Sports and Their Influence, Even in Iraq
Email from James Wilson, volunteer coach at UT-San Antonio, called back to active duty with the Marines

"I tell you what after seeing the people here I realize how good it is at home. Most aren’t educated at all and very few ever have a chance to leave their village and achieve anything. I was just at this real bad village in the Syrian border, between the terrorists, the local authority (extreme male Muslim rule), and border smugglers these people have nothing and are constantly being abused and threatened. We went up there in the middle of the night and set a trap for the foreign fighters coming through. Long story short we took out these dudes and arrested the local “authority” then hung around for a few days daring anyone to come challenge us. The best part, I told my boss I had a plan to really tick off the bad guys. I conducted a women only baseball (no softballs handy) clinic in the middle of the local farm field for all to see. The girls loved it and the men got really ticked off. It is kind of fun playing ball with a big gun and a platoon of Marines making sure everyone knew to stay away. When we left, I left the ball equipment and told the unit relieving us to ensure only the women got to play. It was so damn cool. Plus I told all the women if any of the men gave them crap at home or threatened them to come tell us and we will fix it. The new guys told me their boss wants to carve out a pseudo ball field for them. Americans will be there for awhile so at least for a while these girls will have some fun. I think you would have been proud. I gotta go, more people to see. Thanks for all the support=====james”