Two summers ago, Robb Akey took a trip with fellow college football coaches to visit American troops for 10 days in Afghanistan. When he returned from the visit, Akey received a gift in the mail from a Vandal fan currently in the military. The soldier wanted to thank the University of Idaho football coach for spending time with the troops by giving him an American flag flown during combat.
Every game since receiving the flag, Akey and the Vandal football team have run onto the field carrying that flag.
“I think it’s something that we need our guys to pay attention to, and how fortunate we are living in the United States and getting the opportunity to do this,” Akey said. “There’s a group of people working their tails off so we have the opportunity to play college football games, so our students get to go to school and not have to worry about if the place is going to get blown up or not.”
Akey said the biggest similarity between his football team and the military is the attention to teamwork, but this is also the biggest difference between the two, Akey said.
“The best teamwork that I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life is over there. When you look at it, you have the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines, that whole group working together, relying on each other,” Akey said. “Their lives are dependent on each other, and here, if we make a mistake on third down we may have to punt the ball. That’s a big difference.”
Corey Sandburg, a red-shirt freshman linebacker for the Vandals is back playing football after serving two tours with the airborne infantry, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. During his second tour, Sandburg was hit by enemy ground fire in the backside, but has recovered well enough to play football again.
Another Vandal player with military connections is running back Troy Vital, whose mother, Demita, serves as an Army first sergeant. Demita and her husband Keith, who spent 20 years in the military as well, were honored during Military Appreciation in 2009, only six days before Demita left for another year-long tour in Iraq.
“Hopefully it shows our troops that we do have respect for what it is that they do, and that’s something we really take to heart every time we run out onto the field,”