February 10, 2009

Interview: AT on His Trip to Iraq

From January 15-25, 2009, Angelo and a number of Olympians journeyed to Kuwait and Iraq to meet American soldiers. It was one of the most unique experiences of Angelo's life, and he shares his experiences here on AngeloTaylorUSA.com in this exclusive interview.

Q: You got to Kuwait on the 15th of January, and you were there for 10 days?. How did you wind up getting to go on the trip?

AT: I was contacted by [a sports marketing company]. They asked me if I wanted to go and support the troops. I was like, sure no problem.

Q: Do you have any connection to the military at all? In terms of your own family.

AT: I do have some family in the military. None of them were in Iraq at the time.

Angelo with the rest of his tour group -- Olympians Shannon Miller, Laura Wilkenson, and Joey Cheek.

Q: How long did it take to get there?

AT: We had to fly into Kuwait first, but it was about 12, 13 hours. I don’t know because I slept most of the flight (laughs). As a matter of fact, I know I slept most of the flight on the way back because I missed both meals.

Q: Winning those Olympic races will take a lot out of you.

AT: You know we were visiting at least three bases a day. We’d leave probably, 8 a.m. Some days it would depend on the day, what it looked like. So we’d basically leave at 8 a.m. and get back at 9 p.m.

Q: What exactly does a tour like that consist of? If I were with you there who would I have talked to? What would I have seen?

AT: On the typical day we would get up, breakfast started at six everyday, so I’d be up by 6. Getting your run in on the base, eat your breakfast and get ready to leave. We were staying on a base called Victory, we would leave Victory and head to the helicopter pad. That would be like our taxi for the day.

Hanging with America's best in the desert.

Q: Had you been on a helicopter before?

AT: No, that was my first time. They were Blackhawk helicopters. We had Kevlar and a helmet. We would fly to a base and then once we get to a base, someone would meet us there. Kind of like a tour guide, whether it be a sergeant, somebody would meet us and give us a tour. We’d see what the base does and what their daily tasks are. We’d take a little walk through the base. See what they do at their station, what they do at their particular base. We’d see all the vehicles they use. They’d give us a tour of all the vehicles and weapons they use. Just basically telling us what their jobs are. We would also have lunch with the guys, sign autographs, take photos and Q & A sessions.

Q: So you’d never been on a Blackhawk before? Were you nervous at all?

AT: No, I wasn’t nervous. I fly all the time, it was exciting. You look at a Blackhawk helicopter and I’ve never been in a helicopter before, so I was kind of excited. You know a helicopter is just totally different from flying in a plane. It’s a vehicle that just goes straight up off the ground and just flies. It’s amazing, it’s amazing.

Q: So the other athletes that were with you, Shannon Miller, Laura Wilkenson and Joey Cheek did they go with you?

AT: We were all there together, touring together.

Q: When they got on the helicopter were they nervous at all?

AT: Shannon, she did the Afghanistan tour last year so she had flown already. Laura and Joey they were excited as well. We had to try to get some of the pilots to try and do tricks.

Q: What kind of tricks?

AT: They called one trick the rollercoaster, you’d be going up and down like a rollercoaster. Or you know just drop and go side to side, just making the helicopter ride a lot of fun.

Q: How old were a lot of these soldiers?

AT: From what I observed, it was like really young -- they had a lot of really young soldiers. Then they had older soldiers, it wasn’t like an in between. I’d say like 19 to 25. Then the commanders and officers were mid-thirties and up.

Soldiers Angelo met were a wide range of ages, and had just as widely ranging opinions on being in Iraq.

Q: When you sit down with these guys and talk to them what kind of stuff did they talk to you about?

AT: It was pretty much everything. They’re all special. People would come up to me and tell me ‘I used to run track’ and they’d tell me about their events. Or they’d know somebody that runs track. Some of them would tell me how they got in the Army or how they like it in the Army. Future plans, just basic conversation. I mean a lot of them were really excited to see us. They do a lot of tours all the time over there, but we went to a lot small bases. They hardly even get people, we were the first people they’d ever seen [visiting].

Q: When say small, how many people were on these smaller bases?

AT: Maybe, 80 to 90 soldiers. Then you’d have some bases that’d have about 5,000.

Q: What was the kind of feeling there among the soldiers, generally speaking?

AT: There were mixed feelings, but some guys I talked to were like this is what they wanted to do. They have another job but this is what they like to do. Others don’t really want to be there. Some people joined the Army to get an education or take care of their families. Some people just don’t want to be there, so there were mixed feelings. I heard both sides.

Q: Had a lot these guys seen you run in the Olympics?

AT: No, they haven’t. Most of them were on tour in Iraq and they didn’t really watch the Olympic Games. It was only on at odd times. They would watch Iraqi television. I had some people like ‘I haven’t watched the Olympics' in years. That was some of the older soldiers, the younger ones, they were out there in the field. The ones who did watch it was on Iraqi TV.

Q: So did you actually meet any Iraqis?

AT: I met a few Iraqi soldiers. Some of the bases that we went to, the smaller bases were called JSS. Joint Security Stations. They would join with the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police on some of these bases. Those were the only Iraqis that we would meet. The ones that were on the bases with the Americans. They joined up with the Iraqi army and police to secure some of the areas in the cities and towns. They do seem to have some terrorists that live in the city still setting off bombs. But they are homemade type bombs, not like the Army. No missiles and stuff, the Army gets to secure the city and make sure everything’s running smooth.

Of the soldiers he met, Angelo said, "They're all special."

Q: Did you have a chance to talk to any of those people at all or did you just get to meet them?

AT: They’d smile and want to take pictures with us. We didn’t get a chance to talk to any of them. I didn’t get a chance to talk to any Iraqi people. We managed to stay on the bases, there was no outside the bases. No sir.”

Q: Any particular interactions you had while you were there that stands out in your mind? Any particular people?

AT: Some guys are hitting me up on Facebook, just talking. Some of the young guys want to get back and try to train. They respect the sports, they play football. They want to give them another shot [when they get back].

Q: Tell me what you’re doing right now in terms of your training?

AT: Well, right now it’s mostly interval work, basic training and the weight room. This part of my season is getting prepared for running races.

Q: I know you’d been running the 400 straight up a lot prior to the Olympics. Are you going to start trying to run that in addition to the hurdles? What’s the gameplan for the upcoming season?

AT: I’m going to run them both, that’s what I’ll do I’ll run both events. What I do every year is the same thing. I run mostly 400s earlier on because of hurdles then I drop into the hurdles. Because I just want to get my feet down before I start hurdling. Then I’m just going to concentrate on the hurdles after that.

Q: Are you going to whoop LaShawn this year? Are you going to take him down in the 400?

AT: Oh yeah, he’s definitely got one coming. He’s got one coming, know what I’m saying? I’m not going to run that many 400s but LaShawn, it gets late in the season I’ll be ready to drop a fast 400. Later on maybe after the world championships, maybe before the world championships I’ll be ready to drop one on him (laughs).

Q: By the way, your race in the 400m hurdles in hte Olympics -- the final -- that was fantastic.

AT: I put it all together. I keep telling people that’s the only race I won all year.