thedrifter
08-26-07, 08:13 AM
Posted on Sun, Aug. 26, 2007
Charleston Southern standout may be NCAA's toughest defensive end
By PATRICK OBLEY
pobley@thestate.com
At 3:57 p.m. local time on March 20, 2003, word came that a unit of light armored vehicles from the 1st Marine Division had engaged Iraqi armored personnel carriers in the first firefight of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“Shock and Awe” was over. The real war had begun and Dennis Justiniani’s training was put to the test. His First Force Service Support Group splintered into smaller, mobile assets and fanned out across the boiling desert sands.
Night fell. That’s when hell broke loose. First Force was streaking across Iraq at near-freeway speeds but ran headlong into brutally intense battle at Safwan Hill. All the chatter about how this version of the Iraqi army was a shadow of Saddam’s original Republican Guard was drowned in a hail of bullets crashing against all sides of Justiniani’s truck.
The first line of Marines had been pinned down at the hill. First Force had arrived just in time to rearm them. However, it wasn’t long before they, too, found themselves pinned down.
Justiniani’s unit took up defensive positions, tracers sizzled as they whizzed past his ear. Then came the missiles. The 1st Division was protected by some of the finest armor ever made. In the Gulf War, the Republican Guard’s missiles proved no match for the thick skin of American tanks and personnel carriers.
Just then, an explosion. Shrapnel?
Secondary explosions. Screams?
When did the Iraqis get their hands on Russian Kornets? Years later, former members of the U.S. military establishment would allege the Russians clandestinely provided the tank-shredding missiles to prove to the U.S. their weaponry was not as inferior as the Gulf War rout intimated.
Justiniani, from a good Orange County family, was far, far from home. In many different ways. It’s a notion that has stayed with him through the years since that dark night. He takes comfort from the fact he persevered. Flourished, even.
You think some hapless Big South tackle is going to strike fear in the soul of Dennis Justiniani? Fat chance. It’s a thought that makes Charleston Southern coach Jay Mills smile like a proud father.
He knows he deploys the toughest defensive end in college football.
“He personifies what you hope to have in your program,” Mills said. “In football, you hear the military analogies, but he lived it in his tour in Iraq and his membership in the Marines.”
FINDING PEACE IN WAR
To say Justiniani is humble is to do the word a great disservice. Ask him about those days in Iraq and he responds matter-of-factly. The sentences are short. In truth, they convey the necessary information.
“It was pretty scary,” he said. “I wasn’t so much expecting to see combat when I signed up, but I wasn’t worried about it if it happened. I just went over there, did my duty and came back.”
He readily admits he’s a changed man. Growing up in laid-back Huntington Beach, Calif., responsibility was not in his vocabulary. Out of high school he enrolled at hometown Golden West Community College.
“Yeah, I tried college for about a day,” Justiniani said with a laugh. “I decided it wasn’t for me. I think I left about two weeks later and signed up with the Marines.”
Basic training had just ended for Justiniani when the towers fell. Like many, his world changed on a dime on Sept. 11. His journey to responsibility would take a desert detour.
His first day in Iraq was the first day of the war. His last day was the last official day when President Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier to announce the end of major combat operations.
Vice President Dick Cheney welcomed First Force back to their Camp Pendleton home.
“In all, the First Force Service Support Group produced and delivered over two million gallons of water; repaired over 4,000 essential pieces of combat equipment; constructed a system to deliver almost eight million gallons of fuel, 62 tons of ammunition and treated more than 1,600 patients in the Force Service Support Group Medical Facilities,” Cheney said over cascading applause. “The Force Service Support Group is back now, doing even more to help the First Marine Division make Iraq more secure.”
Justiniani skipped the speech, for he already knew, in intimate detail, all the facts Cheney would espouse. Securing his future was now the primary goal.
FIGHTING A NEW BATTLE
When his hitch ended, Justiniani returned to Golden West, eager to make an impression on football coach Alex Gerke.
Gerke, now an assistant at Weber State, remembers seeing the new Dennis Justiniani. In three years with the Marines, Justiniani had added four inches and 50 pounds to his formerly 5-10, 170-pound frame.
“He was hanging out with a couple of our Tongan kids,” Gerke said. “He had played some football and I was giving him a chance just by those Tongan kids having a relationship with him.”
Justiniani led Golden West in sacks in each of his two years. It goes without saying that he was the team’s captain.
“Anytime guys get into the military, whether there’s a war or not, it’s time for you to do your job for your country,” Gerke said. “I’m sure Dennis didn’t go to hang out and twiddle his thumbs and play Army. He understood that if he got to Iraq, like any other young man, that it was whoopity-whoop and a whole different world.”
Unfortunately in college football, courage under fire and leadership skills don’t translate to the stat sheet, and they certainly can’t overcome a player’s height or weight. Most colleges had no need for a 6-2, 225-pound defensive end.
That’s when Charleston Southern came into the conversation.
“Charleston Southern did the best job of evaluating him and saying, ‘That’s our guy,’ ” Gerke said. “They recruited the snot out of him.”
Mills met Justiniani over breakfast at the Perkins on Rivers Avenue in Charleston on a Saturday morning.
“I just, you know ... fell in love with the guy,” Mills said. “He earned instant respect because of the sacrifice he made for our country and what we’re reminded of with him is that the liberty we possess today was bought at a price — the shed blood of men and women for hundreds of years.”
Justiniani left the restaurant with a scholarship offer in hand. He arrived on campus in time for spring practice in 2006. A hard worker, Justiniani rewarded Mills with 15 tackles for loss and six sacks this past season, saving his best games for — who else? — Virginia Military and The Citadel.
He enters his final college season in the best shape he’s ever been. At 6-3 and 240 pounds, he is playing at the weight no other school thought he could reach. He is a preseason all-Big South selection.
The sky indeed seems to be the limit.
But in the quiet spaces in between, in the dark when all he hears is the sound of his breathing, his mind covers the 12,760 miles between Charleston and Baghdad in a heartbeat.
The thump of bullets against armor, the streaking light of the tracers and the sheer terror of a missile’s roar demand he live each day to the fullest. To never waver. To — as the Marine slogan says — embrace the challenge he faces, not for glory, not for self, but for God, country, Corps and his fellow Marines.
It’s the least he can do for those friends of his who remain in peril today. Among them: his older brother.
“It’s definitely a lot worse now than when I was over there,” Justiniani said. “I just feel ... bad. I feel really bad for them.
“But I love being here. I love it,” he continued. “And there’s nothing I love more than football. It’s my favorite thing to do in life and I’m just going to do what I can do.”
Reach Obley at (803) 771-8473.
DENNIS JUSTINIANI
Charleston Southern
Class: Senior
Position: Defensive end
Height: 6-3
Weight: 240
2007: Enters year as a preseason all-Big South honoree at defensive end.
2006: Ranked No. 22 in the country and led Big South with 15 tackles for loss. Had 55 tackles, including six sacks and was named honorable mention all-Big South.
Prior to Charleston Southern: Graduated with honors from Golden West Community College in his hometown (Huntington Beach, Calif.). Was team captain. Led team in sacks in both seasons.
Ellie
Charleston Southern standout may be NCAA's toughest defensive end
By PATRICK OBLEY
pobley@thestate.com
At 3:57 p.m. local time on March 20, 2003, word came that a unit of light armored vehicles from the 1st Marine Division had engaged Iraqi armored personnel carriers in the first firefight of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“Shock and Awe” was over. The real war had begun and Dennis Justiniani’s training was put to the test. His First Force Service Support Group splintered into smaller, mobile assets and fanned out across the boiling desert sands.
Night fell. That’s when hell broke loose. First Force was streaking across Iraq at near-freeway speeds but ran headlong into brutally intense battle at Safwan Hill. All the chatter about how this version of the Iraqi army was a shadow of Saddam’s original Republican Guard was drowned in a hail of bullets crashing against all sides of Justiniani’s truck.
The first line of Marines had been pinned down at the hill. First Force had arrived just in time to rearm them. However, it wasn’t long before they, too, found themselves pinned down.
Justiniani’s unit took up defensive positions, tracers sizzled as they whizzed past his ear. Then came the missiles. The 1st Division was protected by some of the finest armor ever made. In the Gulf War, the Republican Guard’s missiles proved no match for the thick skin of American tanks and personnel carriers.
Just then, an explosion. Shrapnel?
Secondary explosions. Screams?
When did the Iraqis get their hands on Russian Kornets? Years later, former members of the U.S. military establishment would allege the Russians clandestinely provided the tank-shredding missiles to prove to the U.S. their weaponry was not as inferior as the Gulf War rout intimated.
Justiniani, from a good Orange County family, was far, far from home. In many different ways. It’s a notion that has stayed with him through the years since that dark night. He takes comfort from the fact he persevered. Flourished, even.
You think some hapless Big South tackle is going to strike fear in the soul of Dennis Justiniani? Fat chance. It’s a thought that makes Charleston Southern coach Jay Mills smile like a proud father.
He knows he deploys the toughest defensive end in college football.
“He personifies what you hope to have in your program,” Mills said. “In football, you hear the military analogies, but he lived it in his tour in Iraq and his membership in the Marines.”
FINDING PEACE IN WAR
To say Justiniani is humble is to do the word a great disservice. Ask him about those days in Iraq and he responds matter-of-factly. The sentences are short. In truth, they convey the necessary information.
“It was pretty scary,” he said. “I wasn’t so much expecting to see combat when I signed up, but I wasn’t worried about it if it happened. I just went over there, did my duty and came back.”
He readily admits he’s a changed man. Growing up in laid-back Huntington Beach, Calif., responsibility was not in his vocabulary. Out of high school he enrolled at hometown Golden West Community College.
“Yeah, I tried college for about a day,” Justiniani said with a laugh. “I decided it wasn’t for me. I think I left about two weeks later and signed up with the Marines.”
Basic training had just ended for Justiniani when the towers fell. Like many, his world changed on a dime on Sept. 11. His journey to responsibility would take a desert detour.
His first day in Iraq was the first day of the war. His last day was the last official day when President Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier to announce the end of major combat operations.
Vice President Dick Cheney welcomed First Force back to their Camp Pendleton home.
“In all, the First Force Service Support Group produced and delivered over two million gallons of water; repaired over 4,000 essential pieces of combat equipment; constructed a system to deliver almost eight million gallons of fuel, 62 tons of ammunition and treated more than 1,600 patients in the Force Service Support Group Medical Facilities,” Cheney said over cascading applause. “The Force Service Support Group is back now, doing even more to help the First Marine Division make Iraq more secure.”
Justiniani skipped the speech, for he already knew, in intimate detail, all the facts Cheney would espouse. Securing his future was now the primary goal.
FIGHTING A NEW BATTLE
When his hitch ended, Justiniani returned to Golden West, eager to make an impression on football coach Alex Gerke.
Gerke, now an assistant at Weber State, remembers seeing the new Dennis Justiniani. In three years with the Marines, Justiniani had added four inches and 50 pounds to his formerly 5-10, 170-pound frame.
“He was hanging out with a couple of our Tongan kids,” Gerke said. “He had played some football and I was giving him a chance just by those Tongan kids having a relationship with him.”
Justiniani led Golden West in sacks in each of his two years. It goes without saying that he was the team’s captain.
“Anytime guys get into the military, whether there’s a war or not, it’s time for you to do your job for your country,” Gerke said. “I’m sure Dennis didn’t go to hang out and twiddle his thumbs and play Army. He understood that if he got to Iraq, like any other young man, that it was whoopity-whoop and a whole different world.”
Unfortunately in college football, courage under fire and leadership skills don’t translate to the stat sheet, and they certainly can’t overcome a player’s height or weight. Most colleges had no need for a 6-2, 225-pound defensive end.
That’s when Charleston Southern came into the conversation.
“Charleston Southern did the best job of evaluating him and saying, ‘That’s our guy,’ ” Gerke said. “They recruited the snot out of him.”
Mills met Justiniani over breakfast at the Perkins on Rivers Avenue in Charleston on a Saturday morning.
“I just, you know ... fell in love with the guy,” Mills said. “He earned instant respect because of the sacrifice he made for our country and what we’re reminded of with him is that the liberty we possess today was bought at a price — the shed blood of men and women for hundreds of years.”
Justiniani left the restaurant with a scholarship offer in hand. He arrived on campus in time for spring practice in 2006. A hard worker, Justiniani rewarded Mills with 15 tackles for loss and six sacks this past season, saving his best games for — who else? — Virginia Military and The Citadel.
He enters his final college season in the best shape he’s ever been. At 6-3 and 240 pounds, he is playing at the weight no other school thought he could reach. He is a preseason all-Big South selection.
The sky indeed seems to be the limit.
But in the quiet spaces in between, in the dark when all he hears is the sound of his breathing, his mind covers the 12,760 miles between Charleston and Baghdad in a heartbeat.
The thump of bullets against armor, the streaking light of the tracers and the sheer terror of a missile’s roar demand he live each day to the fullest. To never waver. To — as the Marine slogan says — embrace the challenge he faces, not for glory, not for self, but for God, country, Corps and his fellow Marines.
It’s the least he can do for those friends of his who remain in peril today. Among them: his older brother.
“It’s definitely a lot worse now than when I was over there,” Justiniani said. “I just feel ... bad. I feel really bad for them.
“But I love being here. I love it,” he continued. “And there’s nothing I love more than football. It’s my favorite thing to do in life and I’m just going to do what I can do.”
Reach Obley at (803) 771-8473.
DENNIS JUSTINIANI
Charleston Southern
Class: Senior
Position: Defensive end
Height: 6-3
Weight: 240
2007: Enters year as a preseason all-Big South honoree at defensive end.
2006: Ranked No. 22 in the country and led Big South with 15 tackles for loss. Had 55 tackles, including six sacks and was named honorable mention all-Big South.
Prior to Charleston Southern: Graduated with honors from Golden West Community College in his hometown (Huntington Beach, Calif.). Was team captain. Led team in sacks in both seasons.
Ellie