Belton, TX – Just one week into fall camp and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team may have already received the most inspiring pep talk it will receive this season. Colonel Larry Phelps, the commander of the 15th Sustainment Brigade, addressed the team Thursday night, fresh off the unit’s deployment to Iraq.
The Cru football team adopted the 15th Sustainment Brigade during the 2009 season and wore the unit’s patch on its helmets as a reminder of the unit’s deployment. UMHB also presented the unit with a framed jersey to display in its headquarters during the deployment.
“Your team was supporting, about 7,500 miles away, a group of 7200 soldiers spread all over the country,” Colonel Phelps said. “Food, fuel, transportation missions, that what we did. We drove more than six million miles over some of the most hazardous roads in Iraq, and we did it all knowing that every Saturday you hit the field, there was a reminder on your uniform that there was a unit from Fort Hood that was in harm’s way and that meant a lot to all of us.”
Colonel Phelps presented Cru head coach Pete Fredenburg with the framed UMHB jersey that hung in the unit’s headquarters in Iraq following his speech. He also gave the team a framed, limited-edition “Wagon Masters” print, symbolic of the unit’s involvement with the football program.
“How many of you are twenty years old?” Phelps asked the team. “Because 18, 19, 20 years old, those are your brothers and sisters fighting over there because that’s the average age of my soldiers. They’ve just left home for the first time and they are sweating in 120 degree temperatures. You’ve got a tough season ahead of you. We hope that this jersey and print can help inspire you the way your support helped inspire us during that time in Iraq.”
Colonel Phelps has served four tours and the recently completed deployment was his 12th.
This is the second time the UMHB football team has been involved with a unit from Fort Hood. The Cru also supported the Fourth Infantry Division two years ago. Major General Jeffrey Hammonds also presented the team with the framed jersey that hung in the Fourth I.D.’s headquarters when he visited the team following that deployment.