Quote :

"JACKSONVILLE -- You couldn't wipe the smile off Cpl. Bobby Joseph's face with a beach towel and bottle of 409. The visit by members of N.C. State's football team to Camp Lejeune had that effect on Joseph and the other Marines in the Wounded Warrior Battalion on Thursday. "I was actually going to go home and sleep," Joseph said. "This was worth it." For Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien, who served nine years in the Marine Corps, the second annual trip to visit the Wounded Warrior Barracks, where injured and ill Marines convalesce, is a way of thanking the war veterans and adding a sobering dose of reality to his own players. A group of a dozen Marines, most age 19 to 22, spent an hour and a half talking with the Wolfpack contingent. "Our guys think they are special," O'Brien said. "I think it's important that they are around a bunch of people that are really special, that have done so much to keep us free and protect us." It was Joseph, 27, who took center stage in the barracks' recreation room, entertaining the gathered Wolfpack crowd of about 20 players and coaches with his, well, war stories. Armed with his laptop and a megawatt smile, Joseph showed the players pictures from his combat duty in Iraq, an ad hoc slideshow that included everything from his machine gun to his wounds. A roadside bomb in Anah, Iraq, left Joseph with 200 pieces of shrapnel in his body and a hole the size of a whiffle ball in his left calf. He entered the Wounded Warrior Battalion in January 2007. In another two months, his rehabilitation will end, and he'll head back to his home in Florida. Visits like the one by the Wolfpack on Thursday help keep Joseph motivated and focused on his recovery. "This place can be depressing," he said. "It's not what happens here, but we're all afraid of what's going to happen next." Joseph wasn't the only Marine with visual evidence of combat. Cpl. Karl Golian showed a group of players a video on his iPod of a Cobra helicopter airstrike in Iraq. Golian's video hit N.C. State quarterback Mike Glennon. "That was mind-blowing," Glennon said. "That just goes to show how fortunate we are." That's the impression O'Brien was hoping his players would get. "Maybe they'll remember when they're a little tired or a little sore, the sacrifices these men have made," O'Brien said. Not all of O'Brien's intentions with the visit were altruistic. He said he's trying to convert fans. "It gives them somebody to root for," O'Brien said, joking. It's working. A white "Let's Go Pack" banner, adorned with the autographs of the N.C. State players who visited in 2007 and on Thursday, hangs between the two televisions in the rec room. jp.giglio@newsobserver "

Thought this was a great story. He is doing a great job of keeping our boys grounded. While they get the opportunity to play football, these men and women are fighting for freedom. Things have definitely changed since Amato left.

6/12/2009 7:53:03 AM

I heart TOB

6/12/2009 9:16:58 AM

Chuck would've taken them to a brothel

Quote :

"You couldn't wipe the jizz off Madame Sparkle's face with a beach towel and bottle of 409. "

6/12/2009 9:30:58 AM

Awesome read... thanks

6/12/2009 9:33:20 AM

i really appreciate all the positive press our football coaches and players have gotten lately

6/12/2009 9:55:18 AM

Thanks for posting this! In addition, here's WRAL video of the trip:

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/video/5338895/

Good gosh, TOB keeps getting better and better. He's come in and immediately understood and identified with our fan base, he's been consistent and straightforward, never said anything contradictory, done Toys For Tots 2-years running, started the tradition of making the Spring game a Kay Yow memorial fundraising event, now this. I love it.

Definitely PUMPED AS SHIT FOR THIS season under our badass coach that Fowler (and us fans) lucked out to get.

[Edited on June 12, 2009 at 11:00 AM. Reason : link]

6/12/2009 10:59:12 AM