leader with a house full of daughters? Maybe that was wise after all…. for balance?
At scout events he found himself BBQing with fellow veteran Boyce and they soon became BBQ Battle Buddies, sharing a military background and a food future. Transtrum had spent a lot of his service time in the South and discovered his love of BBQ there. Boyce gained his BBQ experience and passion during a church mission to the French West Indies in the Caribbean.
Previously, Boyce had attended the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado as a cadet. While there he had two bouts of pneumonia and a training injury that sidelined him from his dream of being an officer and pilot. He was honorably discharged for medical reasons and headed to the Islands. Once he was back in the states, he still sought his dreams, this time by joining the ROTC at Utah State where he also pursued a degree in psychology. After graduation he realized he had to abandon his military dreams and for years didn’t consider himself a veteran. It was a tough time, yet his military training taught him to “adapt and overcome”. He shifted “missions” and took on call center battles. Using his degree, he rose fast in that industry and became a consultant and traveling trainer for the next 20 years. Along the way he and his wife were raising a family of five and they moved to Blackfoot, where he began serving BBQ to scouts with Transtrum.
What began as neighborhood cookouts and scout feeds, grew in 2019 to mobile food trucks, for which they consistently won “best of” awards. Now they have a restaurant on S. Broadway and food trucks that bring their award-winning BBQ to Idaho Falls and Pocatello. And, soon they will have a 2nd restaurant location in Ririe at the Kelly Canyon Ski Resort.
Besides their passionate motto: “Live Free – Eat BBQ”, they also regularly hire recently discharged veterans who need time to adjust and design a new future. Once again Boyces’ degree and, more importantly, his quiet way of listening has helped many veterans transition, including some with PTSD. Not sure if he’d like to be called a veteran services chaplain, but it kind of fits, and in that quiet way he is still serving, albeit without official orders.
Retired Major Annie Gardner felt she wasn’t the right veteran for a spotlight, since she never saw combat. However, I disagree.
After 10 weeks of boot camp in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and 4 months AIT as a public affairs specialist in Ft. George G. Meade in Maryland, she nervously flew home to Blackfoot, just 2 weeks after 9/11. As a part of Idaho’s National Guard she spent the next 18 years being on call to defend our state and respond to disasters as the Governor may dictate. You may know that National Guard service men and women dedicate one weekend each month to “drill” and keep their skills sharp, as well as two-weeks in the summer for further training.
During this time, she married, earned a degree from ISU and became a major through the ROTC. Oh, and had 5 children. Major Gardner also became the first female Company Commander in Southeast Idaho. Her battalion was the 1-148 Field Artillery Battalion. In 2019 she was called up to active duty for specialized training in Germany with her battalion. She went ahead of the battalion to set up the training. However, just as they were preparing to join her, Germany and the Army base shut down due to Covid. Major Gardner had to remain there for the next 2 years, during which time she became a Protocol Officer for the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa. When she was able to return, she retired, ending 22 years of service.
In 2022 she opened the Craft Shop on North Broadway in Blackfoot. The shop provides craft supplies, workshops, and workspace for quilting, sewing, and all kinds of crafting. It also includes a prominent corner celebrating her military service.
Are we too focused on the dramatic combat part of our Freedom Team to forget those that gave their best for our freedoms in less obvious ways? They have all played a role in keeping us safe, whether in training, being on call, or flying blackhawks. They are all part of our Freedom Team and deserve our thanks.