Military 'not very ready and not very fit:' Mt. Airy ex-Eagles linebacker visits troops in Middle East

Posted 3/22/18

Mt. Airy resident Carlos Bradley (standing, third from left) poses with two other former NFL players and Washington Redskin cheerleaders in a Middle Eastern desert with several U.S. Marines before …

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Military 'not very ready and not very fit:' Mt. Airy ex-Eagles linebacker visits troops in Middle East

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Mt. Airy resident Carlos Bradley (standing, third from left) poses with two other former NFL players and Washington Redskin cheerleaders in a Middle Eastern desert with several U.S. Marines before their maneuvers.

by Carlos Bradley (as told to Ron Petrou)

PART TWO

(Ed. Note: Carlos Bradley, 57, of Mt. Airy, a former All-American linebacker at Germantown High School and Wake Forest University as well as a linebacker for the San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles, has been a fitness instructor at AFC Aqualab Fitness Center in Bala Cynwyd for 18 years. He was one of three NFL alumni asked by the NFL Players Association, Retired Players Division, to do a fitness tour Oct. 30 to Nov. 8 last year for U.S. Armed Forces stationed in Kuwait and Bahrain in the Middle East.)

Our visit was quite an experience. I was with two other former NFL players, two former cheerleaders and eight current Washington Redskins cheerleaders. Our normal schedule upon arriving in Kuwait was to rise very early, 5:30 or 6 a.m., leave the hotel and go to one of the four military bases. We would meet the commanders of the base.

Then we would do physical training (PT) exercises with a group of soldiers, either Navy, Army or Marines. Then we would move to another base, do the same and have lunch with the soldiers. The day would conclude with meeting the commanders of another base, do exercises with the soldiers and have dinner with them. Finally, we would do our evening show, which would be like a Bob Hope USO show. The cheerleaders would do their routine. They might dance three songs. Then we, the former athletes, would go through the talking points. At every base we would have push-up contests and a question-and-answer session.

When we returned home, people would ask me, ‘What was the best thing about the trip? And what was the worst thing about the trip?” And my answer is, “The best thing about the trip was meeting some great people. The worst thing about the trip was meeting some great people.” That's because any of these soldiers could soon be dead because the “war wheel” is in motion. When we sat in front of commanders, they'd say, “Okay, our job is to occupy this territory and make sure this airspace is clear. If anything happens, we have to go occupy that area. If anything kicks off with Iraq or Iran, these troops are the first responders.”

When we'd ride from one base to another, I'd just look at endless, endless, endless sand. You just saw sand and oilfields and sand. So I’m looking and thinking about the freedom that we fight for and the right to free speech. We rode around for seven or eight days, and I never saw one little village. I never saw any goats, and I never saw any camels.

Bradley, a former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles, has been a fitness instructor at AFC Aqualab Fitness Center in Bala Cynwyd for 18 years.

I asked one commander, “Why are we here? Where are the people that we’re freeing? Where are the people we’re helping?” And he said after looking left and right, “The government of Bahrain pays the U.S. government $200 million a month for us to be here on this one base.”

One month! So, let’s take three or four bases. Let’s take the low end. Half-billion to one billion dollars between all the bases — a month! With this money we are protecting those oilfields. If by chance there are two or 3,000 collateral damage deaths during this war, in the big picture, financially, that means nothing. We could pay every person’s life insurance policy, and we'd still have billions of dollars.

So seeing that “war wheel” in motion was eye-opening to me, and when you financially look at what’s going on, now I understand that if we don’t protect this oil, then Russia will. And if we don’t protect the oil, we won’t be paying $2.70 a gallon for gas. We will be paying $10 or $15 a gallon. I get that also.

In the physical training we could have as little as 50 and as many as almost 300 doing the workouts. We would start out with the basic warm-up, like jogging back and forth, sideways, loosening up, what we call monster walks, which is stretching out your posteriors, stretching your hamstrings out. Then we'd get into the strength training part, which would be push-ups, squats and sit-ups.

So we start with 10 jumping jacks and five burpees. (A burpee is just going to the floor and then jumping up on your feet). I figured we'd catch our breath for 20 seconds and do it again. This was going to be the warm-up. We'd do five, but half the people were still on the floor. So I said to myself, “I guess we're not doing three rounds” One round was enough. So I had to downgrade my thoughts on their fitness level. I thought it would be higher than it was.

Then I said, “Let’s see if we can do sit-ups.” Now you take half the people that come into the AFC Fitness Center where I work, and you say, “Lie down on your back and put your feet together, tap your knuckles on the floor behind your head, and then reach your toes.” Half can’t do that. They can’t get off the floor. So I asked the soldiers to do it. Half of them couldn’t do it, either. Then I asked them to turn over and do a release push-up, in which you take your body to the floor, lift your hands, and then put your hands down and push up. There were soldiers who couldn’t do that, either.

This is the only tree in the desert! Literally it is a shrub but looks like a tree. The former NFL players with Carlos are Shawn Barber and Mike Nelms. The man at the top is Milton Yates, the nutritionist for the Washington Redskin cheerleaders who went on the goodwill trip.

What I found out very quickly was that it’s a new military. In a one to 10 grading system, 10 being the highest, on average in seven days, I would give the regulars in the Marines, Army and Navy a four, meaning not very ready and not very fit.

What I was seeing is that after basic training, a soldier goes to work at a job. Then he becomes an IT (Information Technology) person or mechanic or a guard. Then when it’s time to do PT, testing them every three or six months; some standards are lowered so much that only the minimum is required … I thought I was going to find 1,000 like me, highly motivated, working towards goals, pushing to be stronger, fitter. That is not what I found in the everyday soldier.

(Ed. Note: Since Carlos is a former Eagle, he was asked about the Eagles' performance this past season, ending with a Super Bowl victory. Here is his reply:)

“The Eagles run was amazing! With the major injuries that they sustained this year, it was amazing that they kept the team together. My hat goes off to Doug Pederson! I don't like the use the word genius or football wizard or any of that because I don't believe there are any in the simple game of football. But Pederson's play-calling was magnificent in the Super Bowl! Having the guts to make the 4th and 1 call at their own 45 and the amazing trick 4th down play on the goal line was just great!”

For more information about AFC Aqualab Fitness Center: 610-664-6464 or www.afcfitness.com.