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Football player Stokes excels on and off the field |
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Tuesday, 14 February 2006 |
 | Jessica Hines
Stokes celebrates the National Championship victory with fans in December. A "Strength and Honor" sign is shown in support for Stokes.
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by CHRIS ZALUSKI
Sports Editor
For Appalachian State football player Brian Stokes, the 2005 national championship was just one of the prestigious awards he won in December.
Although unknown to him at the time, the U.S. Marine Corps issued Stokes a Purple Heart Dec. 9 for injuries he suffered in Iraq in 2004.
Despite the award’s high esteem, Stokes did not find out about it until over a month later.
“I actually found out about it when it was delivered [in January],”
Stokes said. “They didn’t call me or anything, I just got a UPS package
at my mom’s house.”
Stokes admits that, although he suffered injuries, he had forgotten
about the award since the incident had happened over a year ago.
During his four-year campaign in the Marines, Stokes had two separate tours of duty in Iraq.
In his most recent tour in 2004, he was in charge of one platoon consisting of six machine-gun equipped Humvees.
“We were basically a task force that was assigned to any mission you could think of,” Stokes said.
These missions included clearing houses, convoy security, recon and acting as the main support during firefights.
Stokes said he was involved in over total 400 combat missions, 20-30 of which were firefights.
“We would have four or five missions in one day,” he said. “They would
start in the morning with explosive ordinance disposal [the clearing of
roadside bombs] and then later on in afternoon we could be involved in
a firefight.”
 | Special to The Appalachian
Appalachian football player and U.S. Marine Brian Stokes received the Purple Heart award in December for an injury during his duty in Iraq. |
Of these firefights, Stokes said he was involved in the invasion of Fallujah.
Despite these dangerous missions, Stokes’ injury occurred during a day that resembled most others.
Stokes said his platoon was assigned to a recon mission and was driving along the road looking for roadside bombs.
“We went by a burned out vehicle and I was sitting there [in the
passenger seat] and as soon as we passed it, I was like ‘thank God,’”
Stokes said.
Stokes said whenever the platoon passed abandoned vehicles, they always worried there would be an explosion.
When Stokes’ gunner bent down from the turret to tell him something, the bomb in the abandoned vehicle went off.
“As soon as it went off, it was a huge explosion, we basically disappeared into a fireball,” Stokes said.
The explosion was so powerful that it ripped the Humvee’s 300-pound doors off, leaving Stokes exposed to shrapnel.
Though he did receive some minor injuries to his exposed arm, Stokes lost extensive hearing in his right ear.
Despite the injuries, they could have been much worse.
“If we would’ve been three feet back, then our whole truck would’ve been torn to pieces,” he said.
Looking back now, Stokes describes the award as “out of the blue” and had written it off prior to receiving it.
“It’s something that you definitely don’t want to have,” he said. “You don’t strive to get an award like that.”
Regardless of Stokes’ humble approach, many have said his duty in the
Marines made him a better person, and player, at Appalachian.
“He’s been in the real world and he’s been facing life and death
situations every day,” head football coach Jerry Moore said. “Our
players have great respect for him.”
These past months have been an incredible journey for Stokes. From
winning the national championship to receiving one of the highest
honors in the Marines, Stokes has been living in the glory.
“I’ve definitely been blessed with a lot of different things,” Stokes
said. “For any of these one events to happen to anybody, let alone all
together, would be remarkable.”
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