AFA's Calhoun among football coaches to visit Middle East troops
Air Force football coach Troy Calhoun will travel to the Middle East this spring to visit U.S. troops on the second annual Under Armour Coaches Tour.
Calhoun, along with coaches Mack Brown (Texas), Jim Tressel (Ohio State), Rick Neuheisel (UCLA) and Houston Nutt (Mississippi) and former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, will meet and greet American military personnel in Afghanistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Calhoun, a 1989 Air Force Academy graduate, said participating in the tour was a no-brainer.
"I was asked a couple months ago if I'd have some interest to be involved, and I said, ‘Absolutely,'" Calhoun said. "I think in coaching where you always start is trying amongst the members of your team to teach and ingrain some pretty strong character traits - sacrifice and heart and unselfishness and dedication and teamwork. And what's neat about this is you're able to be around men and women that that's what they live."
Calhoun and the other coaches will leave McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., on May 28 and return to the United States on June 4. The trip is coordinated through Armed Forces Entertainment, a Department of Defense agency, and Morale Entertainment.
Calhoun said the basic purpose is to "interact with a bunch of troops." He said some days he might give short, motivational speeches, other days might coach a little flag football and "more than anything else, let them know our gratitude for their service."
Calhoun has met with soldiers returning from deployment at Fort Carson and has been to Schriever Air Force Base and Peterson Air Force Base as well. "Any time I'm asked, I try to find a way to say, ‘Yes,' when it involves our soldiers."
Asked if he worried at all about being in danger heading to the Middle East, Calhoun said, "No. Just for how much those soldiers give and for what they do, their dedication to freedom, I don't think I need to even have a single worry in regards to only personally that way."
