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After a long day of travel, we arrived in Doha, Qatar and cleared customs.  Our traveling party includes four of the top players in the NFL – Vernon Davis, Joe Thomas, Mario Williams, and Jason Witten -- as well as a USO tour manager, USO photographer, and NFL representative.

 

We met our military escorts at the airport and were transferred to Al Udeid Air Force Base, approximately 40 minutes outside Doha.  Al Udeid is home to nearly 11,000 coalition troops -- mainly US Air Force -- and from this base our troops fly combat as well as supply and refueling missions over both Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

It was after 8 p.m. local time by the time we arrived on base.  The Commanding Officer, General Wilson, hosted a reception for the players and the senior officers on base.  During this reception, the players had the chance to eat some food and relax after the long flight from the States.  They also had their first opportunity to speak with the troops, ask questions about our mission, talk football and boost morale.

 

Many more of these opportunities would follow.

 

Day 2, March 3^rd

 

On Day 2 of the NFL USO tour, our group tried to cover every inch of Al Udeid AB and meet as many of the 11,000 troops on base as possible.

 

We began the day with an 8 a.m. breakfast that was structured as a "football roundtable Q&A" in which the players sat at a table at the front of the room and the troops in the DFAC (dining facility) had the opportunity to ask the players questions.  As a representative of "America's Team," Jason Witten seemed to have the most questions directed his way, although there was interest in a wide range of football (and non-football) topics.

 

After breakfast, the players toured the flight line, seeing all the different planes and jets that operate out of Al Udeid AB and visiting with the men and women who fly and work on the planes.  The B1 bomber was a particular hit with the players due to its precision bombing capabilities.  The players not only provided autographs to all the B1 pilots at this stop, but they also were able to sign a few of the bombs heading on the B1s into the war zone.  "From Cleveland, with love," wrote Joe Thomas affectionately.

 

Another highlight was touring the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC).  This command-and-control center coordinates all air assets over both Iraq and Afghanistan.  In the CAOC building, there are giant screens showing all planes currently in flight above both war theaters.  The screens also show everywhere in Iraq and Afghanistan where we have Troops In Combat (TIC).  And the most amazing part of all is that we generally have renaissance planes over these TIC areas that transmit live pictures to the CAOC so that those at the CAOC can call in additional air support if necessary. 

 

The players spent 30-45 minutes in CAOC, soaking everything in and signing autographs for all the airmen and women working there.

 

One other highlight of our tour of Al Udeid was our visit to the K-9 unit.  Al Udeid has a dog unit specially trained to sniff out explosives.  The players had the opportunity to watch the dogs go through a number of exercises designed to test and refine their training.

 

After a brief rest and dinner, our group had a large meet-and-greet in the evening.  This appearance attracted well over 300 troops from across the base. 

 

Day 4, March 5^th

We spent Day 4 of the NFL-USO tour at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, which is the main hub for Operation Enduring Freedom, our military’s mission in Afghanistan.  Yesterday, our group arrived at Bagram from Qatar via a C-130 military cargo plan.  

 

Our day began early, and after breakfast we moved to the flight line where we visited the pilots who fly Apache attack helicopters.  Next we moved on to the F-15 and F-16 fighters, where we saw several jets take-off and land.  One of the most stunning aspects of Bagram is that the base is set in a valley surrounded by 360 degrees of snow capped mountains.  To watch these planes take-off and land with the mountains in the background is quite a majestic sight.

 

  The next stop for our group was sure to be one of the most significant and meaningful stops of the entire trip -- a visit to the Pat Tillman USO Center.  This visit did not disappoint, as the Tillman Center was packed with troops for a meet-and-greet with the players.  And of course, seeing the Tillman Center meant a tremendous amount to the players, knowing that the center is named for and dedicated to a member of the NFL fraternity who gave up his football career and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

 

Over 10,000 troops pass through the Tillman Center in a given month.  More than 300 servicemen and women visited during the meet-and-greet with our players to receive an autograph, take a photo, and chat with the players.

 

Another stop on Day 4 was the hospital on base.  This not only gave us a chance to meet with all the hospital workers, but also visit with the patients who had been brought in from the field for emergency treatment.  This visit was a sobering one, as the players spoke with troops in the ICU who only two days earlier had lost limbs in IED attacks.  Several of these patients considered themselves fortunate because some of their squad members did not survive the attacks.

 

The last stop of our day was at a secret Special Forces compound where we had dinner with a group of Green Berets.   After dinner, the Green Berets gave us a tour of their compound and showed us some of their advanced vehicles and weaponry.  Needless to say, it was an impressive place, and a very impressive group of people.

 

Day 5, March 6^th

One of the highlights of any NFL-USO tour is visiting the smaller, more remote bases that lack the creature comforts of the larger bases and very rarely have celebrity entertainment tours.  These bases are usually classified as Forward Operating Bases, or FOBs.  On Days 5 & 6 of the NFL-USO tour, our group did a little "FOB hopping."  

 

On Day 5, we departed Bagram Air Base to travel by helicopter to Jalalabad Air Field (JAF).  JAF is located in Eastern Afghanistan, near the border of Pakistan.  Our group would spend the next two days along the border, an area that has seen some of the most intense fighting, as the Taliban will frequently strike in Afghanistan and then flee into Pakistan where US forces are not allowed to chase them.

 

Flying by helicopter from Bagram to JAF gave our group a great sense of Afghanistan’s sheer beauty and imposing terrain. The eastern part of the country is covered with one mountain ridge after another, separated by narrow valleys.  Small Afghan villages are built into the mountains or in the valleys.  There is only one paved road in the eastern part of the country, and it is a dangerous one to travel. 

 

When we arrived at Jalalabad Air Field, we were greeted by Command Sergeant Major Charles Sasser, the top NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) on the base, who gave us a quick briefing and tour.  He also "coined" the players in the military tradition and gave them gifts from the 4th Infantry Division.  We reciprocated by giving CSM Sasser a limited edition game coin from Super Bowl XLIV. 

 

This was only a quick stop though, as we would return to JAF tomorrow for a longer meet-and-greet.  We were soon back at the LZ (landing zone), boarding Blackhawk helicopters en route to FOB Blessing.

 

FOB Blessing is located approximately 100km north of JAF and was named after Sgt. Jay Blessing who was killed in action in the area in 2003.  At Blessing, we toured the FOB and held a meet-and-greet before eating lunch at the DFAC with the troops.  One of the great things about visiting FOBs is that the players get to visit with nearly everyone on base who isn't out on a mission.  A definite highlight of our time at Blessing was watching the troops fire off mortar rounds (both 120mm and 155mm rounds) while visiting the artillery pits.  The 155mm mortar rounds have a 200 meter kill radius -- meaning that anything within 200 meters of where a round lands will be obliterated -- and the noise when one of these rounds is fired is absolutely deafening.

 

Then it was back to the Blackhawks to fly to FOB Joyce.  Joyce is located on the eastern edge of Afghanistan, less than 2km from the border of Pakistan.  FOB Joyce is where we would spend the night, but it is a "black out base" -- meaning that the base isn't lit up at night for security reasons.  Overall, our accommodations were very modest at Joyce.  The players bunked-up, two to a room, in small plywood-constructed rooms that contained nothing more than one bunk bed with two mattresses.  We brought sleeping bags to put on top of the mattresses.

 

Nevertheless, our group had an absolutely terrific experience at FOB Joyce.  We met the brave men and women who go "outside the wire" on patrol as often as 6 times a week.  Each time they do, they know that they are very likely to engage the enemy in some way -- where it is direct fire, indirect fire, or an IED attack. 

The battalion at Joyce had been there for 4 months and hadn't had a celebrity visitor of any kind -- a politician, USO tour, etc.  So they were very appreciative of our visit.   The NFL-USO tour had hit its stride as we “FOB hopped” on Day 5.

 

Day 6, March 7^th

 
Day 6 began with a 05:30  wake-up call at FOB Joyce.  After a morning hike to the OP (Observation Post) at the edge of the base and then breakfast, our group was back on its helicopters and off to our next FOB.  FOB Bostick is located to the north of Joyce, but also extremely close to the Pakistani border.  Bostick has approximately 450 US troops -- mostly Army -- but nearly 1,000 troops when you include ANA (Afghan National Army) and ANS (Afghan National Security) forces.  At the very heart of the US strategy in Afghanistan is training the Afghans to take control of their own country so we can pull our troops out and go home.  To this end, one of the most important jobs our troops have is tutoring the Afghan forces, and when our troops go out on missions, ANA troops almost always travel with them.

 

The troops at Bostick have seen a lot of combat action during their time in Afghanistan.  We were told story after story by troops of the firefights and ambushes by the Taliban, close calls, causalities, and even deaths.  Our group met a 21-year old sergeant from Boise, ID who had been shot two days before we arrived.  Apparently, the bullet went in his backside and emerged out of his hip.  Since he wasn't ambulatory and able to make it to our formal meet-and-greet, the players went up to the room where he was convalescing to see him.  We learned that he was staying at FOB Bostick to recover rather than going to a larger base with a dedicated hospital so that he could stick with his "band of brothers” and continue fighting with them once healed.  These are the types of stories you hear all the time in the military.

 

We stayed at FOB Bostick through lunch and then traveled back to Jalalabad Air Field, or JAF.  This time we held a meet-and-greet and had the opportunity to visit with hundreds of troops on base.  We also met and exchanged coins with the Commanding Officer on base, Colonel George. 

From JAF it was one more chopper ride back to Bagram, where our “FOB hopping” had begun the day before, and where we would spend the night.