That remains his favorite part about both the Navy and the Angus business. On the ranch, he sees their longtime customers as friends who can pick up right where they left off year after year at their annual bull sales or at Angus events in between. 

“The military was like that, but maybe even a little more,” he said. “The people I flew with in the military, I haven’t seen them for over 20 years. If I saw them tomorrow, it’d be like I’d never left. You just develop a friendship and a bond that you don’t get anywhere else.” 

That bond was undoubtedly developed through enduring the hard work of boot camp, training and later the surveillance missions they were assigned to in the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars as a team. 

When you did go to a war or you had a real mission, something that you believed in that you were doing, it was awesome. You flew every day, and you’d lived off a flight schedule, but you were doing stuff that actually mattered and meant something.” — Corey Poser

Those were the best days Poser recalls from his time in the military, but they were far from easy. While each day usually entailed a preflight meeting followed by 10 hours in the air with a debriefing afterward, Poser says every flight was different. 

Much like ranching, no two days are the same. The common denominators were that variability brought excitement, and long hours were a given. 

“You work a lot of hours that nobody else understands or could maybe even do,” he says. “It’s not a 9 to 5 for sure.” 

For Poser, adaptability in his career has been a nonnegotiable, whether aboard a plane or a four-wheeler checking pastures. Both are thankless jobs, but that is where true character is built. 

“You always get a lot of jobs that if you’re a farmer or a rancher, you do the jobs that nobody else wants to do,” he says. “I had one guy that taught me, ‘If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.’ But ranching is full of jobs that aren’t exactly glamorous, but they’d have to be done. And the military was a lot the same way.”  

No place like home 

After his tour ended, Poser was left with a difficult decision between two paths near and dear to his heart — protect the ground he calls home, or head back to steward the land. It was thoughts of black cattle dotting the rough, rugged terrain of Montana with snowcapped mountains in the background that called him home. 

“It was a difficult, difficult decision; and I’m not sure why I made one choice over the other,” he says. “I wasn’t sure I made the right choice, although I did, but I didn’t know that at the time.” 

He met his wife, Tammie, not long after. She was a quick study in the Angus business. Between stewarding the land and livestock, and hosting an annual bull sale, it takes a team. 

“I couldn’t do any of this without Tammie because when you’re a registered breeder, you’re gone a lot,” he says. “You’re delivering bulls, or you have some late hours. There’s a lot of things she does because I’m not there to do it, and I dang sure couldn’t pull off a bull sale without her.”

Today, the Posers along with their niece, Catilynn, do most of the ranch work as Cory’s parents have retired from day-to-day operations. As he reflects many years later, the real passion behind continuing the American legacy has come to focus. 

As a young man in the Navy, Poser says it was the thrill of the flight and promise of adventure that led him there. Now, the red, white and blue flying overhead overcomes him with a sense of patriotism and belief in America that has grown in the time since his service.   

“I feel more patriotic and proud of America now than I ever did,” he says. “I think that our young kids now, and I would’ve been the same way when I was at that age, don’t appreciate how awesome we are here and how lucky we are here … We are not perfect. I get that. But we are so much better than anywhere else in the world, and I’ve seen that firsthand. I think we don’t appreciate how great of a country we’ve got.” 

Editor’s note: Kayla Jennings is a freelance writer from Throckmorton, Texas.