As a Golden Domer, I cannot help but draw attention to Charlie Weis’s words at the White House yesterday, on his trip with other college football coaches to visit the troops in Iraq in celebration of Memorial Day:
We went over there to help motivate the morale of the troops — but I think we came home probably more inspired than even they were. I mean, it was just an unbelievable experience to watch the enthusiasm and the pride and the teamwork over there…We saw thousands and thousands of troops, and when they heard that we were coming to the White House on Monday, to a man and to a woman almost everyone said, “Could you just pass on one message to the President,” and asked us to thank him for him supporting them.
I mean, think about it — they’re there for four months, six months, a year — it was just unbelievable — from Germany, you know, seeing guys and girls that had gotten injured in battle; and their framework, their psyche; it was just an unbelievable experience…
And we got something special going on over there because there wasn’t one person, of the thousands and thousands of soldiers we met, that had one negative thing to say — and that’s almost overwhelming to think about it; not one. Now, there were a couple at the end-of-their-year tours that were very much looking forward to getting their call to get home. But I’ll tell you what, it was great. And what a perfect way to end up our trip, to end up at the White House on Memorial Day.