Ex-gridiron rivals now play for same team

[thedrifter]

Ex-gridiron rivals now play for same team


Earle Yerger, right, and Col. Ron Bailey talk in Yerger's stateroom aboard the Bataan. The two played high school football in northern Florida on different teams. Photo by Dennis O'Brien / The Virginian-Pilot.


The Virginian-Pilot
? June 18, 2003

ABOARD THE BATAAN -- When you've sailed halfway around it to fight a war, the world doesn't seem like such a small place.

Unless you bump into a high school football foe aboard the ship taking you there.

Thirty years ago, Ron Bailey and Earle Yerger were on opposing sides of a heated north Florida high school rivalry. Now they're on the same team -- and the same ship.

Col. Ron Bailey leads the 2nd Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. His troops fought perhaps the war's toughest fight, in Nasiriyah. Capt. Earle Yerger commands the Norfolk-based Bataan, which carried Bailey and his Marines to the war in Iraq.

Sitting in Yerger's stateroom aboard the amphibious assault ship they both call home, the men revel in recalling old times -- from 30 years ago, and two months ago. They confess that their war stories are easier to recollect than their gridiron tales.

Yerger, 49, was a lineman for The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla. Bailey, 47, was a safety and receiver for St. Augustine High, about 35 miles down the road.

Their schools frequently battled for conference and state supremacy, often with undefeated records on the line. And although it would make for a good story, both men admit that they don't remember each other from on-the-field meetings.

But they do recall the hotter-than-Hades workouts in August, when the north Florida sun and brutal humidity added a few pounds to the pads. And when asked if there is a lesson to be learned from football, they answer in unison: ``Don't quit!''

Yerger and Bailey spent the past ``season'' drawing up plays not on chalkboards but on PowerPoint, executing them not on the football field but the battlefield.

The two men connected right from the start. When they first met aboard the Bataan, Yerger heard Bailey recite something familiar to his troops: If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting, too. . . Yerger recognized the verse right away: Rudyard Kipling's ``If.'' The captain has it framed, in his stateroom.

``That's why we hit it off so well when we met,'' Yerger said. ``We have the same governing philosophies in our lives.''

And Bailey knew he was going to like Yerger the first time he saw the captain's stateroom: there's a poster of the flag raising on Iwo Jima near the framed Kipling poem.

``There's been great chemistry and harmony that has lasted the whole time,'' Bailey said.

Their upbeat personalities -- often laughing and joking together -- has created an easygoing atmosphere that permeates throughout the 1,800 Marines and 1,100 sailors aboard the Bataan, from the wardroom to the mess decks.

``This has been a great team from the start,'' Yerger said.

After unloading its ground troops, the Bataan was transformed into a dedicated aircraft carrier, housing two squadrons of Harriers that flew sorties 10 hours a day and dropped 122 tons of weapons on Iraqi positions.

``It felt real good knowing we could provide some air cover for those guys in the field,'' Yerger said.

``Those guys'' were Bailey's Marines -- 22 of whom died in the war. The Marines credit the Harriers with keeping them from losing more lives.

For instance, after subduing Nasiriyah, Bailey's men were ordered to destroy the Iraqi 10th Armored Division based at Al Amarah in early April. Intelligence was spotty about the number of tanks around the city.

``Going in there, we had no idea what we would face, what would be left of the division of tanks,'' Bailey said. ``And, I mean, even a company of tanks can do a whole lot of damage, let alone 100 or more.''

As Bailey's regiment advanced east, the Bataan steamed in the Persian Gulf, getting the right winds over the deck from noon until 10 p.m. to launch Harriers bound for bombing runs over Bailey's adversary.

Each night, the captain would be briefed on the Marine Corps pilots' bombing runs. He would listen as operations and intelligence officers read the latest troop-strength estimates for the 10th Armored Division: The 10th is at 80 percent strength . . . 60 percent . . . 50 percent . . . 25 percent.

``When we heard the Harrier from this ship going over, it was uplifting,'' Bailey said. ``And they destroyed them.''

The next morning, Bailey's Marines rolled past destroyed and abandoned Iraqi armor dug into well-planned fighting positions and ambush points. The Harriers had done their job, making Bailey's easier. The Marines took Al Amarah without firing a shot.

``You win together, or you lose,'' Bailey said. ``Teamwork will lead you to success.''

After Al Amarah, the war on the ground wound down for Bailey's troops. They camped near Numaniyah and awaited orders, either for peacekeeping missions or to return to the Norfolk-based ships that delivered them.

One day, an e-mail arrived -- from Yerger.

``I will not leave you,'' it said.

``You're sitting out there in the dirt and you get an e-mail like that,'' Bailey said. ``It made us feel good.''

The war now behind them, Bailey and Yerger have begun plotting their futures.

``When you go to war together, a special bond develops,'' Bailey said. ``We'll be spending many retired days together.''

And maybe catch a few Bolles vs. St. Augustine football games.

``We'll have to go down there sometime when they're playing against each other,'' Yerger said. ``We'll sit in the end zone in lawn chairs with an ice chest and root for both teams.''

Staff writer Dennis O'Brien is with the Marines and sailors of Task Force Tarawa on their way back from Iraq. He has been with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based Marines since they left the coast of North Carolina in mid-January.


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...646&ran=110423

[the humper]

Quality story!!!!!!!
SF
NC