Latest News

« back to 2010 | Back to NCAA News Archive Index

A defender overseas and on the pitch

By Greg Johnson
NCAA.org

John O’Brien truly understands that being able to compete in college athletics is a privilege.

After serving 15 months of combat in Iraq in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army that included close encounters with improvised explosive devises and a suicide bomber attack, being a part of the Massachusetts-Lowell men’s soccer program – first as a 27-year-old assistant coach then as a student-athlete last fall – was a welcomed return to normalcy.

O’Brien’s active military service was inspired by the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, which occurred during his freshman year at Northeastern, then by the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Though he didn’t come from a military background, something inside stirred him to serve.

“I remember a live broadcast when a reporter was sitting next to a kid who had his night-vision goggles, and there was a firefight going on,” O’Brien said. “The kid was 18 or 19 years old. I couldn’t stop thinking that I was sitting in college enjoying myself while that was going on. It brought everything to light.”

In August 2004, O’Brien signed up for military service and volunteered for airborne training.

The three-week intensive training program included a week of rigorous running exercises, jumping from 250-foot towers and, of course, conducting day and night jumps in full combat gear from airplanes.

“It was tough training,” O’Brien said. “You can sit there and tell yourself to be calm and that you’re not nervous. But when you are getting ready to jump out of a plane, it’s not the most settling thing.”

He was placed in the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a unit that had just returned from a tour in Afghanistan and is known for being able to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours. That means soldiers are required to always have an equipment bag packed in areas near the airplanes.

One alert sent O’Brien’s unit to New Orleans to help the city recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Then in July 2006, O’Brien was sent to Iraq for a 12-month tour, which was later extended to 15.

“The whole experience operated on two completely different levels of the spectrum,” O’Brien said. “You could go from intense firefights to a lull of nothing going on for what seemed like an eternity.”

But the combat moments are indelibly etched in his memory.

Once while on patrol, he was driving a Humvee when an improvised explosive device detonated near the left front wheel. Fortunately for O’Brien and his fellow soldiers in the vehicle, the bomb didn’t fully explode.

“We were lucky because no one was injured, but the truck was disabled,” O’Brien said. “It looked like the bomber used a cell phone to set it off, and we found the spot where he exited afterward. It would have been a huge IED, but instead it didn’t have the effect they wanted.”

The IEDs are placed in the road where the ground is soft. Sometimes terrorists will burn tires into the ground to make it easier to plant the IED. The bombs are then detonated by remote control or a trip-wire system. They are virtually undetectable for U.S. troops.

“We try to pay attention to little signs like some earth dug up, or maybe you see the wires,” O’Brien said. “There’s not much you can do. That’s why they are so effective.”

Another harrowing experience occurred while O’Brien’s reconnaissance unit was staying in a school. Two dump trucks filled with explosives crashed into the building, killing nine soldiers.

“They hit one right after the other,” said O’Brien, who happened to be on the other side of the building. “When you are a part of a unit that small, you know everyone. It’s no secret that it isn’t easy to go through something like that. When you looked at the higher-ups, you could see they were crushed, too. But you can’t quit and go home. You have to keep going.”

Shortly after returning to Fort Bragg, O’Brien’s active duty status ended.

He worked at a jobs corps center in Devens, Massachusetts, where he helped low-income youths obtain a high school diploma or GED. The graduates are then taught a trade in hope they can find jobs.

After a about a year, he decided to go back to Massachusetts-Lowell, where he enrolled in classes and also became an assistant men’s soccer coach.

Early in the 2009 season, head coach Bryan Scales and assistant Christian Figueroa approached O’Brien with the idea of him becoming a player to help shore up their defense.

O’Brien, who had three years of eligibility remaining, began suiting up and taking a spot as a 27-year-old center defender.

“My teammates embraced the change well,” said O’Brien, who can still be called to active military duty through August 2012. “It says a lot about them more than anything. This could have gone the opposite way, but everything went well. They are a mature group.”

O’Brien, who played in seven games for Massachusetts-Lowell in 2009, completed his degree in criminal justice this spring. He’s considering graduate school, where he would focus on counterterrorism. Returning to the military is also an option.

If he chooses graduate school, he still has two years of soccer eligibility left.

“I’d never gone to college before without playing soccer,” O’Brien said. “It was a good feeling last fall. I like being busy because it makes me perform better. I like to try to plan ahead, but you have to be able to act quickly in life, too. The combination of the two is useful to me.”