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The servicemembers, patients at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, received the tickets as a gesture of appreciation for their sacrifices, Kirk Frady, vice president of military affairs for Bank of America Military Bank, said.
“It was just our way of showing our support for the troops and thanking them for their service to the country,” Frady said. “It was a great patriotic event between two very patriotic, military-oriented teams.”
The game was close, 28-24, and although Army gridders couldn’t pull a win out of their berets, it was a hit with the servicemembers, Judith Markelz, program manager of the Soldiers and Family Assistance Center at Fort Sam Houston, said. The center dispersed the tickets.
“It was great. There was not a single soldier or Marine that didn’t have a wonderful time,” she said. “Two of them came up to me afterwards and said, ‘This is the best thing we’ve ever done.’”
The fun, however, began well before the actual kick-off with some tailgating, compliments of Greg Corwin and the Capt. Scott Corwin Foundation, Frady said. Corwin’s son was a West Point graduate who served two tours in Iraq and returned home to Fort Stewart, Ga. He was still on active duty when he was killed in a shooting near his home in Savannah, Ga., May 29, 2004. The case is still open.
“There’s got to be more generous people, but I don’t know who they are,” Markelz said. “He’s taken what could’ve been such a negative thing and turned it into such a wonderfully positive thing.”
The football game wasn’t the first event in which Bank of America Military Bank, located across the street from Fort Sam Houston, offered its support to servicemembers, Frady said. The bank has sent care packages to the 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Ga., and the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.
The bank also is planning a barbecue later this month for the wounded servicemembers and their families at Fort Sam Houston. In addition to great food, they’ll get a special performance, Frady said.
“We have a live band coming in to entertain them with live music,” he said. “It’s just, again, our way of showing our appreciation for their service to our country.”
