OLYMPIA – When the Seattle Seahawks took on the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, fans as far away as Iraq hoped to see their team triumph.
Members of a brigade from Fort Lewis working with members of a battalion attached to the North Carolina National Guard enjoyed some rousing debates about which team was superior.
Lt. Blake Saksa of the 555th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (Provisional) from Fort Lewis gathered some comments from Seahawks fans based in Iraq.
Spc. Justin Crowley, a gunner on the personal security detachment, told Saksa that he talks to soldiers from the North Carolina-based 505th Engineer Combat Battalion and they had a friendly rivalry running up to the game in Seattle.
“There’s a lot of joking around and giving each other a hard time,” Crowley told Saksa.
Sgt. 1st Class Craig Clayton, a career counselor, attended three home games this year, but didn’t get season tickets because of his deployment. Any game he didn’t attend in person he watched with friends.
He watched last week’s game against Washington with a few other diehards because the game was on in the middle of the night in Iraq. They watched it in a big tent on a 60-inch screen.
Spc. Julius Blanco, a driver with the personal security detachment said he fell in love with his wife after they went to a game last season, and she told him it was the most fun she’d ever had on a date.
He watched the game with Clayton last weekend, then called his wife. He planned to watch Sunday’s game in the middle of the night with the other fans.
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