LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - The USAA teamed up with the NFL as part of their yearly salute to service.
Together, they brought service members from Fort Sill to Arlington, Texas, to partake in a different kind of boot camp from the one they were used to, one with the NFL.
“I didn’t breathe for a second because I looked up and saw the huge Jumbotron up there,” Ssg. Christopher Giner said. “I would have never thought of walking onto the field, the same field as CeeDee Lamb, Dez Bryant, Tony Romo, all those amazing players that played on it before and currently still play on it. What a dream come true to step on the same field that they play on.”
Sgt. Jason Conely spoke about his experience with this type of boot camp.
“It was awesome. Honestly, just being able to be here, being able to see the star, being able to witness this creation is kind of insane to me.”
The mission on this day is to complete five NFL Combine drills, the 40-yard dash, three-cone shuttle, broad jump, receiving gauntlet, and the QB arm challenge, not exactly the day-to-day work these service members are used to.
“It’s a little different, more agility and different things, obviously running the three-cone drill, 40-yard dash,” Conley said. “We’re used to running three miles, 880, anything like that. So it was a change of pace for us.”
Staff Ssg. Chris Giner spoke about the enthusiasm many people have while participating.
“You could tell who came here to play a little bit on a serious level,” Giner said. “I brought my cleats as well. Before we started doing all these drills, we started throwing the ball around. You could tell that excitement, that inner child still comes out. I still want to be competitive. I still want to play some ball.”
Bragging rights on the line. A chance to see which installation reigned supreme between Fort Sill, Fort Hood and Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth.
“At Fort Sill, we like to win a lot,” Giner said. “We play a lot of sports up there. We’re huge on sports, particularly my unit. We’ve won the Turkey Bowl. We’ve been up there in the flag football and the softball realm. Currently, we are playing flag football for the Commanders Cup. So if we could take this win back, I know my Sergeant Major, my Colonel would have a blast.”
Three installations broken into ten teams. At stake, free tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game. But there could only be one winner on this day, a squad of Marines from the Marine detachment on Fort Sill.
“The most awesome thing ever, honestly, I’m not necessarily a Cowboys fan,” Conley said. “But my team is Cowboys fans. So it’s awesome to see that we worked together as a team, and now we get to enjoy our reward. It was very important for us. Especially for us being the only Marines on base, it was even better for us to show out and show what we’ve got.”
Three installations were broken into 10 teams for the opportunity to win free tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game, with a squad of Marines from the Marine detachment on Fort Sill winning out in the end.
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