A little more than a decade ago, U.S. Army landed in Taji, , a sandy city 20 miles north of Baghdad. It was April 2004 and Operation Iraqi Freedom II was humming along. The situation on the ground was calm, at least for a while.Then in May, the Mahdi Army attacked Sadr City. In November, Marines entered Fallujah. From the cockpit of an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, was often right in the middle of it all, zipping overhead at low altitudes and providing reconnaissance or cover fire. By the time he returned home in March 2005, he had logged more than 1,000 combat hours. I didn t want to be in combat, said. But I wasn t averse to pulling triggers and doing that kind of mission. The mission faces now is trivial by comparison. His tasks are no longer matters of life and death but of touchbacks and hang times, wedges and coverage schemes. As the new special teams coordinator of the , he has been tasked with turning around what was statistically the worst unit in the league last season, according to a formula created by Football Outsiders.
s job has changed since 2004, but he brings the same approach and attitude to coaching that he brought to his role as an officer in places such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Korea and : Technical expertise. Meticulous attention to detail. Open communication. And above all else, a type of firm, confident demeanor befitting a military veteran. You do notice it, linebacker said. I wouldn t say he s intimidating. I d say he has a leader s presence. There s not too many times that you would doubt his judgment. I wanted to do a cool job Before he was a coach or an officer, was a starting linebacker and team captain at Army. He led the Black Knights to their only 10-win season and most recent Commander-in-Chief s Trophy in 1996, and it was during his time at West Point that he also began to think about life after graduation. Really my thought was if I was going to be in the Army, I wanted to do a cool job, he said. And I thought flying would be pretty darn cool. So that s what I did. After a year coaching at West Point s preparatory school, enrolled in flight school. Free to choose his preferred type of aircraft, he picked the Apache, an attack helicopter, rather than the Black Hawk, which is more commonly used for transporting troops. Or, in his words: I went guns. was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina before being deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he spent seven months as a platoon leader. He then returned home briefly before moving on to Korea for six months, and later . is careful not to reveal too many details about his time in Taji. When asked about his role in the context of the war, he says only that, there were a variety of mission sets that we executed in . Sometimes he served as convoy security or air security for VIPs visiting the country. Sometimes he flew to gather reconnaissance or help identify targets during a conflict on the ground. And yes, sometimes, he had to pull the trigger in battle. The most rewarding mission was helping the guys on the ground, said. When we did pull triggers, I never looked at it as an opportunity to take somebody else s life. I really looked at it as an opportunity to save our soldiers lives. estimates he was in the air six days a week, working toward objectives that took anywhere from two to five hours to complete. He learned to navigate a city like Baghdad at low altitudes, sometimes dodging wires and towers in shade or darkness. And he experienced the challenges of a nonlinear battlefield, where there are no clearly marked boundaries between clusters of allied troops and the enemy.In March 2005, and the 1st Cavalry Division were sent home, marking the end of both his final tour and his eight-year military career. retired with three medals and a Bronze Star.Copyright 2014 The Washington Times, LLC. . Comment(s) You Might Also LikeLOVERRO: Redskins will see a pair of high-profile debuts Sunday Shares Jay Gruden takes unorthodox path to NFL head coaching job Shares DeSean Jackson can remake reputation with Redskins — if he wants to Shares J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney an imposing challenge for Redskins in opener Shares Small Virginia town ponders life without professional baseball Shares 4 Ways to Avoid Running Out of Money in RetirementSponsored by Fisher InvestmentsRelated Stories (23) Posted 45 mins ago (23) Posted 45 mins agoPhoto Galleries10 Photos9 Photos12 Photos17 Photos21 Photos11 Photos12 Photos15 Photos43 Photos30 Photos10 Photos44 PhotosQuestion of the DayVote on which president took the best vacationsQuestion of the Day
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About the Author
After spending nearly two years as an intern at The Washington Times, Tom Schad rejoined the staff as a sports reporter in August 2014. A Colorado native and American University graduate, he previously served as a reporter and copy editor at The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and MLB.com. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.