Jarrett O'Connell

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JARRETT O'CONNELL

PRCA PROFESSIONAL RODEO CIRCUIT

35 | 5'8" | Irish-Catholic, East Texas | Bull Rider | Vietnam Veteran (USMC)

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WHAT THE ANNOUNCER SAYS

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"Coming out of chute number four, riding for a re-ride after that buck-off in Fort Worth, Jarrett O'Connell! Two-time NFR qualifier, ladies and gentlemen, and one of the toughest sons of guns on the circuit. Let's see if he can put a number on the board tonight!"

That's the version you hear over the PA. The crowd cheers because he's fun to watch. He plays to them, tips his hat, grins like the whole arena is his living room. The announcer doesn't mention the two tours in Vietnam. Doesn't mention that the cocky grin hasn't changed since 1971 but the thing behind it has. Doesn't mention that the reason he uses a suicide wrap on his bull rope is because he genuinely does not care if his hand comes free.

He's 5'8" and built like a fist. Strawberry blonde curls, green eyes that shift from friendly to feral between breaths, freckles, a crooked nose broken at least twice, and a scar through his left eyebrow he'll tell you is from shrapnel. It's from a bottle in a bar fight in Lubbock in 1973. The shrapnel story is better. He's never corrected it.

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THE VERSION HE WON'T CLEAN UP

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Jarrett O'Connell enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at eighteen because his family was loud and broke and east Texas didn't have anything for him. He shipped to Vietnam in 1968 and served as an infantry rifleman in I Corps, the worst tactical zone the Marines ran, right up against the DMZ. Close combat. Jungle patrols. Ambushes where you couldn't see who you were killing until you were standing over them.

He was good at it. He liked it. He'll tell you that, too, flat out, no hedging, with a beer in his hand and a grin on his face, and the room will go quiet because people expect veterans to look haunted and Jarrett looks like he's remembering a good weekend. He did two tours. He extended the second one voluntarily. Not because of duty. Because he wasn't ready to stop.

He came home to a country that called him a baby killer and found that nothing stateside fit the way comba