SUNDAY,MAY 30, 2010
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The things they carried on about
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by Greg Jaffe
ven on Memorial Day, when the nation stops to honor and re- member the fallen men and women in uniform who served in wars past and present, it is
easy for the U.S. military to remain an ab- straction. The troops toil at distant bases and fight far-away battles, becoming real to their fellow citizens mainly when they lug giant rucksacks through America’s airports at the beginning and end of their leaves. It is particularly easy to forget that the
majority of the men and women fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are just a few years removed from high school. As a military reporter, I’ve had the chance to see them as they really are, in those odd moments between boredom and heroism, when they’re waiting for a helicopter, kill- ing time on outposts or starting to bump down a road that may or may not be laden with explosives. In these moments, the troops can be
goofy, brave, profane, loyal and wickedly funny. In these moments, they are often just kids. I witnessed one such snapshot last month, as I sat on one of the last U.S. heli- copters preparing to fly into eastern Af- ghanistan’s violent Korengal Valley. American commanders were only a few weeks away from shutting down the base there, ending a bloody five-year stalemate with the Taliban. A machine gun punched a nickel-size hole in the Chinook two nights earlier,
GREG JAFFE
U.S. troops in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley last month looked for a Taliban triggerman who had detonated a bomb minutes earlier. In between patrols and helicopter rides, our soldiers can be brave, profane, loyal and wickedly funny.
and everyone paused to inspect it as they got on the big black whale of a helicopter. It was just after 9 p.m., and streaks of lightning flashed against the black sky. Fifteen minutes passed. The copter was grounded. It was then that two of the sol- diers from the 4th Brigade of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division launched into a pro- fanity-laced argument over a burning
question: Is Connecticut in New England? The first soldier gamely insisted that
Connecticut couldn’t possibly be part of New England because everyone from Connecticut cheers for New York sports teams: the Giants, the Jets, the Mets, the Yankees, etc. “Do you even [expletive] know where
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Connecticut is?” the other soldier de- manded. “I mean, could you even find it on an [expletive] map?” The first soldier didn’t answer. It was
pretty obvious to all that he couldn’t find Connecticut on an [expletive] map. In- stead he reeled off the states that he thought were in New England: Massachu- setts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. A third voice from the darkness sug-
gested that Long Island is also in New England. But the first two soldiers — both from Boston — told him to shut up, be- cause Long Island is definitely in New York, and New York is not on anybody’s New England list. The lightning kept flashing. Still grounded. In about 90 minutes the moon would rise and illuminate the sky, making it far too easy for whoever shot the Chi- nook last time to hit it again. The soldiers’ geography debate shifted to another topic: whether Brockton, Mass., is more dangerous than the Ko- rengal Valley, where more than 40 U.S. troops had died over the past five years. One of the New England soldiers insisted that five of his relatives had been killed in Brockton, so he was pretty sure it was more dangerous than the Korengal. The Chinook still hadn’t moved. In the front of the helicopter, two captains talked about the pros and cons of letting the Army pay for graduate school. Toward the back, a sergeant started a monologue on how he cried watching “The Lion King” when he was 6. “Oh, Mufasa!” called a plaintive, mocking voice. Someone asked a Russian-accented
specialist named Egerov whether he cried when Sylvester Stallone knocked out Dolph Lundgren in “Rocky IV.” There was a five-minute debate about who was really the better fighter, before Egerov pointed out that Lundgren isn’t even Russian — he’s Swedish. The helicopter sat in the darkness. A
few soldiers climbed out of the back to stretch their legs, grab a smoke and swap stories about the tarantulas, lizards and monkeys in the valley. “Thirty-three days,” said a soldier just back from leave. It was the time that had passed since he last set foot on the Korengal outpost. A little before 10 p.m., everyone got back on the bird. Seat belts clicked. The engine revved, and soon the soldiers were airborne. As they hurtled toward the Ko- rengal, a full moon rose over the moun- tains, and the rivers below glowed silvery- white. It was getting awfully bright. The Chinook touched down at a differ- ent base about six miles from the Ko- rengal. The pilots had decided that flying into the jagged sliver of a valley with the moon lighting up the sky was too danger- ous; the hulking helo would be too easy for the Taliban to spot. The soldiers stum- bled out, ears ringing from the noise of the engines, and searched for a place to sleep. The next evening, they’d try again.
jaffeg@washpost.com
Greg Jaffe is a military reporter for The Washington Post and a co-author of “The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army.”
Everyone from Spike Lee to
New York magazine is begging LeBron to join the Knicks. Don’t listen.
ban, Wizards tickets will be the coin of the realm for influence-peddlers seeking to grease passage of their favorite legisla- tion.
their-minds bloggers and Miss Cleo, the psychic for ESPN2’s “SportsNation,” who predicted last month that LeBron would be playing for the Wizards next year. And, of course, new Wizards owner Ted Leon- sis and General Manager Ernie Grunfeld are playing it safe, insisting that they are taking the long view and building the team through the draft. Except we all know that’s nonsense.
S
MARK DUNCAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A banner in Cleveland implores Cavaliers star LeBron James to stay with the team. After July 1, when the NBA’s free agency period begins, his future could become clear.
Cleveland’s loss should be our win
lebron from B1
The Wizards signing King James would be the right thing for the NBA, which needs a marquee team in the nation’s cap- ital. It would be the right thing for the luckless basketball fans of Washington. Most of all, it would be right for LeBron, still only 25, who needs to find the proper stage to display his otherworldly talents and to write the storybook saga those tal- ents deserve. Washington is clearly the place to be for
any global icon, which is what LeBron as- pires to become. Bono, Bill Gates and An- gelina Jolie have all trekked to the capital to make their mark as truly international figures. Prime ministers, Wall Street plu- tocrats and Hollywood moguls all come here to get their business done. Sure, New York has Madison Avenue. But LeBron doesn’t need to go to New York to get his commercial deals — Madison Avenue comes to him.
Besides, if he went to the Knicks — as fans from Spike Lee to New York maga- zine are begging him to do — LeBron would just be another superstar, the big- gest for sure in New York, but still vying for attention with the likes of Derek Jeter (and his five championship rings) as well as the various rock stars and supermodels who walk the streets of Gotham. Despite the presidential nudge last week, he should definitely avoid Chicago, where nothing he might do would ever rival Mi-
chael Jordan’s exploits for the Bulls in the 1990s.
And where are the romance and mys- tique in Dallas or Miami or New Jersey, reputed to be among LeBron’s other suit- ors? Seriously, Jersey?
Of course, a case can be made that Le- Bron should stay put in Cleveland. Ohio is where James grew up, and there is no place that will ever love him like home, no one who needs his talents more than Cleveland’s long-suffering fans, without a professional sports champion since the ’64 Browns won football’s crown. Bring- ing even one NBA title back home would cement his legend. But King James appears to have wan- derlust, and if he is to leave Quicken Loans Arena, he ought to set up court at Verizon Center — where he would imme- diately become the most incandescent sports star in a sports-savvy town. I don’t want to hear about the unprov- en Stephen Strasburg, the aging Donovan McNabb or even two-time hockey MVP Alex Ovechkin, who plays a sport most Americans still don’t care about. (Sorry, Caps fans.) The day LeBron shows up in Washington, he will become the Man, the greatest superstar Washington will have seen in years, with an unusual opportuni- ty to write a very special story for a city that, like Cleveland, has been starved for professional sports champions since the Redskins last won it all nearly two dec- ades ago. (Yes, it’s been that long.) It’s an
opportunity James won’t have anyplace else, certainly not in New York, where the Yankees and Giants have long spoiled their fans. As for Chicago, I know, I know — that’s where he could find a team ready-made to contend for a championship. But think of it this way, LeBron: Even if you win a title next year for the Bulls, you’re still five be- hind Jordan. And your legacy there will be defined less by your own accomplish- ments than by how you compare to His Airness. Win here and you’re an instant sports deity, upgraded from your current demigod status. And we won’t boo you the first time you fail to get a triple-double.
as New York and Philly as a source of great talent, and with a heritage worthy of Le- Bron’s skills.
DCbasketball.com points out that relative to its size, metropolitan Washington has had more influence on the game than any other basketball hot- bed, with more than 100 players in the NBA and ABA ranks — and countless col- lege stars — hailing from this area. Before Julius Erving and Michael Jor- dan, there was Elgin Baylor, who first flew through the air above District school- yards. Red Auerbach was a Washing- tonian before he coached the Boston Celt- ics to nine NBA titles. Former DeMatha coach Morgan Wootten is the winningest
W
ashington is one of the most sto- ried basketball cities in America, known even to rival towns such
high school coach in the land, the man whose Stags ended Power Memorial Academy and Lew Alcindor’s 71-game winning streak in 1965. Even the 2009- 2010 NBA scoring champ, 21-year-old Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thun- der, hails from Washington. After politics, basketball is our sport. Then there’s the First Fan factor. Here, for once, we have a president who is a bona fide hoopster but who prefers to go see the Wizards only when his beloved Bulls come to town. Obama may say he wants LeBron to go to Chicago, but if James comes to Washington, the presi- dent and the King will be hanging out at Verizon Center and dropping by Ben’s Chili Bowl for half-smokes and milk- shakes on Saturday afternoons. LeBron will become a fixture on the White House basketball court, schooling the com- mander in chief and former Duke forward (and presidential aide) Reggie Love. I have to imagine that’s at least as appeal- ing to LeBron as hanging out in Brooklyn with his buddy Jay-Z, part-owner of the Nets. In Washington, state dinners will need to add a special table for the 6-foot-8 superstar, news organizations will be all over themselves to invite LeBron to the White House Correspondents Dinner, and Verizon Center will become the hottest place in American politics 41 nights a year (plus a dozen or so playoff games.) If lob- byists can figure their way around the gift
You build through the draft in the NFL, the NHL and Major League Baseball. In basketball, you luck out and get that one special player — Bird, Magic, Jordan, Ko- be — and eventually you’re in the champi- onship conversation every year. Leonsis and Grunfeld are intelligent men who un- derstand that the opportunity to get a once-in-a-generation talent comes along, well, once in generation. I can only hope they’re playing it cool and avoiding the wrath of NBA Commissioner David Stern by disguising their true intentions while James remains under contract to the Cav- aliers. (No need to pay Mark Cuban-type fines unless you have to.) Even after paying Arenas and Wall, the Wizards would have enough salary cap space to offer LeBron the maximum con- tract needed to acquire his services. Upon signing him, the Wizards would have the core of a championship team in place: Le- Bron, Wall, an improving Andray Blatche and of course Arenas, who will be desper- ate to prove himself as a team player after his stint in a halfway house. Even though they won’t have much cap space left, top veteran role-players will flock to Washing- ton at cut-rate prices for their chance at a ring. Now we know there’s been some bad blood between the Wizards and the Cavs, left over from their memorable playoff en- counters of recent years. In 2006, James messed with Arenas’s head at the free- throw line in the closing seconds of a crit- ical game, and in 2008, Wizards guard De- shawn Stevenson disparaged James as “overrated.” But Stevenson is long gone from Washington, and it’s definitely in Arenas’s interest to play the loyal wing- man for LeBron, like Scottie Pippen did for Jordan in Chicago. And there’s always George Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke around to make peace in the Wizards locker room, as soon as they figure out the Middle East and Afghanistan. Here’s hoping that when July 1 arrives and the LeBron sweepstakes formally opens, Leonsis and Grunfeld do the right thing and get the man who will bring the NBA title back to D.C. for the first time in 32 years. This LBJ can stay in Washington as long as he wants.
mjabramowitz@yahoo.com
o, could it really happen? Nobody is talking about James coming to D.C., except a few out-of-
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