Pretty cool article with Rich Franklin, Randy Couture and Rachelle but its kinda long

[rar1015]

If this needs to be moved to the lounge thats fine.



UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture and middleweight champion Rich Franklin are more than used to the desert and the searing heat that it brings. They have to be, because it’s in Las Vegas where they made their names as two of the best mixed martial artists in the world.

But Iraq is no Las Vegas – the sun is hotter, the desert drier, and there are no neon lights to lead you to a night of just getting away from it all. In cities like Kirkuk, Mosul, and Tal Afar, every day is the same, with the monotony only broken by the terror that comes along with the war still raging around this Middle Eastern country.

But like Couture and Franklin, the men and women of the US military serving the United States in Iraq are the best in the world at what they do, and over the course of a ten day trip from late-July to early-August, the best got to meet the best, and for both sides, it was an unforgettable experience.

“I have been a supporter of mixed martial arts since 1993,” said Sgt. Bart A. Murphy of the United States Army. “Therefore, it was a great personal honor for me to have the opportunity to have these Octagon warriors travel to Iraq to visit my fellow troops.”

For Couture, an Army veteran who made the trip to Iraq with Franklin, Octagon Girl Rachelle Leah and UFC PR ace Loren Mack, visiting the troops was something he had wanted to do for a while.

“Last fall I went to the Army and Navy hospitals in Washington, DC and met a bunch of guys that were coming back,” said Couture, who retired from competition in February after a storied career that saw him win the UFC light heavyweight title and become the first man to win the UFC heavyweight title twice. “I was inspired by them and their attitudes under the circumstances they were in, and I thought it would be something really special to be able to go to Afghanistan or Iraq and meet the guys that were still over there and on the front lines, putting it out every day.”

A trip of this magnitude isn’t something that’s accomplished by simply buying a plane ticket though, especially with a war still going on. It took months of paperwork, phone calls, and approvals, even down to the smallest details of what to pack before the final green light was given.

“I spoke to a representative in Iraq twice a day for close to three months,” said Mack, who also had to consult with the escorting 101st Airborne Division over logistical issues, activities for the troops with the UFC guests, and other key points. In fact, the easiest part of the planning for the entire trip was getting Couture, Franklin, and Leah to agree to go.

“I really admire the fact that we’ve got people who are protecting our country and who have put their lives on hold and in extreme danger to take care of us,” said Leah. “It’s one of those things where if I can put a smile on someone’s face who is keeping us safe, it felt good to do that.”

Leaving Las Vegas on July 25 at 12:20pm, the UFC crew didn’t arrive in Kuwait until 10:30pm on July 26. The immediate first impression was the heat, which was estimated at around 135 degrees. Yes, 135.

“It was brutal heat,” said Leah. “And these guys are wearing long sleeve camos with helmets and body armor. And they’ve got boots on. It’s literally hell over there. Seeing what these guys are going through over there really is a humbling experience. When I got home, I said I will never complain about the heat in Vegas again.”

For Franklin, life in the Middle East wasn’t exactly what he expected it to be, but it was far from an ideal situation for those serving in the military.

“I actually thought that the conditions for the soldiers, as far as their living quarters and stuff, would be much worse,” he said. “You’re in Iraq, so naturally you’re in a very hot environment, you’re away from your family, and you have those kind of factors to deal with, but you’re on a military base, and the military bases aren’t really that much different from the ones here at home. You’re fed well, and they sleep in air conditioned facilities, although the facilities they sleep in aren’t very big.”

And there’s little time for sleep, as Franklin quickly found out.

“These guys that are working over there are putting in 15-20 hour days sometimes,” he explained, “and oftentimes their schedules are thrown off, and they go hours on end without eating because of work.”

As expected though, once the soldiers got a glimpse of Couture, Franklin, and Leah, the thoughts of 20 hour work days quickly turned to thoughts of meeting some famous folks from back home.

“Most of the guys couldn’t believe that they were actually meeting Rich and I in person,” said Couture. “They had seen us on TV, they show the UFC over there quite frequently on the Armed Forces network, and I don’t know how many guys told us that all they do to pass the time when they have down time is watch the DVDs. They work 12 hour shifts and they’re stuck on these little FOBs (Forward Operation Bases) where there’s a gym and there’s food, but outside of that, there’s not a whole lot else to do.”

“They were ecstatic to see us,” adds Franklin. “All the troops were UFC fans, and even the ones that may not be UFC fans knew somebody that was, so we had a lot of soldiers coming up and saying their cousin or husband or so and so was a huge fan and could they get our autographs.”

And while the troops were thrilled to meet this UFC trio, these special visitors were just as happy to be giving something back to the people serving this country. Leah recalls one of the soldiers being happy just to see someone in “regular clothes”.

“It’s like that out there, and it’s an honor to hear somebody say that I made their day just by going out there and being myself,” she said.

After Kuwait, the tour would hit the Iraqi cities of Tikrit, Tal Afar, Kirkuk, and Mosul. Each day’s activities would vary, but staples of each city’s visit would be Q&A and autograph sessions, as well as meet and greets with the soldiers.

“We did Q&As, we went to different battalion headquarters at each base, and ate lunch with the troops,” said Franklin. “I would purposely sit down in an open space so that there were chairs around me where people could come sit down and sometimes I would sit down in a group of guys and try to have lunch with the troops as much as possible.”

Couture, Franklin, and Leah also got to shoot guns, sit in helicopter cockpits, and see what daily life is like for the soldiers. Franklin, the only active fighter of the group, wanted to take things one step further.

“Call me an adrenaline junkie or whatever you will, but I tried talking the military into letting me going out on patrols with them and stuff like that,” he admits. “Of course, the answer was definitely no.”

That’s obviously for good reason, and though the mood was light during the trip, there were constant reminders that there was still a war going on, as Rachelle recalls entering a base that had just been fired upon.

“One of the places we flew into had just been attacked,” she said. “Some guys will just stand outside the bases and shoot missiles in. I told the soldier that that’s freaky, and he said, “It is, but they don’t have good aim. They just free fire.”

He then proceeded to show her the spot where the missile had hit just hours before they landed.

“That made you realize just how real this war is.”

That fact hit home to Mack during the sixth day of the trip in Mosul. Viewing the Iraqi skyline in the morning with two soldiers, Mack saw a cloud of black smoke in the city and then heard gunshots followed by sirens. 35 minutes later, another cloud of smoke became visible, followed by the appearance of two Black Hawk helicopters looming over the city. This wasn’t your typical PR appearance, to say the least. That didn’t matter to Couture though.

“They recognized that we’re willing to put our butts on a plane and take time out to fly over there and meet them where they’re working, see what they do, listen to what they have to say, and put forth that effort, outside of the typical celebrity that’s either speaking out against the war or says they support the troops, but wouldn’t get on a plane and go to a warzone,” said Couture. “And the comment was made to us on several occasions that ‘we can’t believe you guys actually came over here. Thank you so much, you made my year.’ Most of those guys are over there for 12 month deployments away from their families and their children. So I had the feeling that they were very excited that we went over and it gave them something to talk about and something to think about other than the day to day grind.”

And perhaps more than anyone else who made the trip, Couture was affected by what he saw and who he met because as an Army veteran, he is more than aware that it could have been him on the front lines.

“Absolutely,” said Couture, who served from 1982 to 1988 and was even a member (for two years) of the 101st Airborne Division that escorted the UFC team. “There’s a certain part of you that gets ingrained with the military frame of mind, and from knowing the rank structure and the acronyms and the lingo that many of the guys speak, you go right back to being in the service. It absolutely felt like this could have been me in one of these units, doing my thing.”

Intent on becoming a pilot, Couture’s first duty station was Germany, but within six months he had won a wrestling championship in Europe and caught the eye of the Army wrestling coach, who asked him to try out for the All-Army team. The rest, as all mixed martial arts fans know, is history.

“From that point on, I pretty much just wrestled and the whole flight thing went out the window,” he laughs.

But that’s all right, because aviation’s loss became MMA’s gain, and there were no complaints from the soldiers that attended Couture and Franklin’s on-base clinics that he was teaching them armbars and not flight techniques. In fact, the clinics may have been the most popular part of the trip for the soldiers.

“We had so many people that wanted to attend those clinics that they had to cap off both of them that we were scheduled to do on the last day because there was such a large number of people there that wanted to see us,” said Franklin.

The clinics weren’t just held for entertainment purposes though, as the combatives program is a key part of the Army’s training program.

“The reason I initially contacted the Ultimate Fighting Championship was that it seemed to be the perfect type of tour that would cater to the troops,” said Sgt. Murphy. “The US military utilizes combatives in training, so I thought it would be appropriate for the troops to visit with some of the UFC icons that they look up to.”

“They started in the services and especially in the Army, a combatives program a few years ago that I think was spawned out of the Gracies’ work with Delta Force and some of those agencies back in the earlier days of the UFC,” explained Couture. “That kind of rolled into this new service-wide combatives program. It’s a very fundamental program in groundfighting, and all of the soldiers are required to take it. There are four levels in their combatives program, and some of the guys go further and actually want to compete. So most of the people we talked to were fairly well educated in what was going on technically. And the few guys we rolled with seemed to have a sense of what they were doing – they knew the positions and knew what was going on as well. They asked a lot of great questions.”

Couture may have even discovered a future fighter in Spc. Sheila Pereira, who was one of the UFC crew’s escorts while in Iraq.

“She comes from a Judo family,” said Couture. “Her parents run a judo school and she’s a pretty high ranking judo player. She’s very interested in getting involved in mixed martial arts and competing at some level. She just had a great attitude and work ethic. She did a great job with Rachelle and she rolled with Rich a bit at one of the seminars.”

It’s obvious from talking to Couture, Franklin, and Leah that this wasn’t your typical trip. This was something a lot more important.

“Randy, Rich and Rachelle took time to visit as many troops as possible,” said Sgt. Murphy. “I saw their patriotism and support for the troops as they were very reluctant to leave a location without greeting all the soldiers.”

And though all three deserve kudos for putting actions before words and making the trek across the world, you won’t see any of them patting themselves on the back.

“The way I look at it is, there are men and women from this country that go to Iraq and serve nine and 12 month tours,” said Franklin. “The least I can do is give up a week or two of my time to go see them if that helps boost their morale. These people work very hard over there, and they see the news, they see CNN, and they see the protesting that’s going on and the anti-war stuff over here, and I think for some of those guys, it makes them feel that what they’re doing is not regarded in high value. So it’s nice to go there and say, ‘hey, I really appreciate what you guys are doing over here.’ Whether I politically agree with the war or not, I can still appreciate the fact that somebody’s willing to give up nine months or 12 months of their life to go over and do a tour in Iraq.”

That’s what’s missing sometimes in all the political rhetoric that gets bandied about regarding the war in Iraq. At the heart of everything, this is a human story, and the men and women who are serving the United States are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters – not politicians.

“These guys have the freewill to sign up for the military; they don’t have the freewill to decide where they’re going,” said Leah, whose first order of business when she got back to the States was to hug her parents, who e-mailed her religiously while she was in Iraq. “These guys are away from their wives, their kids, their husbands, their parents, some have been over there for a year and a half, and some have been working there for over three years. I am so grateful to them and I wish them all a quick and safe return home.”

The UFC team is back in the States after a trip that can only be described as a complete success. Yet even though this ten day trip is history, the reminders of it are present every day.

“One of my best friends’ husbands is being deployed to Iraq as we speak,” said Leah. “He’s leaving in about a week and he’s got four kids – three little babies and one teenage son. These soldiers are out there doing everything for us.”

So what can you do? You write letters, send care packages, and remember those who are serving this country. It may be a thankless job, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be the one who says ‘thank you.’ Just ask the man affectionately dubbed ‘Captain America’ by MMA fans.

“Regardless of your politics, you should be proud of the fact that we’ve got top-notch people over there in a bad situation representing our country, doing the right thing, and getting the job done in spectacular fashion,” said Couture. “And it’s not an easy job. But without a doubt, every person I met over there, it was a pleasure to meet them. They were great.”

[Hunter]

Randy couture is a legend for what he did inside the ring but more importantly what he does outside of it. He is a class act along with franklin

[rar1015]

Agreed 100%.