Civil War, Iraq style

It was a cool morning when I got out of bed and went outside, it was still dark and I made my way quietly to the other side of the T-Wall barriers. As I got to another set of rooms quite a few people were roaming around and getting set up, I beamed with Beaver Pride as I headed back to my room to grab my food, snacks, and of course a chair. It was thirty minutes until kickoff for the War for the Rose’s; it was 4:07am in Iraq. Some guys were setting up the television, connecting it to a projector so everyone could watch the game on the side of one of the barracks rooms. Unfortunately for us we were interrupted by another PAC-10 school in the middle of their basketball game. We didn’t get to start watching the football game until the start of the second quarter.

The Beavers were down, not by much and that’s when the trash talk between all of us soldiers had picked up. It was a back and forth affair between both teams. I had gotten the courage to show by Beaver pride by taking my shirt off, painting my face, and a giant O on my body. My theory was every other time I had painted my face for a game the Beavers had won; once they were up 23-21 at halftime I thought they had it in the bag. However, the game started to change in the second half, and the Beaver fans started to shake their heads and by the end of it all the Ducks had secured the win and a trip to the Rose Bowl by beating Oregon State 37-33. I was still proud of how they played in the game.