NebraskaHerb
FIVE-TIME NATIONAL FOOTBALL CHAMPS
"Not the victory but the action. Not the goal but the game.
In the deed the glory."

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Husker Flag Back in Iraq

You may remember that back in late April/early May, the Husker flag that I brought with me to Iraq that was flying over the JDOC here at Anaconda was stolen right off the flag pole. Bad times. The culprits were never found. However, sometimes good things come from bad. MSG (master sergeant or E8, second highest enlisted rank) Richard Aldag is the NCOIC (nco in charge) of our Intel section. He works for the State Patrol back home, is an Army Ranger, Husker fan, and all around good guy. He noticed that I was severely depressed by this blatant theft, and has been working ever since on getting me a replacement. We were both home on leave at about the same time, and while he was home he was able to get me hooked up with a new flag autographed by this years team. One word: Awesome! Before finding a prominent place to display in our office, we ran it up the flag pole for a few minutes. Here's the pics:

SSG Johnson and I getting ready to fly the flag, Hammer is running the camera.
The flag on the pole getting ready to fly.

Out with the old (temporarily), in with the new. We noticed how faded the current Husker flag is, SGT Hanseling has a new flag on the way to replace mine, at which time it will be retired to a place of honor.

On the way up!

GOOOOOOO BIIIIIGGGGG REEEEEDDDDDD!!!! Go Big Red!!!

More good news on the Husker front. AFN (Armed Forces Network), our cable system, picked up the Husker vs KU game, so we'll be watching tonight at 0300. We are all pretty pumped, they have 3 channels they devote to football on Sat/Sun, so actually getting our game picked is, in a word, nice. You can see how we roll on game days on SGT Hanseling's Blog and SSG Johnson's Blog. We are giving all the credit to the Hammer, he sent AFN an email on Tuesday before the schedules came out requesting, in fact begging, for the hook up. The next day our dreams were realized. The AFN guy emailed back and said that he was just sitting at his computer surfing the net, trying to decide which game to pick, when he saw the Hammer's email. He was so moved by the Hammer's impassioned plea that he bumped the Michigan vs Minnesota game to, as we say in the Cav, "make it happen." Even in the face of rioutous fans of the matchup for the Brown Jug threating his life and the life of his family, he said he will hold fast for us Husker fans. We are going to send him a Stetson and some spurs for his troubles. Okay, I made that all up (except for the part about Hammer sending the email) because that is what I like to think happened. But, I will tell you that someone from this office will be sending a weekly email to AFN pleading our case. It can't hurt, right?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sweet! I'm glad to hear that if you're dramatic enough you can get what you want! That is cool that you get to watch the game....and nice use of your new word AWESOME.

...Brandee

Sack said...

There aren't many words better than Awesome that I am aware of.

Brian said...

That's "Awesome"! I guess your right, often times good things do come from bad times. This one's signed? That's a keeper to hang in the Husker room at home for life. Signed by a team that helped "restore the order" and also flew over the land of sand...nice!

I'm starting to buy into this 6 degrees of seperation stuff. You're in Iraq, I'm just outside of NYC and up comes a name from the past like Richard Aldag...AKA "Dickey" as I knew him. You're right, all round good guy. I worked with Aldag a number of times when I interned SWAT/K-9 with the NSP. You'll have to ask him he remembers a guy that worked under Peck & Kirby before the academy. As I recall Aldag is an incredible shot odly shooting from waist level. Theives of the original Skers' flag beware.

The Husker Nation is world wide! Glad to hear you guys are able to at least listen to the games. Nice that you got to go to one this year too.

Stay safe.
GO BIG RED!

Ole' buddy B

Sack said...

This flag will be displayed proudly in a place of honor no doubt. You won't see it on Ebay with LPs national title ring, that is for sure.

Dickie (I'm not allowed to call him by that name, btw, military courtesy and all) is also a member at Messiah and attends our bible study when he isn't working. He also knows Erika's cousin's husband Fynbu really well, who was also in the Cav at one time. Like you said small world. I'm sure there is no way he has forgotten you, who could?