Airmen win hearts and minds with soccer balls, school supplies

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Lauren Johnson
  • 1st SOW Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  It was just an after school neighborhood soccer game, but it could have been the World Cup.

Upwards of 2,000 children surrounded a dusty field in Bamako, Mali recently to watch their classmates take on the 8th Special Operations Squadron in a United States vs. Africa showdown.

The game was part of a humanitarian mission conducted during FLINTLOCK-09, a joint/combined training exercise conducted regularly in the Trans-Saharan region aimed at building capacity and fostering interoperability.

For one Airman, the game began long before he hit the field.

Capt. Rob Marshall, an 8th SOS pilot, was first in Mali in 2005 for exercise FLINTLOCK-05.

"I'd run through villages and I noticed there was a school near the base," Captain Marshall said. He started bringing the school children desserts and candy, but the school master eventually confronted him, saying the gesture was nice, but not what the children needed.

"I figured if I ever came [to Mali] again, I'd go back to the school with what they really needed," he said.

So Captain Marshall was thrilled when he discovered he'd be returning to the same location for this year's exercise, as part of the Joint Special Operations Air Detachment.

"I filled up half my personal bag with stuff I thought would be fun for the Africans," he said.

And he began filling his head with ideas on how to reach out to the children on a more personal level, eventually settling on the soccer game.

"Soccer is so big over here," he said. "I knew it would be a great way to make that cultural bridge."

Meanwhile, the JSOAD was brainstorming for a humanitarian mission. When Captain Marshall was approached for ideas, he pounced on the opportunity to add fuel to his project.

He met with the school's headmaster, this time asking, through an interpreter, what the children needed. And he casually mentioned the soccer game.

"I said, 'by the way, I'd really like to get a soccer game together, Americans vs. Malians.'"

The headmaster was so excited about the idea that he took Captain Marshall to meet his students - all 2,500 of them - and announced the plan for the soccer game the following week.

"That's when I realized I may have bit off more than we could chew," Captain Marshall said.

But the JSOAD kept chewing.

Airmen from the 352nd Special Operations Group out of RAF Mildenhall, England, who were also supporting the exercise, rallied together and organized a money collection and school supply drive out of their home base, to be delivered via one of the exercise C-130 airlifts.

1st Lt. Jon Saas, 1st Special Operations Support Squadron, also organized a JSOAD money collection.

"There was a connection between everyone there and the local Malians," Lieutenant Saas said. "We all really wanted to give something back."

By the end of the exercise, the JSOAD had given back $3,500 worth of school supplies - enough to give every student access to books, math supplies, pens and notebooks.

An initial donation of school supplies and sporting equipment was delivered to the school the day of the soccer game.

The donations were loaded into a car and driven along a rocky dirt path that was etched with craters from donkey-drawn carts. As soon as the car pulled through the gate into the schools' courtyard, it and the accompanying Airmen were enveloped with children.

"The kids were going nuts!" said Tech. Sergeant John Jones, Jr., 352nd SOG. "They were all around the car, in every window." 

The Airmen unloaded the supplies to a rousing applause, and began the procession to the soccer game.

American, sunglassed heads bobbed above a seemingly endless river of Malian children flowing steadily toward the field.

"It was intimidating," said Capt. Paul Alexander, 8th SOS pilot. "There were a lot more people than everyone thought there would be."

Everyone, except maybe Captain Marshall.

"I was in no rush to play the game because everyone was out meeting people, shaking hands," Captain Marshall said. But "pretty soon [the children had] formed a human wall that made the boundaries of the field."

"As crazy as it was, they knew when it was time to play," Captain Alexander said. "That's when it got real serious for us, because we knew what was coming."

No one on the team was afraid to admit they were outmatched.

"Within the first three minutes of running back and forth, there was no more water left in our bodies," Captain Marshall said. "And the African team members were running like antelope!"

"The field itself was intimidating," Captain Alexander said. "They definitely had a home field advantage. I was totally amazed how they had adjusted to the conditions."

The conditions were less than ideal by American standards - rocks, metal, ruts, a dry creek bed across the middle of the field; a veritable battleground of debris. A dusty haze quickly settled over the players.

And the Americans had another handicap as well.

"We made fun of each other with the other team, encouraging them to make fun of us too," Captain Alexander said. "But it's hard to run and laugh at the same time!"

The entire crowd was drawn in and cheering. A group by the American's goalposts, under the tutelage of 8th SOS goalie, Maj. Mike Holder, even briefly started the wave.

The play was dominated by the Malian offense and finally one, then two kicks sliced through the American goalposts, and the Africans won the short game 2-0.

"I originally thought we were going to get annihilated," Captain Marshall said. "I thought we held our own."

The 8th SOS had another chance in a second game, where teams were split in half and combined. The dust was no less thick, but the play was more balanced. Captain Marshall's team took an early lead and held on to win the game 1-0.

He said he was impressed by how their team worked together, despite the language barrier.

"It just proves you don't need a common language to come together as a team," he said.

As the sun set and the dust settled, the players made their way back to their respective areas - the Americans to the Joint Operations Center, and the Malians to their mud brick housing complex outside the airbase.

"I walked away wishing we could do that every week," Captain Alexander said. "It was a good way to have a cultural exchange and step away from the airplanes for a while."

"I think it showed everyone the input you can have through simple gestures, and the strength of good human nature," Captain Marshall added. "None of the Americans and none of the Malians will forget this any time soon."