New York Giants Official Website

   Not just another trip
   By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - Tom Coughlin has taken many great vacations with his wife, Judy, and their family in recent years. They've been to Ireland, Italy, Hawaii, Vancouver and the wine country of Napa Valley. Coughlin and Co. stayed in deluxe accommodations, savored fabulous weather and enjoyed great tours, meals, sightseeing and bonding.

Last summer, Coughlin went on a different kind of journey, to a place few Americans would visit voluntarily. His outbound flight was delayed. He shared one hotel room - and one bathroom - with four other men. Coughlin signed thousands of autographs and lost count of how many hands he shook. He endured temperatures of 125 degrees and had one leg of the trip canceled...due to a sandstorm. Even he was finally ready to return home, Coughlin had to change his travel plays and fly an alternative airline to a different airport than originally planned.

Clearly, this was no ordinary journey. And that was perfect for Coughlin, who called it "the trip of a lifetime." He and four other current and former NFL head coaches visited Iraq on the inaugural NFL-USO Coaches Tour. Joining him were former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher; Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher; former Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden; and Ravens coach John Harbaugh. The coaches were in Iraq for four days, including July 4.

Coughlin is a fierce admirer of the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces. On Wednesday, he welcomed soldiers from the Wounded Warrior Project to practice and opened his news conference by reflecting on the importance of Veteran's Day, both to him and the entire country.

"Let's start off by saying Happy Veterans Day to all of the veterans and our soldiers and our troops," Coughlin said. "How proud of them we are, how thankful we are for them. We have a group of Wounded Warriors here today. They are very special to us. I just talked to a bunch of guys that were in Afghanistan and Iraq. They give of themselves so that we can sleep under the blanket of freedom. And we should never forget that in this country. This should be remembered as a very special day - Veterans Day."

Coughlin was originally invited to Iraq by Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commanding general of the multi-national force in Iraq. Odierno is a Rockaway, N.J. native and fervent Giants fan who has made several visits to Giants Stadium and the team's training camp in Albany. The coaches spent time with Gen. Odierno and Vice President Joe Biden and greeted thousands of the men and women serving our country in Iraq.

"It was some trip - unbelievable," Coughlin said. "We all expected the trip to be great, but it was even better than that. That's exactly what I heard Gruden, John Harbaugh and Fisher say. Everybody was so impressed with the general and they enjoyed the time we spent with him.

"The soldiers were so gracious and they were so anxious to see us. They are truly genuine in their expression of joy that we were there for them, that we would take the time to go and see them. And that was very, very meaningful for us. They have treated us extremely well and shown genuine excitement that we were there. We expressed to them our thoughts on why we truly believe in what they're doing and are thankful for why we're here."

Coughlin and Co. came together on June 30 at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. They took a 13-hour flight to Kuwait.

"It's a long trip," Coughlin said. "We were three hours delayed coming out of Dulles and we flew all night. We lost July 1 - we don't have a clue as to what happened to July 1. You fly up over the top. It seemed like in a very few minutes we were at Albany and we flew over Greenland. It's a long flight, but we flew United and the first-class accommodations were fabulous, as good as you're going to get. We were supposed to land at 5:15 and we landed a little after seven."

After spending a few hours in Kuwait, the group boarded a prop plane for Baghdad. That's when the journey started to get very interesting.

"When you're 15 minutes outside of Baghdad you have to shut all the lights off on the plane," Coughlin said. "The first part of the adventure was going in there; you land in sandstorms and darkness. The airport in Kuwait is a bustling place and then when you get over to Iraq it's a little bit different."

The coaches and the rest of the traveling party were met at the airport by Gen. Odierno's Chief of Staff, perhaps a dozen soldiers and, as Coughlin said, "all kinds of people." They were driven to the JVB Hotel, which is actually one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces that he had built on a man-made lake. Immediately after checking in at about 1 a.m., the coaches were briefed about the following day's activities. "None of us could sleep - we were all wired," Coughlin said. "We were all up at five - all five of us are in one room."

The coaches didn't know that would be the arrangement going in. Each expected to have his own room or suite, just as they do when they travel with their teams. But Biden decided to visit the troops and meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki during the same time period. Not surprisingly, the vice president travels with a large entourage, including a Secret Service detail. That forced the coaches to relinquish their single rooms and share an unusual living arrangement.

"There were three sets of bunk beds and a big double bed," Coughlin said. "We all stayed in one room, and because of that there was tremendous camaraderie. We laughed, we told stories, and we just had a really good time being with each other. We didn't sleep at all. The first night we went to bed at two and woke up at five. I never slept longer than probably four or 4½ hours. I would be the first one up. One morning, Jeff Fisher got up at 4:30 and went to run. After that, I was the first one up, and I would shower and shave. We had one toilet, one shower, two sinks, but it was never a problem for us. The fact that we were all in there together, snoring and keeping each other awake and then telling stories about it the next day was a big factor."

Coughlin had the advantage over the other coaches, who gave him the double bed, ostensibly because he knew Gen. Odierno.

"They kidded us because Jeff and I were the two snorers," Coughlin said. "They said, 'We have to get to sleep before Coughlin and Fischer go to bed.' One night I woke up and John Harbaugh was not in his bed, so I went to look in the bathroom and I didn't see him. I heard some people talking out in the desk. I thought I'd wait a minute and see. John came back in as I was headed out to find him. He said, 'I can't sleep, I'm wide awake, I'm wired.' We had a lot of fun with that. Gruden the next morning said, 'Here's Coughlin and Harbaugh having a conversation at three o'clock in the morning - don't let us bother you guys.' There was a lot of busting and a lot of really good fun stuff. There was one bed and they gave it to me, everybody else was in bunks. They busted my chops the whole time for having the bed. I slept on one side of the bed. Gruden did an imitation of me laying down on my side of the bed, and Cowher said I was asleep in 2½ minutes, mouth open, snoring away. It was a lot of fun that way."

After breakfast the first morning, the coaches were transported to Gen. Odierno's headquarters at Al Faw, which is another former Hussein palace. The general briefed the coaches on the recent developments in Iraq and at 8:15 a.m. (1:15 p.m. eastern time), the group took a helicopter to the airport, where they boarded three C-35 jets and flew to Mosul, the site of an American military base in northern Iraq.

"It is a hot spot," Coughlin said, and he wasn't referring to the temperature. "If there is any terrorist activity, it has occurred more often up there. When you get up there, you knew you were in a war zone. The soldiers were all armed, they were all on combat alert. There are concrete abutments on the outside of the buildings and sandbags on the inside of the windows. It's hotter than hot. It's in the 125-degree area. And that was prior to the sandstorms."

On the base, Coughlin met a former West Point teammate of Mike Sullivan, the Giants' wide receivers coach. Odierno and the coaches were then driven to the center of the base. The coaches each sat at a table and perhaps a thousand soldiers came through to get autographs signed, take photos or just chat with the visitors.

"This went on for quite a while, but we made sure we accommodated everybody," Coughlin said.

From Mosul, the coaches were flown to an airbase near Kirkuk, does not exactly rival Maui as a destination for rest and relaxation.

"It is another extremely fortified war zone," Coughlin said. "We were met at the airport by all the brass, because General Odierno is with us. At this particular spot we went to a huge mess hall. Every place we went we were introduced and we got a nice response, nice applause. In this place all five of us sat down at a table and they tried to organize it with each person coming through with pictures of us to sign. We signed them and then we stood or sat and took pictures with all the soldiers. That was again a lengthy time, but the soldiers were all very appreciative. The guys are great with the soldiers. They've really responded well.

"We had been introduced at Mosul by the commander of the troops and sent right to our tables. At Kirkuk, we were introduced by a guy who would introduce you at a boxing match. It was one of the soldiers (who said), 'Heeeeere's Jeff Fisher.' I spoke at this place. Then we ate with the troops in the mess hall and we sat down and talked to them."

Aside from the thrill of meeting the troops, one of Coughlin's most vivid memories of Iraq is the searing heat.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "We were in a chopper that had its windows open. We got in the helicopter where the hot air poured in on you and it felt like it was 140 degrees."

In Kirkuk, Coughlin and Odierno did a live interview on FOX and Friends. Coughlin was asked about the similarity in leadership principles between football and the military.

"What the General always talks to me about is team," Coughlin said. "I remember back in '07, as we got ready to go to training camp. I received a letter on the eve of training camp from General Odierno. His message was about team. He was very flattering in his comments about the soldiers in Iraq, the young women and men who represent our country. He talked about their beliefs; their beliefs in their leaders, but most of all their beliefs in each other. He talked about team and the way you have to save each other in order to understand what the team concept is all about. His message has always been one of team and the message the New York Giants preach is always that of team."

After the visit in Kirkuk, Coughlin and the other coaches returned to Baghdad, where they attended a reception on a third-floor balcony at Al Faw.

"The balcony was huge," Coughlin said. "There must have been 500 soldiers on that porch. Bill Cowher spoke for us. We broke off again and did 2½ hours of autograph signings for the soldiers and again the reception was outstanding. Then we returned to where we were staying and had another meeting in to plan for the next day."

But Coughlin and the other coaches learned that spending time in a war zone requires flexibility and improvisation. The best-laid plans are frequently discarded and reworked due to forces beyond anybody's control - such as the weather.

The group had planned to travel to Tikrit, which was Hussein's hometown, on the second day and Al-Asad on Day Three. But two days of sandstorms kept them tethered to Camp Victory, where thousands of U.S. troops were stationed. The coaches had hoped to visit bases throughout the country, particularly in the remote areas where few outsiders stop to see the soldiers. Instead, they spent hours with the military personnel at their base.

"The sand storms prevented us from going where we wanted to go," Coughlin said. "There are between 50,000 and 75,000 soldiers stationed right there in Camp Victory or in the surrounding area. So we just drove to them, but we were within the compound. That is what we did. We never missed a beat about seeing soldiers.

"We had probably six opportunities per day to be with the soldiers. There were between 300 and 500 soldiers at each occasion, so we probably signed over 30,000 autographs, because a lot of people had one or two things to sign."

It was a rare occasion when one of the troops approached the coaches without talking football.

"We spent a lot of time with them," Coughlin said. "We ask them where they're from and they tell us about their favorite NFL team. There are lots of guys from New York. And there are a lot of Steelers fans. The number one fan group was the Steelers group. Remember, they had just won the Super Bowl. Bill Cowher must have had hundreds of people in front of his table, almost every time. It never seemed to go down. We have a pretty good representation. The Giants are pretty popular. You'll meet people from New England who tell you they don't like you or tell you they're not from New England and thanks for beating the Patriots.

"They would come up and say, "I am a Giants fan, I am an Eagles fan, I am a Cowboys fan.' I'd look at them and say, 'Look, most people wait until after I am done signing a card or the picture before they say they are a Cowboy fan - you guys are way too honest.' I'd say to the Eagles fan, 'Well, everybody has to be a fan of something.' Everybody wanted to talk football.

"Everybody was very, very gracious. Harbaugh took a lot of time to talk to people. Fisher did the same thing. Bill Cowher, even though the lines were long, took his time to sign pictures, towels, took pictures with them. These guys did a fabulous job. The general was really moved by it. You have so much criticism of people in this business. If you could have seen the way these coaches were with these soldiers; the tremendous admiration and respect that poured forth. Even when we were tired and dragging - as I said, nobody slept over there - whenever we were going to meet with the soldiers everybody had their game plan ready, everybody was nothing but smiles, accommodation and sincerity. They were trying to find something personal out about the soldiers."

They succeeded, because the stories were eager to share their poignant stories.

"One female soldier at Diyala told us that she had two sons, one eight and the other three," Coughlin said. "Her husband was also in Iraq, and at a forward position, very dangerous, but that in a couple of months she would return to the U.S. to be with her boys, who were with her mother. She would not have seen the boys in 15 months."

Coughlin arrived in Iraq armed with several speeches, and he relished his several opportunities to speak to the troops.

"When I spoke, I expressed that the NFL and the military has often inspired one another," Coughlin said. "We want to thank them, because they put their lives in danger every day, so that we can have the freedoms at home that, quite frankly, a majority of the people take for granted. We were there to tell them that we're very, very proud to be there with our soldiers."

The coaches weren't the only ones to have their travel plans altered by sandstorms. Biden couldn't even take a helicopter from one end of Baghdad to the other, so bad were the storms. Coughlin and the other members in the NFL party enjoyed a long visit with the vice president.

Both Coughlin and Biden attended Syracuse University, the former as an undergraduate and football player, the latter in law school.

"He is a big NFL fan," Coughlin said. "He enjoyed visiting with us. He is a great conversationalist. He tells great stories. He is a really good, down to earth kind of a guy."

On the morning of July 4, the coaches attended a battle assessment update in Gen. Odierno's palace office complex. The coaches were not permitted to release details of the meeting.

"It was really interesting for me to be in a staff meeting with the general and all his command people," Coughlin said. "You had to be impressed by the organizational ability of these people. Everyone was at a desk, everyone had a microphone in front of them. Everyone had a different part of the meeting which they were going to comment on. The general would ask questions. They have an order in which they go and every person would say, 'Good morning general, this is your such and such report,' that type of thing. The thoroughness of it was tremendous. They were, as always, very disciplined, very respectful. They even had a memorial that was conducted right there during the course of that meeting. It was confidential, but they do a lot of things with updating the war, the movement, any battles, incidents that occurred the day before, any fallen soldiers, what the calendar is going to be like going forward, when the Muslim holidays are, the weather report, the whole thing. I was very impressed."

After the 50-minute meeting, they went with General Chuck Jacoby, to the Joint Operation Center, which was also in the palace, and is the center from which the war is conducted. The coaches viewed a mock battle sequence and met the citizens and soldiers who work in the center. They went to Gen. Jacoby's office, where they signed autographs and took pictures with his immediate staff.

For Coughlin, it was particularly emotional to be in Iraq on July 4. He grew up in Waterloo, N.Y., the birthplace of Memorial Day, and national holidays carry special significance for him.

Those feelings were bolstered when he and the coaches at a naturalization ceremony in the place at which 257 soldiers became U.S. citizens. Fifty-nine countries were represented at the ceremony. Vice President Biden and Gen. Odierno both spoke to the new citizens, who each received an American flag.

"When you think about it, these people committed to fight for our military, our country, and they weren't even citizens," Coughlin said. "I think that says a great deal.

"What a tremendous feeling it was from an emotional standpoint to be in Iraq with those soldiers on the fourth of July. To celebrate the Fourth of July, to reflect on my hometown, the birthplace of Memorial Day, to reflect on 9/11, to reflect on why we were in Iraq in the first place, all those things were very obvious and very meaningful to me. On that particular day, we celebrated 233 years of independence. I said happy Fourth of July to every one of the soldiers and every one of them said it right back to me."

The sandstorms again wreaked havoc with the coaches' journey home. Their departure from Baghdad was delayed and they missed their flight from Kuwait to Dulles. But it worked out for the best - at least for Coughlin - because he flew Kuwait Air the next day directly to JFK in New York.

Coughlin will have many more great vacations with his family. But he might never take another trip that stirred his emotions like his four days in Iraq.

"I was so impressed and so inspired by the attitude of the soldiers," Coughlin said. "When we visited the Walter Reed Medical Center following the Super Bowl and talked to those wounded troops, their attitude was to try and get back to serve their country, to rejoin their group. The young men and women who are serving our country in Iraq believe in what they are doing. We are always impressed by that. I know that the troops here think that we inspire them. But believe me, they inspire us as well."