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Thursday, March 23, 2006
Watching their March Madness brackets — from Baghdad
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Compton/AJC
Spc. Alfred Watkins, 25 (left) and Cpl. Derrick Hood, 24, both are Duke fans.
Baghdad, Iraq — March Madness.
Even in Iraq, soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team have been finding some time to satisfy their sports cravings.
Most of the soldiers in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment are more into football than basketball, but a couple of Atlanta soldiers have cable hooked up to a TV in their room so they can catch the Sweet Sixteen games this weekend, including action in Atlanta.
“I go on patrol six hours a day and watch sports four hours a day,” said Cpl. Derrick Hood, 24, a driver for FedEx in Atlanta.
Hood is rooting for any team from the South — his two favorites are Duke and LSU. “UConn is a team that’s overrated,” he said.
Back home, Hood would be plastered to his couch or lying on his mom’s bed all weekend watching basketball.
Here at Camp Liberty, where the Gainesville-based infantry unit has been stationed since last June, Hood shares a trailer with Spc. Alfred Watkins, 25, an Atlanta police officer. The two have been patrolling the streets of western Baghdad in their Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
They are able to get the games on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in their room. The service replays games three or four times so soldiers can watch them in their downtime.
Other soldiers keep up with the scores on the Internet or watch games on giant television screens at the recreation facilities on base.
For 1st Lt. Jeff Moran, a fulltime Guard soldier from Ball Ground who grew up in Southbury, Conn., basketball is all about powerhouse UConn.
Maybe if Georgia Tech or Georgia were in the thick of things, more Charlie Company soldiers would get into it.
Or as one soldier pointed out, referring to the patrols into menacing Baghdad neighborhoods: “Yeah, we’re in March Madness all right. It’s out there.”
