thedrifter
11-09-06, 07:19 AM
Posted on Thu, Nov. 09, 2006
From the outfield to the battlefield
Former Clemson baseball player Ryan Hub now serves his country in Marines
By PAUL STRELOW
pstrelow@ thestate.com
CLEMSON — Two squads of Marines gathered in an Iraqi family’s living room, their latest stop in a door-to-door campaign to collect census information as well as promote goodwill.
The neighborhood was called “Firecracker” by the military for a reason — it is one of the most dangerous areas in central Ramadi, Iraq’s second-largest city and site of some of the most ferocious firefights between insurgents and Americans.
Although conversation had wound down, the Marines lingered, waiting for other military units to move through.
The homeowner, relatively affluent, began flipping through his satellite television channels and settled on an English-language movie with Arabic subtitles.
Second Lt. Ryan Hub recognized the movie as “Black Hawk Down,” which the former Clemson reserve outfielder had seen as a redshirt sophomore days after its January 2002 release.
On the screen, American soldiers were pinned down during a violent attack.
“This is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods around ... and when I saw that, I thought, ‘That is not what I want to see on TV right now,’ ” Hub, 25, said.
Moments later, comrades on top of the house sent down an urgent message.
Two men had been spotted on a rooftop blocks away.
These men could be triggering improvised explosive devices, referred to as IEDs — the roadside bombs that have proved deadly to U.S. troops. Or they could be residents who, lacking fuel for their generators, were trying to stay cool by sleeping on their roof — a common practice.
Hub and several Marines waded through the streets, but as they approached the house in question, barking dogs blew their cover.
They blasted through the door and found two different men sleeping. The men from the roof were gone, leaving Hub to believe they had indeed spotted the enemy.
“That was a very difficult situation because you really want to shoot these people on top of the roof if they’re going to be triggermen, but there is no way to prove that from where you are,” Hub said.
“It shows the complexity of urban warfare.”
STRAIGHT TO VIDEO
It was at the end of these fact-finding missions or initial eight-to-10 hour safety patrols that Hub would return to the building in which the Marines were living and find a connection for his laptop.
Late in the morning, unable to fall asleep so soon after yet another adrenaline-pumping outing, Hub seized the chance to catch up on Clemson athletics.
During the spring, he could upload CSTV’s GameTracker and follow the baseball team’s march to the College World Series by monitoring games live. In September, he popped in DVDs of Clemson football highlights sent by his best friend.
Then there was the matter of keeping up with correspondence sent from strangers.
“The Clemson community did an unbelievable job of keeping me motivated and supporting me,” Hub said. “I got letters from baseball fans whom I’d signed a ball for their child once, people who had been to a game and simply saw my name on the scoreboard. When you get letters from people you don’t know, it means a lot to you.”
Hub, who returned from a seven-month deployment Oct. 3, plans to reciprocate his thanks during Saturday’s football game against North Carolina State.
Clemson will be holding its military appreciation day festivities, with pregame and halftime ceremonies planned to honor and commemorate South Carolina soldiers from wars past and present.
While both USC and Clemson schedule such salutes each year, Hub’s presence adds a unique twist.
Clemson officials cannot recall another athlete who has been deployed in the last 20 years — a rarity when compared with generations past when military participation was the norm, not the exception.
“It’s a different era,” said Charlie Bussey, president of the Tiger Lettermen’s Association and a former instructor pilot in the Air Force.
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
The self-described turning point in Hub’s life occurred Oct. 8, 1994.
He also used to refer to it as the scariest moment — until this year.
That day, a 14-year-old Ryan sat with his mother, Callie, and sister (Caroline Reeder, who now lives in Columbia) in the bulletproof room of their Kuwaiti home, tensely awaiting the call.
Saddam Hussein had shifted his troops below a United Nations-mandated border, and U.S. troops were put on high alert for a potential invasion.
Hub’s father, Air Force Col. Michael Hub (who flew F-111s for 27 years before retiring in 2001), had informed them to each have one personal bag ready.
The family lived in the heart of Kuwait City, and a Marine expeditionary unit was awaiting the go-ahead to forge its way into the area to rescue American citizens.
“That’s when I seriously thought about being a Marine, because of what these Marines were going to do for people in another country they didn’t know, but they were going to go in and risk everything just because they’re Americans,” Ryan said. “I thought that was an amazing thing.”
Wearing a Ken Griffey Jr. jersey and with bat and glove stuffed in his bag, Ryan and his family were not forced to evacuate.
But Ryan did stay true to his pledge to the Marines — as well as his passion for baseball.
Born in England and a nomad of 11 different homes in 16 years, Ryan was first exposed to Clemson when he saw a 1996 College World Series game on television.
“I had never seen a baseball player wear white cleats before, and they were all wearing tapered pants. I was like, ‘Man, that is different looking.’ ”Shortly before Ryan’s sophomore year of high school, his father was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base. A Sumter High School coach suggested to his father that, if Ryan wanted to play baseball, the high school’s staff would be able to evaluate him at Clemson’s summer camp.
Ryan, who was still with his family in Kuwait, flew to the United States on a Friday and was in coach Jack Leggett’s possession by Sunday.“Coach Leggett makes that same quote about me every single time he talks about me — he always introduces me as the farthest camper ever,” Ryan said. “I think I definitely will hold that record forever.”
His career was less superlative.
From 2000-2004, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder served primarily as Clemson’s fourth outfielder and pinch-hitter, accruing a .230 average with 59 career starts.
Yet when Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in March 2003, Ryan developed into the center of team discourse, an educator on all things Middle Eastern.
One teammate labeled Ryan the Tigers’ “CNN.”
“He took baseball very seriously, but you could tell when he got done playing, the military was very important to him,” said former infielder Russell Triplett, who now serves as Clemson’s volunteer assistant coach.
“Everybody knew what his goals were, and I think it takes that type of person to do what he has done.”
COVERING THE BASES
During his junior year, Ryan contacted a Marines recruiter in Columbia to begin the process of applying for officer training.
He was accepted, and in October 2004, headed to Quantico, Va., for the 10-week course for officer candidates.
Six months of basic school followed. Then there was military occupation specialty, where he was selected as an infantry officer, which required a subsequent three-month course.
Last fall, Ryan was sent to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to oversee a platoon of about 35 members.
After five months of training, they were deployed to Iraq.
“You will never really understand what it’s like unless you’re there, and the reality of it is not a lot of good comes out of a fight like that,” Ryan said. “We had a lot of casualties, and it’s not something I want to talk about with other people.”
Conducting a census in Ramadi was among the battalion’s chief duties.
And that’s where his experience with the Arabic culture was valuable.
Because of the threat for hostile greetings, troops had authorization to enter homes by whatever means necessary.
Understanding the limits of such an approach, he was at the forefront of the movement to win public trust and undercut support for insurgents in the process.
In gestures of goodwill and respect, the battalion knocked on doors instead of storming through them. Either the man of the house was asked permission for entrance, or the resident would be allowed to invite them in. No females were interviewed, and resident males would escort the Marines through any rooms in which there were females.
“Having the guy in uniform with the rifle saying hello and asking how your family is in your native language is always an icebreaker,” Hub said. “The way we went at it was very risky. But we actually developed a reputation as being very good with people, and that helped us out with intelligence in the long run.”
In August, his family and close friends received an e-mail intended as a private eulogy.
Cpl. Joseph A. Tomci, a 21-year-old who led one of three squads under Ryan’s command — had died from a roadside bomb.
Tomci was with Ryan in the aforementioned census-gathering episode, and at Tomci’s memorial service, Ryan read the classic Edmund Burke quote written on the binding of Tomci’s squad notebook: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
When Ryan later learned that his e-mail had been circulated, he was offended. But then he realized Tomci’s sacrifice might be further appreciated as a result.
“I just want people to know what kind of people are dying over there, and not everybody’s story gets out,” he said.
Ryan is on leave until next summer, giving him enough of a window to deal with catering and other vendors involved in his Dec. 30 wedding to Brien Devine, a fellow Clemson graduate he met as a freshman.
Four of his five groomsmen are former Clemson baseball players (Triplett, Patrick Hogan, Jeff Hahn and Seth Miller).
The couple lives in Wilmington, N.C., a 60-mile jaunt down the coast from Camp Lejeune.
Duty could call again as soon as July, and his next destination remains unknown.
Coinciding with Saturday’s military appreciation ceremonies is Clemson’s alumni baseball weekend, featuring a golf tournament Friday morning and a baseball game Friday evening.
Ryan is signed up for the baseball game, but he has not swung a bat since his Clemson days.
Whereas happy endings in his profession are in short supply, he figures he can control his destiny in this case by simply sitting out.
“I got a hit in my last at-bat,” he said. “I’m not going to not go out on a high note.”
Ryan Hub’s bio
Born: Sept. 21, 1980 in Suffolk, England.
High school: Sumter
College: Earned four letters (2000-’04) as an outfielder at Clemson; graduated in May, 2004, with a degree in political science; was a four-time member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll, the fifth Tiger in history to make it four times.
Job: Second Lt. in the Marines, returned from a seven-month deployment to Iraq on Oct. 3.
Saturday: Will be honored during pregame and halftime ceremonies at Clemson-N.C. State game.
Ellie
From the outfield to the battlefield
Former Clemson baseball player Ryan Hub now serves his country in Marines
By PAUL STRELOW
pstrelow@ thestate.com
CLEMSON — Two squads of Marines gathered in an Iraqi family’s living room, their latest stop in a door-to-door campaign to collect census information as well as promote goodwill.
The neighborhood was called “Firecracker” by the military for a reason — it is one of the most dangerous areas in central Ramadi, Iraq’s second-largest city and site of some of the most ferocious firefights between insurgents and Americans.
Although conversation had wound down, the Marines lingered, waiting for other military units to move through.
The homeowner, relatively affluent, began flipping through his satellite television channels and settled on an English-language movie with Arabic subtitles.
Second Lt. Ryan Hub recognized the movie as “Black Hawk Down,” which the former Clemson reserve outfielder had seen as a redshirt sophomore days after its January 2002 release.
On the screen, American soldiers were pinned down during a violent attack.
“This is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods around ... and when I saw that, I thought, ‘That is not what I want to see on TV right now,’ ” Hub, 25, said.
Moments later, comrades on top of the house sent down an urgent message.
Two men had been spotted on a rooftop blocks away.
These men could be triggering improvised explosive devices, referred to as IEDs — the roadside bombs that have proved deadly to U.S. troops. Or they could be residents who, lacking fuel for their generators, were trying to stay cool by sleeping on their roof — a common practice.
Hub and several Marines waded through the streets, but as they approached the house in question, barking dogs blew their cover.
They blasted through the door and found two different men sleeping. The men from the roof were gone, leaving Hub to believe they had indeed spotted the enemy.
“That was a very difficult situation because you really want to shoot these people on top of the roof if they’re going to be triggermen, but there is no way to prove that from where you are,” Hub said.
“It shows the complexity of urban warfare.”
STRAIGHT TO VIDEO
It was at the end of these fact-finding missions or initial eight-to-10 hour safety patrols that Hub would return to the building in which the Marines were living and find a connection for his laptop.
Late in the morning, unable to fall asleep so soon after yet another adrenaline-pumping outing, Hub seized the chance to catch up on Clemson athletics.
During the spring, he could upload CSTV’s GameTracker and follow the baseball team’s march to the College World Series by monitoring games live. In September, he popped in DVDs of Clemson football highlights sent by his best friend.
Then there was the matter of keeping up with correspondence sent from strangers.
“The Clemson community did an unbelievable job of keeping me motivated and supporting me,” Hub said. “I got letters from baseball fans whom I’d signed a ball for their child once, people who had been to a game and simply saw my name on the scoreboard. When you get letters from people you don’t know, it means a lot to you.”
Hub, who returned from a seven-month deployment Oct. 3, plans to reciprocate his thanks during Saturday’s football game against North Carolina State.
Clemson will be holding its military appreciation day festivities, with pregame and halftime ceremonies planned to honor and commemorate South Carolina soldiers from wars past and present.
While both USC and Clemson schedule such salutes each year, Hub’s presence adds a unique twist.
Clemson officials cannot recall another athlete who has been deployed in the last 20 years — a rarity when compared with generations past when military participation was the norm, not the exception.
“It’s a different era,” said Charlie Bussey, president of the Tiger Lettermen’s Association and a former instructor pilot in the Air Force.
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
The self-described turning point in Hub’s life occurred Oct. 8, 1994.
He also used to refer to it as the scariest moment — until this year.
That day, a 14-year-old Ryan sat with his mother, Callie, and sister (Caroline Reeder, who now lives in Columbia) in the bulletproof room of their Kuwaiti home, tensely awaiting the call.
Saddam Hussein had shifted his troops below a United Nations-mandated border, and U.S. troops were put on high alert for a potential invasion.
Hub’s father, Air Force Col. Michael Hub (who flew F-111s for 27 years before retiring in 2001), had informed them to each have one personal bag ready.
The family lived in the heart of Kuwait City, and a Marine expeditionary unit was awaiting the go-ahead to forge its way into the area to rescue American citizens.
“That’s when I seriously thought about being a Marine, because of what these Marines were going to do for people in another country they didn’t know, but they were going to go in and risk everything just because they’re Americans,” Ryan said. “I thought that was an amazing thing.”
Wearing a Ken Griffey Jr. jersey and with bat and glove stuffed in his bag, Ryan and his family were not forced to evacuate.
But Ryan did stay true to his pledge to the Marines — as well as his passion for baseball.
Born in England and a nomad of 11 different homes in 16 years, Ryan was first exposed to Clemson when he saw a 1996 College World Series game on television.
“I had never seen a baseball player wear white cleats before, and they were all wearing tapered pants. I was like, ‘Man, that is different looking.’ ”Shortly before Ryan’s sophomore year of high school, his father was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base. A Sumter High School coach suggested to his father that, if Ryan wanted to play baseball, the high school’s staff would be able to evaluate him at Clemson’s summer camp.
Ryan, who was still with his family in Kuwait, flew to the United States on a Friday and was in coach Jack Leggett’s possession by Sunday.“Coach Leggett makes that same quote about me every single time he talks about me — he always introduces me as the farthest camper ever,” Ryan said. “I think I definitely will hold that record forever.”
His career was less superlative.
From 2000-2004, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder served primarily as Clemson’s fourth outfielder and pinch-hitter, accruing a .230 average with 59 career starts.
Yet when Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in March 2003, Ryan developed into the center of team discourse, an educator on all things Middle Eastern.
One teammate labeled Ryan the Tigers’ “CNN.”
“He took baseball very seriously, but you could tell when he got done playing, the military was very important to him,” said former infielder Russell Triplett, who now serves as Clemson’s volunteer assistant coach.
“Everybody knew what his goals were, and I think it takes that type of person to do what he has done.”
COVERING THE BASES
During his junior year, Ryan contacted a Marines recruiter in Columbia to begin the process of applying for officer training.
He was accepted, and in October 2004, headed to Quantico, Va., for the 10-week course for officer candidates.
Six months of basic school followed. Then there was military occupation specialty, where he was selected as an infantry officer, which required a subsequent three-month course.
Last fall, Ryan was sent to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to oversee a platoon of about 35 members.
After five months of training, they were deployed to Iraq.
“You will never really understand what it’s like unless you’re there, and the reality of it is not a lot of good comes out of a fight like that,” Ryan said. “We had a lot of casualties, and it’s not something I want to talk about with other people.”
Conducting a census in Ramadi was among the battalion’s chief duties.
And that’s where his experience with the Arabic culture was valuable.
Because of the threat for hostile greetings, troops had authorization to enter homes by whatever means necessary.
Understanding the limits of such an approach, he was at the forefront of the movement to win public trust and undercut support for insurgents in the process.
In gestures of goodwill and respect, the battalion knocked on doors instead of storming through them. Either the man of the house was asked permission for entrance, or the resident would be allowed to invite them in. No females were interviewed, and resident males would escort the Marines through any rooms in which there were females.
“Having the guy in uniform with the rifle saying hello and asking how your family is in your native language is always an icebreaker,” Hub said. “The way we went at it was very risky. But we actually developed a reputation as being very good with people, and that helped us out with intelligence in the long run.”
In August, his family and close friends received an e-mail intended as a private eulogy.
Cpl. Joseph A. Tomci, a 21-year-old who led one of three squads under Ryan’s command — had died from a roadside bomb.
Tomci was with Ryan in the aforementioned census-gathering episode, and at Tomci’s memorial service, Ryan read the classic Edmund Burke quote written on the binding of Tomci’s squad notebook: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
When Ryan later learned that his e-mail had been circulated, he was offended. But then he realized Tomci’s sacrifice might be further appreciated as a result.
“I just want people to know what kind of people are dying over there, and not everybody’s story gets out,” he said.
Ryan is on leave until next summer, giving him enough of a window to deal with catering and other vendors involved in his Dec. 30 wedding to Brien Devine, a fellow Clemson graduate he met as a freshman.
Four of his five groomsmen are former Clemson baseball players (Triplett, Patrick Hogan, Jeff Hahn and Seth Miller).
The couple lives in Wilmington, N.C., a 60-mile jaunt down the coast from Camp Lejeune.
Duty could call again as soon as July, and his next destination remains unknown.
Coinciding with Saturday’s military appreciation ceremonies is Clemson’s alumni baseball weekend, featuring a golf tournament Friday morning and a baseball game Friday evening.
Ryan is signed up for the baseball game, but he has not swung a bat since his Clemson days.
Whereas happy endings in his profession are in short supply, he figures he can control his destiny in this case by simply sitting out.
“I got a hit in my last at-bat,” he said. “I’m not going to not go out on a high note.”
Ryan Hub’s bio
Born: Sept. 21, 1980 in Suffolk, England.
High school: Sumter
College: Earned four letters (2000-’04) as an outfielder at Clemson; graduated in May, 2004, with a degree in political science; was a four-time member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll, the fifth Tiger in history to make it four times.
Job: Second Lt. in the Marines, returned from a seven-month deployment to Iraq on Oct. 3.
Saturday: Will be honored during pregame and halftime ceremonies at Clemson-N.C. State game.
Ellie