Hudella & Hendricks Proud to . Founded by Hudella, the DTBL program raises funds to purchase hockey equipment and provide financial aid to children of military parents so they can play the sport. Over the course of their week- long journey to visit troops, where they traveled with Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) and the United Service Organizations (USO), Hudella kept a journal to log notes from each day. Experience the eye- opening trip in Hudella’s words below: December 1. Hendy and I have a late night flight out to DC for the big trip. Back at the hotel at 1. USO pick up. USO arrives and takes us out to Andrews AFB (Air Force Base). We make a quick stop to refuel in Shannon, Ireland, and everyone pops into the pub to get a “real” Guinness. December 1. 2th, 2. Back on the plane headed for our first stop, Bahrain. Iona Prep hockey program raises $16k for . Defending the Blue Line; Hockey; Iona Prep; Iona Preparatory School; Military; Previous Next.We arrive in Bahrain and the security is kicked up a few notches. Dempsey “coins” everyone in the party, it’s a big honor and everyone is very impressed. We are about to have our first big rush, and our first big troop visit. Talk about a sudden stop when that hook catches the wire on the carrier deck! It’s mid- afternoon now and time to head back to Bahrain. We board the COD again, and they hook us up to the same catapult that throws the F1. Hornets off the bow. Our next stop is at the Marine base. We tour some secret stuff and then meet some more troops, get a K9 demo, and then it’s off to the BX (base exchange- store) for another meet and greet. December 1. 4th, 2. Early wake- up for our group this morning, we’ll be heading to Transit Center Manas in Kyrgyzstan. It’s about a 5 hour flight on AF2, lots of folks still trying to catch up on rest. We meet some warriors that are leaving shortly to go into AFG. They seem uplifted by the visit from our group. The CJCS likes to intro him as “the guy who looks like he could kick all your asses”. Much like the warriors in uniform, our group is really gelling, everyone gets along, everyone likes to give each other a hard time, and it’s like being in a locker room. It was a very intimate setting and everyone had a blast. RPI assistant hockey coach Nolan Graham is doing something very few people can even dream of. Graham is running 50 miles to raise money for Defending the Blue Line. Defending The Blue Line (DTBL) is ensuring that children of military members are afforded every opportunity to participate in the game of hockey. College women's hockey team recently partnered with the United Heroes League to donate hockey equipment for the Defending the Blue Line initiative, a program. Defending the Blue Line. Our mission at Defending The Blue Line. Potulny Camps Donates to Defending The Blue Line Gophers assistant. At the end of the show the CJCS (Who sings extremely well) went up to sing “White Xmas” with the troops. The other talent lined up next to the stage, Hendy in front, and then said “let’s go”. Hendy went briskly on stage behind the chairman, but the other talent (Detwiler, Stammen, Pickler, Schlesinger) stood fast behind the curtain! Defending the Blue Line shared SimpleReminders.com's post. This project was submitted to Joining Forces Community Challenge. Defending The Blue Line was founded in the spring of 2009 by 2. Defending the Blue Line Program at Camp Ripley - Lakeland News at Ten - August 2. Standard YouTube License. Camp Mack MTB Blue Line - Duration. With the expansion to all sports, Defending The Blue Line officially launched a new identity today. I can’t describe the look on Hendy’s face as he’s standing up there, alone behind the CJCS, with a major deer in the headlights look! The other talent was rolling on the floor in hysterics as I am trying to motion to Hendy to at least start singing! After the show we retired to a traditional local tent and enjoyed our first Russian beer with the group. Back to our tiny hooch to try and get some rest. December 1. 5th, 2. Another early wake- up. The grind is starting to wear on some of the folks. Everyone is excited and a little nervous to say the least. Today we are headed into Afghanistan. Big enough to haul a couple of tanks in easily. Since we’re going into the theatre of operations now it won’t be your typical landing. Steep and quick descent to the Bagram Airfield has many ears popping. Then we toured the local hospitals, both US and Korean. We also saw the JOC (Joint Operations Center). The talent did a huge show that night, tons of service members present for it. We arrived at Kandahar Air Field and cross loaded over to UH- 6. Black. Hawk Helo’s. Incredible beasts capable of doing incredible things on the battle field. We had lunch with a 1. Our Lt who was our security guide had a fellow Lt who just lost his legs to an IED. He asked to say hello for him if we saw him in Landstuhl. The soldiers told us stories of how their FOB had come under attack, how they had to fight throwing grenades in their own compound. Imagine that, hell on earth and right there smack dab in the middle is a rink (no ice of course). Pretty crazy coming into that one. Same deal with the sobering stories from our heroes far from home. We headed back to Kandahar before dark, which relieved a lot of folks in the party I think, FOB hopping after dark could have been even more dangerous for our group. The talent had their best show yet at Kandahar on this night. Another long night by the time we hit the beds. December 1. 7th, 2. Headed out of the fight today and off to Germany. The talent did their final show tonight in the Patch Barracks Gym. Maj Battaglia recognized every one of us for coming along and doing what we did. Then on a bus to Landstuhl Medical Center, where the troops are medevac’d too from Afghanistan. The talent visited some wounded heroes in the hospital, then did a signing at the USO center. That afternoon we boarded AF2 and headed home. Amazing trip, tough to put into words how incredible it was. Dempsey is a tremendous leader, his staff the best in the world, and the USO folks were impeccable.
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