Photo By Tristin English | U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Joseph Dumdei, 532nd Expeditionary Operations Support...... read more read more
AL ALSAD, Iraq - “Three strikes and you’re out at the old ball game,” goes a popular song sung in the seventh inning stretch at ballparks around the United States.
The melody plays just as easily for a group of 33 security forces airmen who have constructed a piece of Americana deep in the Iraqi desert, between Baghdad and the Syrian border.
“Our security forces airmen are constantly out among the other units on base,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Shawn Goodlett, 532nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron commander, who is also the commander for two flights of Air Force cops. “They brought a base softball field to life.”
That’s an understatement.
The ballpark started as a patch of uneven, unclaimed desert inside Al Asad Air Base in western Al Anbar province, Iraq. The airmen added lights, fences and dugouts. In the end, the finished product was a slice of Americana ready for the first game by opening day of the 2011 Major League Baseball season.
“About five months ago it was basically nothing,” described Senior Master Sgt. Dennis Robison, security forces flight operations superintendent. “We came out here, built a fence, built dugouts, bases, it really grew out of nothing as soon as we built it people came out and started playing.”
Approximately 120 people regularly play intramural softball at the new field. A recent tournament featured nine teams from the U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force and civilian contractors.
“It’s awesome,” exclaimed Sgt. Robison, deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. and a native of Peoria, Ill. “We play about three or four games a week, and all week long the guys in the shop are just waiting on it.”
The service members assigned to Al Asad regularly work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Finding a location that takes them to their home and families without leaving the base, works toward maintaining high morale at a location that sees operations come to a stand-still during regular dust storms.
“After 12-hour shifts you come out here, work out for one, two hours, and get some running in,” said Lt. Col. Goodlett. “Overall, everyone loves it.”
The vision for the softball stadium started with one airman in particular while he was preparing for his deployment.
“Another security forces NCO and I were at the Regional Training Center preparing for this deployment,” recalled Tech. Sgt. Wayne Ogan, security forces intelligence NCO in charge. “The San Francisco Giants were in the 2010 World Series. We’d sneak off to catch the scores while we were in our chemical warfare gear.”
The Giants won the World Series. Sgt. Ogan and the other non-commissioned officer decided to memorialize the victory by building a softball field no matter where they would deploy.
“We made the foul lines on the field by using aircraft tow straps,” said the native of Fresno, Calif., who’s also deployed from Travis AFB. “The plates were from some galvanized rubber used on the airfield runway. Everyone in the squadron, civilian contractors, soldiers and sailors from around base pitched in.”
The end of Operation New Dawn in December 2011 means the duties for taking care of the softball field will fall to other people.
“We just passed off the job of softball commissioner to an Army soldier,” remarked Sgt. Ogan. “He will be here after we leave, so it will depend on him to schedule teams, keep statistics, and field upkeep.”
Due to everyone’s hard work to bring America’s pastime to the desert, and as long as U.S. service members remain at Al Asad, there will be someone to yell, “Play ball!”
| Date Taken: | 05.27.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2011 00:04 |
| Story ID: | 71596 |
| Location: | AL ASAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 139 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, America’s favorite pastime finds desert home, by SMSgt Larry Schneck, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
