(Tiger) Woods Finishes (4 days of) Training at Fort Bragg (Whyever?)

[donsu]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040416/ap_on_sp_go_ne/glf_woods_military

For years, Tiger Woods heard his Green Beret father talk about life in the military and felt the stir of curiosity.

-spin-

Woods trained with various Army units, fired weapons, awoke early for 4-mile runs and twice jumped from a plane.

-snip-

On Monday, after finishing 22nd at the Masters, Tiger Woods flew by private jet to Pope Air Force Base, which is next to Fort Bragg. Woods was issued a uniform, received briefings on the installation and attended several social functions on the post, Bragg spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Buckner said.

-snip-

Reporters were barred from covering the training sessions after Woods said he wanted the experience to be a private one.

-snip-

Woods saw many similarities between military training and the preparation he does to compete on the PGA Tour.

-snip-

He arrived in a Humvee, sitting at the helm of a machine gun, to cheers from the audience.

-snip-

"I'm just trying to hit the ball into a little bitty cup that's 400 yards away," Woods said. "These people here are putting their lives on the line. That to me is the ultimate dedication. They're doing it for our country to keep all of us safe."
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puke

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. So what...

I really hope Im not paying for this.

Guess it's good PR for recruitment, though.

[Dover]

2. Are there plans to turn Iraq into a golf course? One big sand pit...

..

[RobertSeattle]

3. Jumped from a plane?

I'm surprised his $$$ contracts allow him to do something so relatively dangerous.

[trumad]

5. I don't believe he jumped from a plane..

even via a static line... I went through 4 wweeks of jump school before I was allowed.... I think it's BS.

[Superfly]

7. 4 weeks? Were you a recycle?

Jump school is only 3 weeks long.

[trumad]

14. Memories faulty since it was in 1976...LOL

but I was almost a recycle cause I about killed myself on my first jump....

[ieoeja]

13. Explained in Article

On Thursday, he completed two tandem jumps with the Golden Knights, the Army parachute team based here. Woods was attached to an instructor for the jumps from 13,500 feet.

[jdsmith]

4. Insult to REAL troops?

So Tiger (a good golfer, I hear) gets to play soldier for four days and then leave at exactly the same time that 20,000 real soldiers get told that their families need to cancel the welcome home parties?

[billyf65]

6. Just wondering...

I, too, am curious about such training.

Can I get a commitment-free week's worth? Oh, that's only for the wealthy and famous.

Jerks like me would have to join up and maybe get killed. No thanks.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Nothing but a recruiting commercial.

Tiger gets to "honor his dad" who was a Green Beret, and the Army gets free publicity.

Just like when a movie is made about the military. The stars often visit the real servicemen to "get a feel for the character" and the military gets free advertising.

[oneighty]

9. Was Dad really a green Beret?

I am always the skeptic.

180

[GOPisEvil]

11. Yep...as far as I know he was.

I know he was in the Army. Got as high as Lt. Col., I believe.

[theboss]

12. Yes. Tiger is named after a Vietnamese Friend of Earl's

NEW YORK, N.Y. (September 14, 1997) -- Col. Tiger Phong, the Vietnamese soldier whom Tiger Woods was named after, died in a political re-education camp eight months after the golfer was born, Golf Digest reports.

Phong, a battlefield friend of Tiger Woods' father, Earl, lived barely a year after the fall of Saigon, dying Sept. 9, 1976, in the squalor of a Communist camp, the magazine says. Woods was born Dec. 30, 1975.

The story, in the October issue of Golf Digest, is by Tom Callahan, who has written more than two dozen cover stories for Time magazine. Feigning an interest in the growth of golf in Vietnam to gain access, Callahan defied government censors in tracking Phong.

Callahan also found that Phong's widow, Lythi Bich Van, has lived in Tacoma, Wash., since 1994, that she barely spoke English and that she had never heard of Tiger Woods.

Earl Woods, his wife Kultida and Tiger Woods met with Lythi Bich Van, now 61, and two of her children in an emotional reunion Sept. 11 at the Woods' home in Cypress, Calif.

"It was very sweet," Callahan said. "They just sat on the couch and talked for hours. Tiger was very much into it."

Earl Woods, a former Green Beret with two tours of duty in Vietnam, had long told people that his son Eldrick was named for Phong, who was called Tiger by Earl because of his bravery in battle.

Woods, who lost contact with Phong after the fall of South Vietnam, said he hoped that Phong would hear of Tiger Woods, figure out that it was Earl Woods' son and get in touch with him.

"Earl said he cried for a couple of days after he learned that Phong had died," said Callahan.

"Earl said it was like losing a relative and that Tiger was his shoulder to cry on," Callahan said. "It kills him that Phong starved."

Determined to track down the man for whom Tiger Woods was named, Callahan was thwarted by faulty memories, uncooperative government officials and incomplete official records.

After traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, appearing on TV and taking out newspaper ads using an old photo of Earl and Tiger -- all the while being discouraged and at times subtly threatened by officials -- Callahan made contact with Phong's oldest son, who told him his father was dead.

"I never knew him as Tiger Phong," Tiger Woods explained at the reunion. "He was Tiger One -- the first Tiger."

Both father and son said that Tiger Woods was told stories about Tiger Phong from birth.

"He was very young, too young to understand," Earl Woods said. "It grew up in him, evolved in him."

[oneighty]

19. Thank You!

180

[theboss]

10. He probably did a tandem jump of some kind

I'm sure Nike would freak if he jumped alone.

But this was interesting:

"Earl Woods said his son discovered while trying to aim the guns that he is left-eye dominant."

No wonder his putting has sucked for the last year.

[jdsmith]

15. What does it say about the military

if Earl goes batty turning his kid into a golfbot?

[theboss]

16. Huh?

Earl is actually a paragon of virtue compared to other sports parents who didn't serve - Mr. Marinovich, Mr. Capriati, Mary Pierce's dad, etc. etc. etc.

[Tellurian]

17. To be left eye dominant and right handed is a gift!

[citizen snips]

18. Who Cares?

My dad trained at Fort Bragg Tiger went to the right place.

[supernova]

20. I don't see a problem here

Tiger spent 4 days at Bragg. Big Whoop.

As a kind of thank you, he gave a golfing demo for the base. It was on the local news here.

If I had a dad who constantly talked about what a great thing it was, I'd want to visit there too.

My dad always talked fondly of the wonderful time he had in Biloxi during WW2. He ran the movie theatre and spun records before the movies. I've always wanted to visit there.

It's a way to gain a better understanding of who your parents are as human beings, not just your parents. And usually it's because it's about a time in their lives when you were not present.