February 19, 2009

Spikes Mag on Iraq

AT spoke to the magazine Spikes recently about his trip to Iraq, elaborating on many of things he spoke about here on his site last week.

One aspect of his trip they talked about: getting a glimpse of what life is like for soldiers stationed there.  

The US athlete, who won the first of his two Olympic titles at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was also given a stripped down example of life in the military. He slept in small military beds and experienced a rationed army diet. He recalls most nights sleeping on just one thin sheet in cold conditions – it was a revelation.

"I have a huge amount of respect for those guys," he explained. "They put up with tough living conditions and some of the bases don’t even have running water. It’s a tough job. You are going to have to be on your Ps and Qs at all times and mentally tough to deal with that. I definitely learned a lot about the army. The chain of command the daily tasks they go through. It is tough – a lot them had mixed emotions about being over there. Some of them didn’t want to be over there and others said this is what I’m born to do. But there was a real camaraderie among a lot of soldiers."

RELATED STORIES
Angelo Taylor visits troops in the Middle East (Spikes, Feb. 18, 2008)
http://www.spikesmag.com/features/angelotaylorvisitstroopsinthemiddleeas...
Interview: AT on His Trip to Iraq (AngeloTaylorUSA.com, Feb. 10, 2008)
http://angelotaylorusa.com/node/212