NFL-USO PERSIAN GULF BLOG

By David Krichavsky

The NFL is continuing this March its legacy of more than 40 years of sending players overseas to visit with U.S. troops.  The NFL's Director of Community Affairs, David Krichavsky, is accompanying four NFL players -- Atlanta Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler, Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shelton Quarles, Kansas City Chiefs guard Will Shields, and New England Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson -- on a 12-day USO tour to U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

DAYS 6-7: WEEKEND REVIEW (MARCH 10-11)

The weekend found the NFL-USO tour en route from Iraq to Afghanistan, or in terms of conflicts, going from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation Enduring Freedom. Our transition wasn’t the quickest or smoothest journey ever, but more on that to come.

Our journey from Iraq to Afghanistan was scheduled to travel through Kuwait. Geographically, the distance from Iraq to Afghanistan isn’t all that great. But a straight-shot trip would require flying over Iran, which is not considered friendly airspace right now. Hence, one has to fly south of Iran over the Persian Gulf and then back north to Afghanistan.

If only it had been that easy for us. Our trip began on Saturday morning with a 5:30 AM wake-up call at Camp Al Taquaddum (TQ) where we had stayed the pervious night. We had to be on the flight line for our scheduled trip to Kuwait City at 6:00 AM, and given that we hadn’t returned from Ramadi and gone to sleep until 1:00 AM the previous night, the guys were definitely feeling tired.

Once on the airbase, we waited for our plane. And waited some more. Over five hours passed between when we arrived at the airstrip and when our plane arrived. Fortunately, the lounge where we were waiting had ESPN which allowed Alge (a University of North Carolina alumna) to catch part of the Tar Heels’ basketball game in the ACC conference tournament. However, by the time we left that waiting room, we had watched replays of the same SportsCenter so many times that we could recite the hosts’ lines before they said them.

We were on schedule to do just that until we woke up on Sunday morning only to learn that our flight had been “bumped.” The C-17 that was scheduled to fly from Afghanistan to Kuwait City to drop off supplies and then pick us up for the end trip wouldn’t be coming to Kuwait at all. The plane was needed for another mission.

As I mentioned in this blog after our travels had been delayed in Baghdad, it is very hard to complain when you are in a war zone and a plane gets redeployed for military reasons. The next flight from Kuwait City to Afghanistan wasn’t until 2:00 AM Monday morning. This meant that we would be flying overnight and would need to hit the ground running when we landed in order recapture as much of the lost time as possible.

It is worth noting that the very first question or comment that I got from any of the four players when I gave them the news that our flight to Afghanistan had been pushed back 14 hours to 2:00 AM was Alge’s concerned inquiry, “We’re still going to be able to visit the Pat Tillman center, right?”

For me, that question perfectly summed up how these four men have approached this trip -- they wanted to see as many soldiers as possible, regardless of the sacrifices that were required from them. Alge’s question also gave me a good preview of the connection that these NFL players feel to Pat Tillman, the former member of their football fraternity who joined another and perhaps even more exclusive fraternity, the U.S. Army Rangers.

Travel difficulties aside, our stop in Kuwait between the Iraq and Afghanistan portions of our trip was a natural time for us to take a step back and reflect. All eight members of our traveling party went out for a nice steak dinner (our first non-DFAC meal since the trip began) on Saturday night, and the conversation naturally centered on what we had seen and experienced.

“It has been amazing to see how much the soldiers appreciate our visits,” said Will Shields. “Just an autograph or a picture makes their day. I feel lucky just to be a part of a trip like this.”

Ben Watson echoed the sentiment when he told us of a young soldier he had met at one our stops in Iraq who grew up just outside Boston and was a lifelong Patriots fan. This soldier had e-mailed a picture that he took with Ben to his parents back home. The soldier’s parents in turn forwarded the e-mail to the Patriots with a note saying that their son’s e-mail, in which he told of meeting Ben, was the single most positive piece of communication they had received from their son since he had been deployed.

“It was a good thing that the Patriots forwarded that e-mail from the kid’s parents along to me,” Ben confided to me later. “I was starting to get tired, but that e-mail gave me a new source of energy. It reminded me of why I decided to come all the way out here.”

A couple of themes seemed to emerge from our group’s conversations at dinner, but one seemed to stand out: gratitude. The gratitude our four players have to be able to experience this kind of trip; the gratitude that they have to be part of the NFL family, which gives them the platform to have a significant impact on others; the gratitude the troops have for our players traveling halfway around the world to say thank you; and the gratitude that we should all have to be Americans and enjoy the freedoms that we do.

Despite the travel inconveniences and our new departure time of 2:00 AM, we were determined for Sunday not to become a lost day. Although it was hard to cobble together plans on a Sunday when many U.S. Army bases in non-combat areas such as Kuwait take the day off, we were able to set up a meet-and-greet at an undisclosed military base located just a short drive from Kuwait City by car. This base serves as a major transport hub for troops and supplies heading into or out of Iraq.

Even without any advance notice, the turnout for the meet-and-greet was very good. We set up an autograph line at a rec center by the barracks and word seemed to spread quickly that NFL players were on site. There was a steady line of troops for over an hour-and-a-half, and every single one walked away with an autographed mini-football, picture or t-shirt.

The highlight of the visit, though, came after the formal meet-and-greet was over and everyone had received an autograph. The NFL players spent the next couple of hours hanging out with the troops at the rec center. Alge challenged any and all takers in ping pong, while Shelton worked the pool table. Will and Ben could be found talking to groups of soldiers and then a large game of cards broke out (spades was the game of choice). The interaction between the players and the troops was so natural, just four guys hanging out with other men and women, passing time on a lazy Sunday night.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some young soldier from Kansas City sends an e-mail to his parents tonight and it begins, “Guess what happened to me today! Will Shields visited our base here. I played him in a game of chess, and…”

And as Sergeant Thomas of Dallas, Texas told me, “We weren’t expecting this visit at all, but it is a welcome diversion from the daily grind for us.”

Well, we weren’t expecting to make this visit either. But those of us on the NFL-USO trip were all very glad to be able to make it happen, pushing forward on our mission to bring as many smiles to as many troops as possible.