To Iraq and back: Leitao talks hoops with American soldiers as part of USO Tour

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: June 29, 2008

When Dave Leitao embarked on a recent USO Tour to the Persian Gulf Region, the Virginia basketball coach had several purposes for making the trip.
First and foremost was to provide a little piece of home to all the U.S. troops he would meet on the tour. Certainly, he wanted to talk some basketball because, after all the USO tagged the trip “Operation Hoop Talk: Talking with the Troops.” A more personal reason was to seek out answers about the war and what’s really going in the Middle East.
Now that he’s back on American soil, Leitao said he had a greater appreciation for U.S. efforts in the region and felt good about interaction with both military and civilian personnel he met along the way.
“The two things that stick out in my mind the most were all the conversations that myself and other coaches had with individuals, anywhere from a private first class all the way up to a general, to gain a personal perspective,” Leitao said. “That sticks with me because it’s not something that you see every day on television or read about in the newspapers.
“The other thing is the vastness of this project, this war, or whatever you want to call it. There’s so many people involved and it crosses over to so many different things that one doesn’t always think about,” Leitao said. “There’s up to 30 to 40 percent civilian personnel, contractors, everything, that provide every service imaginable. So, I was taken aback by the amount of people involved on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.”
While windstorms prevented Leitao and five other coaches from visiting all the cities and bases that were scheduled, including Baghdad, they still covered as much ground as possible. The tour began in Kuwait for a briefing, then headed to two cities in northern Iraq, including Mosul, where there’s continuing stabilization.
By windstorms, Leitao explained there was more than just wind involved, making travel conditions treacherous for a number of reasons.
“The wind’s kicking up and the sand is blowing all over the place, and because you’re in the desert and there’s a lot more sand than there is anything else, the residue from that wind kind of keeps a haze over the sky for two or three days on end,” Leitao said. “Your visibility may not be more than a quarter of a mile, tops, and so you really can’t fly anything.”
Such storms are dangerous for another reason as well. Insurgents strike most often during the storms because they can’t be seen, and U.S. troops respond likewise, making civilian travel impossible.
“Plus, it’s unhealthy because you can taste the sand in the air when you’re outside for a period of time,” the coach said. “I shudder to think what goes on in the long term, breathing that in and having it lie in your lungs over a period of time.”
The delegation of coaches included Army’s Jim Crews, Gary Stewart of UC-Davis, Jeff Bzdelik of Colorado, The Citadel’s Ed Conroy, and former New York Knicks assistant general manager Jeff Nix.
Basketball was on the agenda and so Leitao was eager to talk hoops with those he met whether it was individually, in group settings or at meet and greets.
“We’d sit around and talk about Virginia basketball or any of the other basketball teams that the other five coaches represented,” Leitao said. “A lot of times people were familiar with the popularity of college basketball and were familiar with our program or the other programs, or individuals in those programs. We talked about basketball specifically and had a little clinic while we were over there, and even had a game on one of the bases between an Army squad and an Air Force squad.”
Leitao and the others coached in the game.
On a previous USO trip to Japan in 2006, Leitao met up with all sorts of military personnel that had connections to the state of Virginia, military bases in the state, or the University of Virginia. While he didn’t meet quite as many Virginians this time around, he still was surprised at who he bumped into.
“I met a young woman who was enlisted personnel from Farmville, and I met a gentleman that I had met a few years ago when I first came to UVa, a fellow who had worked on Grounds around University Hall, and had enlisted in the Army,” Leitao said. “I think he was on his second deployment and wants to some day get his job back here on Grounds, so that was a significant tie-in.”
Leitao also met a man that had run in marathons in Charlottesville and remained a runner, and linked up with a lieutenant colonel, whose daughter is a sophomore at Virginia. While they didn’t meet, they chatted via video conference from another base.
“I had met him briefly when he was visiting the school with his daughter and wife, and so when he heard we were in the country, he was obviously very happy that we were over there,” the coach said. “I’m hoping that I get a chance to see his daughter and let her know that I at least saw him by video while I was over there.”
The coaches were as well protected as possible and kept out of harm’s way, but there’s always that threat.
“We really didn’t go what’s called ‘outside the wire,’ which is off base. But when you have sandstorms, you have attacks, so on the Sunday before we left there were some mortar attacks that were headed for our base,” Leitao explained. “But they were more unsophisticated than anything else, so they never really hit any targets. We were on yellow alert, but if you go to red, you’re ordered to hit the ground or get outside and get into a bunker. We never got that and I don’t think I worried too much because we were in good hands.”
His wife, Joyce, wasn’t real crazy about her husband traveling to a war zone, but Leitao put her fears to rest and communicated via e-mail and phone calls so that she knew he was okay.
“But, I’m sure she was happy when I came back,” the coach said.
Leitao made good use of his time there, often staying up late for conversation with as many people as he could meet. Like most Americans who aren’t sure if media reports or politicians are telling the full story, Leitao sought the truth. He chatted for five hours — until four in the morning — with a colonel and a sergeant-major to get a real feel for the conflict.
“Amongst all the conversations I had, I thought that was probably the most real description of what was really going on,” Leitao said. “Although both of them and the people under them wanted to go home at some point, end their deployment and rejoin their families, I did not get from them or anyone that I met over there, anything less than enthusiasm about why they’re there and the mission they have.
“So, that was really important to understand that although they’re over there and it’s always tough and they know it’s getting ready to be 140 degrees, and that their lives are on the line, everybody believes there’s a mission to be done, and that in the last four months some major progress has been made,” Leitao said.
Leitao has shared his experience with as many people as he can since his return in hopes of giving fellow Americans and inside view of the Persian Gulf region.