Fort McCoy’s Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (DFMWR) led the effort to host the Green Bay Packers 2026 Tailgate Tour to the installation April 17.
The 2026 Tailgate Tour was a multi-day journey across Wisconsin and neighboring communities where players, alumni, and team representatives met fans face-to-face in schools, community centers, and local gathering spots. This included the stop at Fort McCoy, where the tour participants met with Soldiers and Fort McCoy workforce members as well as cadets with the Wisconsin Challenge Academy.
This year’s traveling party blended the present and the past. Current players Edgerrin Cooper and Evan Williams represented the next generation of Packers football, bringing energy and curiosity as they connected with fans of all ages. Alongside them were familiar faces from earlier eras — former standouts like James Jones, Desmond Bishop, and Brandon Jackson, whose careers helped shape memorable seasons in Green Bay. Their presence gave longtime fans a chance to relive moments while introducing younger audiences to the team’s history.
The tour also featured Randall Cobb, a fan favorite whose name still resonates strongly in Packers circles. Supporting the group from the organizational side was Ed Policy, representing the club’s leadership.
DFMWR Commercial Sponsorship and Advertising Executive Ashley Sivert said she received notice of the visit to McCoy by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office in mid-March 2026 and worked with the directorate team to begin setting up for the visit.
“I determined McCoy’s Community Center for the event due to the tight window for their visit to the garrison,” Sivert said. “With only having an hour with them, a closed, lunch type event made sense.”
And the idea worked out. As in past years, the tour participants were whisked to Fort McCoy via UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the Wisconsin National Guard. They eventually loaded into vehicles from DFMWR to McCoy’s Community Center to have lunch with Fort McCoy Soldiers from multiple units as well as garrison leaders, including Garrison Commander Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez and Deputy to the Garrison Commander Cameron Cantlon.
Fort McCoy DFMWR Director Scott Abell welcomed the Tailgate Tour visitors to Fort McCoy and further described how it all was made possible.
“This lunch is sponsored by the Gary Sinise Foundation, who has a great partnership with all military, but they provide things like this for us, and they pay for lunches all year round for our Soldiers,” Abell said.“So, I want to acknowledge the Gary Sinise Foundation.
“I also want to thank Nathaniel Washington,” Abell said. “Fantastic job of coordinating with our team. Our team, the main coordinators were Ashley Sivert and Karla Rynes (DFMWR Business Recreation Division chief).Fantastic job. Thank you, as always.”
Rynes said many members of the DFMWR team made the entire event possible at McCoy’s Those who were there working and coordinating work in addition to Abell, Rynes, and Sivert were Liz Faber, Ryan Hoffman, Lina Acosta-Leon, Derek Waller, and Skye Audiss.
Rynes said the meal the visitors would eat also was thought out carefully.
“We as a team discussed meal ideas that were brought to us my Lina and Derek, and we then we picked the meal,” Rynes said.
In the Tailgate Tour blog by Katie Hermsen of Packers.com at https://www.packers.com/news/packers-tailgate-tour-blog-2026, she wrote what she learned from each player on what they liked best about the tour and Fort McCoy was mentioned several times. In one entry, she showed Evan Williams saying, “There were a couple favorite moments. No. 1 was getting in that Black Hawk and flying to Fort McCoy. I had a great time being able to do those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
The Fort McCoy DFMWR team has also hosted other significant visits to the post in recent years, including the Lt. Ban Band Concert and Budweiser Clydesdales visits in 2025.
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.”
The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin. The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.” Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: |
04.28.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
04.28.2026 16:58 |
| Story ID: |
563827 |
| Location: |
FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
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