I met Lou 17 days after 9/11, while preparing to deploy

to the Middle East to conduct air operations in Afghanistan.

I started an assignment at Shaw Air Force Base, HQ for all things Middle East (the Air Force version of U.S. Central Command), on August 11, 2001. It was a sleepy assignment, during which lots of golf was played...until the twin towers were taken down one month later. Our team immediately shifted to 24/7 operations and set about planning the air campaign for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Just 17 days later, it was time to travel across the pond.

This was obviously a huge deal for everybody involved. In fact, it was such a big deal, the Governor of South Carolina, Jim Hodges (the guy in the suit & tie in the image below), showed up at our deployment line (the line of stations you walk through to make sure you're ready & qualified to deploy). With him was a special guest: the University of South Carolina head football coach, Lou Holtz, decked out in a desert-shaded flight suit. The Air Force PR team decided to snap a photo shortly before it was my turn to meet the coach:

There were far more enlisted troops going through the line than officers, so, when Lou noticed the officer's rank on my uniform, he asked where I went to college. What a setup. :)

"Coach, I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1999."

His eyes lit up, he gave me a giant hug, and he said, "That's the most special place on earth. I'm so honored to have been head coach there. And that's where I'm going to be buried someday, right next to my wife."

Of course, comments like that aren't uncommon for Lou Holtz. In this case, however, he was delivering them as the sitting head coach of South Carolina's football program while standing next to the state's governor, who had earned two degrees from the University of South Carolina. The governor looked at me, and then at Lou, with a bit of a stink-eye. Lou didn't care at all; we talked a little bit more about my time at ND, and then he wished me well.

It's a moment that will live with me for the rest of my life.