122 



Satui-day, May 18, 1996 * 



Dove hunt stifles 

 man's Army career 



B y KAREN VOYLES 



Sun staff writer 



A charity dove hunt that caused Sheriff Steve 

 Oelrich some mid-career embarrassment has 

 stopped another hunter's career before it started. 



University of Florida student Mark Cobb has 

 been told the U.S. Army is no longer interested in 

 him because he participated in the hunt. 



Cobb, 20, of Lake City was among several 

 members of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity 

 who were asked to help serve dinner following 

 Please see HUNT, 2B 



continued from IB 



the Oct. 13 dove hunt in Dixie 

 County. Until dinner time, the fra- 

 ternity members were allowed to 

 participate in the hunt, which was a 

 benefit hosted by State Sen. 

 Charles Williams for the Florida 

 Sheriffs Youth Ranches. Several 

 hours after the hunt began, agents 

 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service entered the field and told 

 hunters it had been illegally baited, 

 ending the hunt. 



Cobb had not shot any doves, but 

 he was cited for hunting over a 

 baited dove field 

 along with 87 

 others, and he 

 paid the federal 

 government S250 

 instead of plead- 

 ing his case in 

 court, hoping 

 thai would be the 

 end of the 



"^'""-^'- Cobb 



In January, 

 Cobb entered UF's Army ROTC 

 program, truthfully answering a 

 question on the application form 

 that he had a federal misdemeanor 

 on his record as a result of the dove 

 hunt. 



ROTC officials accepted him into 

 the program. 



The junior in agricultural opera- 

 tions management needed to catch 

 up with ROTC cadets who started 

 as freshmen, though, by attending 

 a six-week summer camp called 

 Fort Challenge in Fort Knox, Ky. 



Before Cobb could be admitted 

 to the camp, he would have to get a 

 waiver from an Army committee 

 because of the federal 

 misdemeanor. 



On Monday, ROTC instructors 

 gave Cobb the bad news — the 

 Army would not admit him or any- 

 one else needing a waiver to the 

 camp. Without the camp experi- 

 ence, Cobb could not catch up and 

 could not be commissioned as an 

 officer. 



"I've been told that if that could 

 be removed from my record, there 

 would be no problem with getting a 

 commission," Cobb said. "I've been 

 dove hunting since I was probably 

 5 or 6, and I've seen baited dove 

 fields, but I never saw any bait in 

 the field we were in. I paid the .$250 

 because it would have been expen- 

 sive to get a lawyer and fight it, but 

 it's a bad law and this is a bad 

 deal." 



The law that Cobb an^i others 

 were cited under was the subject of 

 a six-hour hearing by the U.S. 

 House Resources Committee on 

 Wednesday. The law prohibits 

 hunting over a baited field even if 

 the hunters do not know the field is 

 baited. 



