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thedrifter
12-02-06, 07:01 AM
On-field lessons help Army, Navy in field
Grateful alumni have learned from game, applied knowledge in battle
By Mike Klingaman
Sun reporter
Originally published December 2, 2006
The hit knocked Hughes "Hoot" Stahl on his back. He knew the feeling.

"It was like getting earholed by a linebacker," said Stahl, who played football at the Naval Academy. Only this punch was delivered by an enemy mortar that struck near Stahl as he dived behind a cemetery wall in Naraj, Iraq.

The blast flattened Stahl, who lay amid the smoking rubble. His Marines thought their platoon commander was a goner. But the 6-foot-6 former tackle staggered up and, ears ringing, evacuated the last of his men into armored vehicles with support from an Army cavalry unit.

Two years later, and home now, Stahl can't believe he survived that attack in August 2004. He thinks about those soldiers who helped save his men.

"I've always wondered if, on that particular day, I was helped by anyone who played football for Army," he said.

As Navy prepares to play Army for the 107th time in football today, some of those with the keenest interest are former players who have gone on to serve in the war in Iraq.

Some are back home; others remain in the Middle East. But all say that the lessons they learned on the football field have served them well in battle.

"The emphasis on team, subjugation of individual glory for collective success, and physical hardship - all [were] valuable experiences," Marine Corps Maj. Andrew Thompson replied in an e-mail from Kuwait last week.

"The lessons associated with winning and losing were also invaluable," wrote Thompson, a former safety who co-captained the 1995 Navy team and endured four losses to Army by a total of six points.

"The stakes were high in [the Army-Navy] games. The stakes are even higher over here."

For six days last year, machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades rained down on Lt. Brian Stann's outmanned Marine unit as it held a strategic bridge on the Euphrates River. Time and again, Stann's platoon turned back insurgents, a mission for which the one-time Navy linebacker received the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest combat citation.

Football, the 2003 Navy grad confirmed, readied him for war.

"There are times when you are losing football games and it is easy to toss in the towel and say forget about it. But the teams that stay and fight until the end build character and honor," Stann wrote in an e-mail from Iraq.

"At Navy we never quit, no matter who we played or what the score was. In Iraq there are many adverse times; death and casualties unfortunately are an everyday occurrence.

"In Iraq there is no room for men who walk with their heads down. We must be at our best at all times or we will only face more strife."

Part of that strife includes losing comrades, some of whom were teammates at Annapolis. The war has claimed at least two recent Navy football players: 1st Lt. Ron Winchester, a starting tackle who graduated in 2001, was killed by a roadside bomb in Anbar Province in September 2004. Two months later, 2nd Lt. J.P. Blecksmith, a wide receiver and member of the Class of 2003, died from a sniper's bullet in Fallujah.

"Navy football paid a dear price," said Stahl, who had suited up with both men but was closer to Winchester. The linemen had roomed together on Navy road trips and had run into each other once near Baghdad. There, the Marine platoon leaders exchanged hugs and memories of Navy's 30-28 victory over Army in 2000, their senior year.

Among Stahl's keepsakes is a photo taken of himself and Winchester that day outside one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.

Stahl learned of his friend's death via the Internet, while fighting in Iraq.

"That was hard," he said.

Winchester "seemed invincible," said Marine Capt. Ed Malinowski, an ex-Navy quarterback also stationed in Iraq at the time.

"Once, in a game against Toledo, I stood up after scoring a touchdown and got leveled by [an opposing player]. Ron leveled the guy right back with one quick shot. He always had your back."

For seven months, Malinowski wheeled around the streets of Fallujah in an armored Humvee, escorting ambulances out of the city and supply convoys into it. On Nov. 10, 2004 - the day before Blecksmith was killed - enemy rockets nearly struck Malinowski's column as it rushed to save an injured Marine.

Tanks chased the insurgents. This time, it was the Army doing the blocking for Malinowski, the Mids' team captain in 2001.

"Enemies on the field, brothers off the field," Malinowski said this week from his home in Bowie. "You really don't get that until you're in Iraq, fighting side by side.

"I may have hated Army on Dec. 1, 2001, but I got over it real quick."

Now stationed in Maryland, Malinowski expects to watch today's game under far more comfortable - and safer - conditions than he did the previous two years.

In 2004, he watched Navy thrash Army with about 20 sweaty Marines crammed into a conference room near Fallujah. Last year, Malinowski saw the game from a storage room inside a hydroelectric dam the Marines were guarding in the city of Haditha.

"The quality of life was better the second time," he said. "I had the cooks fix chicken wings and pizza."

Navy won that game too, 42-13.

"Army-Navy is a diversion, sure, but it's symbolic of something bigger," Stahl said. "It's going up against guys who are just as smart, tough and mission-oriented as you.

"It's rehearsing plans and going out in the real world to execute those plans under the most austere conditions - and under physical duress. It's playing against an opposing will equal to your own.

"That's the purest parallel I can draw between having played football and the leadership challenges I would soon face in combat," he said.

"That's the essence of what you do as an infantryman."


mike.klingaman@baltsun.com

Ellie

thedrifter
12-02-06, 07:01 AM
Army and Navy to Face Off
Philadelphia Inquirer | December 01, 2006

On Dec. 7, 2002, Brian Stann took the field for his last Army-Navy Game, a high point of any midshipman's football career. Navy romped that day, giving the linebacker from Scranton a sweet victory to savor and to remember.

A little over two years later, Marine Corps First Lt. Brian Stann was in Iraq, and within weeks he and his men fought a fierce battle for which he would win the Silver Star.

Now on his second tour in Iraq, Stann is looking forward to this year's game along with graduates of both academies stationed overseas, although he expects to read about it afterward instead of following it, play by play.

For the 80th time in their 107 meetings, Army and Navy face off in Philadelphia tomorrow to remind the world why their rivalry is different from all others.

While players from other colleges might be bound for the pros, the seniors from West Point and Annapolis already know they're headed in a direction that is different -- and very real.

If they are in the U.S. Military Academy, it could be armor, aviation, field artillery or infantry. For the U.S. Naval Academy, it could be surface warfare, naval flight or the Marine Corps, both ground and flight.

And when the game is over -- and one service walks away with bragging rights for the year -- one thing will remain unchanged when the student-athletes become warriors.

"At the end of the day," as Stann puts it, "we bleed as one on the battlefield and not as separate teams."

Army Capt. Gene Palka, who played his last Army-Navy Game in 2001, said in an e-mail from Baghdad that the game is rich in meaning for the military and the nation.

"The Army-Navy football game stands for everything that is right in our country," said Palka, whose fiancee, Melissa Kalinowski, is a nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Not only on the field and sidelines, but in the stands in Philadelphia, you see 8,000 cadets and midshipmen who have taken an oath to serve their country," he said. "This could mean giving the ultimate sacrifice."

Some have paid that price.

To date, two former football players, both from Navy, have been killed in Iraq: Marine First Lt. Ronald Winchester and Marine Second Lt. James Blecksmith.

Stann, whose fiancee, Teressa Ruspi, is a former Eagles cheerleader, played with both men and he said the Army-Navy Games give him an opportunity to recall them.

"I think about all the times they made me laugh and all the best times we spent together, and I can only hope that at this time I am making them proud," he said.

Such are the bonds formed among academy football players.

"My teammates remain some of the most meaningful people in my life," said Marine Maj. Andrew Thompson, whose Navy team lost four years in a row to Army.

Thompson, who is slated to return home on game day from a joint assignment with, yes, the Army in Kuwait, said playing football "was the best possible training for me to become a Marine officer."

"The emphasis on team, subjugation of individual glory for collective success and physical hardships -- all [were] valuable experiences," he said. "The lessons associated with winning and losing were also invaluable. The stakes were high in that game. The stakes are even higher over here."

Army First Lt. Seth Nieman, a platoon leader in Iraq who says his Army football experience also made him a better officer, is looking forward to watching the game with two former teammates from the Class of 2005 -- Jake Holly and Jonathan Lewis.

He said he is always happy to see "a familiar face over here, but I get really excited when I see my old Army football brothers."

"Usually we just catch up, give each other a hug, and tell each other to stay safe."

Nieman, whose team only beat Navy once in his four years at West Point, of course is hoping that Army breaks Navy's 3-0 winning streak at Lincoln Financial Field, the fourth stadium in the city to host the annual rivalry.

"Navy games have left a bad taste in my mouth the last few seasons, so I am confident that my younger Army football brothers are going to take care of business this year," he said.

One can be sure that Stann and Thompson, for their part, are hoping otherwise.

thedrifter
12-02-06, 01:14 PM
Military Football Humor
Posted By Blackfive

Over at the Donovan's blog - New SecDef Directive: Joint Rules for the Army-Navy-Air Force-Marine Corps Game. If you can't make fun of yourselves (and the Navy and the Air Force and the Marines)...?


October 08, 2005
More intramural snarking...

As promised below - one of the things Randy K sent along... apropos for the season and subject!

New Pentagon Football Rules

"
New SecDef Directive: Joint Rules for the Army-Navy-Air Force-Marine Corps Game.

The Pentagon announced new rules for the fall 2005 Army-Navy-Air Force-Marine Corps football tournament:

1. Only flag football will be played. The Joint Chiefs deemed tackle and touch football too dangerous. First, because of the CNN factor, the fact that the MSM will no longer tolerate even one field casualty. Second, touching another player today, even the congratulatory pat on the behind, is court-martial bait.

2. The phrase "making a pass" will be changed to the less ambiguous " throwing the ball." And the Army, Navy and Marines will be blocked from throws beyond 5 yards because of Air Force protests that it alone owns the long-range air attack mission.

3. The Marine Corps may run with the ball, but no more than 25 yards per quarter, the Pentagon ruled. It was prompted by Army objections to long-range naval ground operations.

4. The Navy may not use tailbacks. The term is too sensitive and should be avoided.

5. To promote inter-service cooperation, all teams will be ordered to use the same game plan, after receiving suggestions from all four services.

a. The Army's plan, called "The Game After Next," is calling for handoffs of a digitized football to the fullback, up the middle, on every play. The Army plan's last chapter, titled "Exit Strategy," was oddly blank, which would leave players with no choice but to set up bunkers and temporary housing on the 50-yard line.

b. The Navy's "Forward... From the Bench" plan will call for players, each called a ball "carrier," to be surrounded by other Navy football players in a pack called "carrier groups." These units would establish a roaming " presence" all over the playing field. Less important than crossing the goal line is the Navy strategy of being able to protect the carrier group wherever it patrols the gridiron. So threatening are these carriers, the Navy strategy goes, that no one would be foolish enough to even mount a defense.

c. The Marine's "Three-Yard War" plan will be predictable: Seize ground, every down, no matter how, regardless of the price, preferably while on the playing field. The linchpin of the Marine game plan called for packing the audience with members of Congress to ensure that the Marines' performance did not go unrecognized.

d. The Air Force's "Fieldwide Engagement" plan keeps calling for very long, accurate throws on every down, during huddles, timeouts, half-time, between games, in the parking lot and even in the showers. So fast and accurate would these throws be, went the Air Force strategy, no other team should even bother to take the field.

6. After examining each team's playbook the Secretary of Defense ruled that none could be used, and that each service was left to its own devices. The Navy will probably decide victory could be had by not taking the field. Instead, its players will patrol up and down the sidelines in breathtaking formation, hoping that would sufficiently deter the other teams from leaving their benches.

7. Likewise, the Army will probably decide against taking the field, at least until several conditions are met: one, that vital U.S. national interests were at stake; two, the conditions for victory were concrete and easily defined; and, three, the President would activate 550,000 reserve and National Guard Army football players if the game actually were to be played.

8. The Air Force feels victory could be achieved also by not showing up. Secret plans were just leaked to the press that the Air Force had spent $38.7 bazillion on a system able to fire the football into the end zone from space.

9. Bolstered by congressional resolution to be the "most ready football team when others are the least," the Marines stormed the playing field and declared themselves the winners in the fourth quarter, after finally getting the ball across the correct goal line.

10. And there was joy in Mudville.

Ellie