Giant's First Preseason Game

Last night I had a chance to watch the NY Giants play live before I have to report back to school. After watching the game, I can say that I know the Giants are ready to have another successful year and hopefully make it a little further then they did in the previous years playoffs. The combo of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw in the backfield will once again be a great one two punch for the offensive side and as always the Giant's defense looks fierce led behind the indestructible defensive line. Eli Manning will have another great season and show the country why he deserves his 97 million dollar contract.

One thing I would like to comment about the game, was some of the disgusting things I saw and heard. First of all, there was a Dallas Cowboys fan sitting right in front of us. Not only was he a cowboys fan, but he had the balls to get up and talk about it. Of course, the entire crowd gave him a ripping with chants such as Dallas S*CKS. However the things I heard after that, were a little disturbing even for someone who hates Dallas more then anything. People were calling Tony Romo (The Dallas QB) very degrading things. They remarked about his sexuality and other things that I thought was not appropriate to say in public. I mean common, there are 8 year olds sitting all around us.

Being a 21 year old young man, I found some of these chants very funny at the time, but thinking back on it, I think it was wrong and should be addressed by the NFL. Giants fans have always been harsh, but seems like this year we have a little more grit to us.

In no shape or form am I knocking the Giants fans, but I think are chanting and ranting has to be shared in a more respected manner.

Through the entire experience with my brother joining the army and going to watch his graduation, I can truly say that my relationship with my brother has grown tremendously. Before my brother joined the army, I felt as if I was very distant from him. Now I keep in touch with him weekly through hand written letters and text messages. On sundays I have the opportunity to speak to him on the phone and that is very neat.

This thursday my brother is coming home for a week before he gets stationed over seas. It is the perfect time for him to come home because on Monday I will be going back to Loyola. When all is said and done, I could not be more proud of my brother. This experience has not only brought my brother and me closer but my entire family closer. I wish him all the luck when he goes to Afghanistan and he will always be in my thoughts and prayers. This year at school I am going to try to set up a fundraiser of some sort to raise money for the army. I think this will be a very beneficial experience for all of us to take part in.

While my family was at Fort Benning Georgia, we had a good amount of free time while my brother was finishing up the last bits of basic training. We toured the base and I was able to see first hand, some of the training that these men and women go through. One of the days we were there, we were driving around and stopped at the physical training station or the "pt". A new class of recruits were literally working harder then anything I had ever seen. In there training they go about a circuit. The circuit has different stations and to me each one got tougher. From what I could see, the first station was just push ups. However not just any push ups. These men would do 100 regular push ups and rest for 20 seconds, then do 75 diamond push ups and rest for 20 seconds, then do 50 clap push ups and then sprint to the next station. The next station was pull ups. It looked like they would do around 12 pull ups rest for 20 seconds, then do another 10 pull ups and rest for 20 seconds, then do 8 pull ups. After that they would sprint to another station where they would do an army crawl underneath a very low net. After this station they would sprint to the last station where they would do push ups, then pull ups, sprint a hundred or so yards and then do one last army crawl. After this they had a 5 minute break and then they were off to do it again and again until every man completed it perfectly. Keep in mind while they were doing this, they had a drill sergeant breathing down their neck and critiquing everything they did.

This made me gain so much respect for my brother. It was tough to come to the realization that my brother a few months ago was one of these young men getting screamed at. In order to get through this process you need to be in top physical condition. When my brother first entered the army he was far from that. With this being said, I have a new found respect for my older brother for being able to complete the three months of hell called Basic Training.

The trip to Fort Benning Georgia was a trip that I will never forget. Watching my brother graduate from basic training was a very special experience for my entire family. Now that his experience with basic training is over my brother is off to flight school where he will be trained to jump out of planes and parachute into battle zones. He will learn how to use an M-16 machine gun with a grenade launcher attached to it. Honestly, it is mind boggling to me how a kid in his twenties is taught to use a killing machine. However, these are the consequences of joining the military. You need to learn how to shoot and be shot at. It is not the easiest of life styles but to my brother it is extremely honorable one.

The best part of my trip to Fort Benning was one story my brother told me when he had the chance to stay overnight with us at our hotel. Of course I was asking him tons of questions but when I asked him what the most satisfying part of the training, this is when he told me a crazy story. At the end of the three month training, my brothers platoon was sent into the woods for a week of camping with three drill sergeants. They had to train and sleep in the rain, the wind, and the excessive heat for 5 days. On the 4th night, the drill sergeants who had been beating these men up for months, called everyone together and said, "Now it is your turn." For the first time my brothers group had a chance to fight back against these harassing drill sergeants. One by one they had the opportunity to fight their drill sergeant. To us this may seem unheard of, but to my brother and his fellow soldiers, this was a dream come true. Although he did not get into the details of what happened that night, I can only imagine what they attempted to do to the men who had been literally torturing them for three months.

June 19, 2009 ---- The second day of my trip was the official graduation date of my brothers Basic Training. My family and I got up in the morning and got some breakfast at an I-hop that was in the army base. It was pretty interesting pulling into the parking lot at this I-hop, for every car had a Department of Defense sticker on their windshield and everyone in the I-hop was in uniform basically. This was pretty cool for the first time in my life I felt as if my brother was as heroic and brave as the army men and women you see every day. After breakfast we went to the stadium where the graduation was. Let me tell you, this was amazing.

As we sat down in the bleachers, we made a point to get up close in order to get some great pictures of the soldiers. Little did we know, we ended up sitting right next to a two star army general and a full bird colonel. These two men had both been shot at and have shot at others in battle. They have killed and they have seen close friends been killed. This was pretty unreal. Then over the loud speaker, the announcer welcomed us and asked anyone who has served in the service to stand up. I would say 35% of the crowd stood up. They received a very loud round of applause.

Then out of no where, patriotic music came over the loud speakers, then very loud explosions were heard. Across the field there was smoke and out of the smoke came infantry warriors in an assault formation which is in the shape of an arrow or >. They came right up to the bleachers and we were able to see what gun each man was holding. The m-16 machine gun was the most common, however their were grenade launchers, and flame throwers. It was very evident that these soldiers were trained to kill and trained to protect America.

After this, their were more explosions and then you heard the infantry warrior theme song being chanted by soldiers. With this came the soldiers graduating, including my older brother. They lined up and were acknowledged as a whole and never as an individual. These soldiers started as one but finished the three month period as a new family and this was made very evident in the graduation.

My Trip To Fort Benning Georgia

June 18, 2009 -- In the beginning of the summer I had the opportunity to travel to Fort Benning Georgia to attend my brother's graduation of Basic Training in the United States Military. My older brother is 28 years old and was one of the oldest soldiers in his graduating class. The average age of a soldier graduating was 21 years old. It was very odd to me that there were so many kids of my age and younger standing in front of me who have already made the decision to risk their lives in order to protect the freedoms that past soldiers and heroes have instilled in our nation.

When we first arrived my family was debriefed with what Michael had been facing through the past three months. The first phase of basic training is called the red phase. This phase is the most intense and painful experience that anyone will encounter in their life. Day in and day out they are forced to do push ups, sit ups, pull ups, miles upon miles of running, and much more with at maximum 3 hours of sleep. They told us that they like to relate this phase to an experience such as a serious car accident. They want this to change the persons life, knock them down, and then they hope to build them up into a stronger and more efficient soldier.

We then went to the ceremony called turning blue. This is where you attach a blue cord on the upper left shoulder of your soldier. This was a very important day for my brother because for the first time he changed from a little weak civilian to a US Infantry Warrior.

After this ceremony, we finally had a chance to be alone with Mike. What worried me the most, was the amount of soldiers that had no family there to hang out with. They were sent back to the barracks to eat more bad army food. However Mike came with us and we had the opportunity to spend 5 hours with him for the first time in 3 months. We went to the Olive Garden for lunch. It was probably the first meal that Mike had eaten in awhile that he enjoyed. He shared with us that in the training he only had 4 minutes to eat his entire meal and all they could use was a spoon to eat. After this we went to the hotel where Mike had a chance to relax and take a swim in the pool with all of us. He was so pumped to have some freedom and I could not blame him. It was great to be with my older brother again.

Day one of this trip was very exciting. It Was a great experience and it was one that I thought I would never see in my lifetime.