Rich Greene, aka BigDrill, has been a part of the Eleven Warriors family since the beginning.
He grew up in the same Ohio State-centralized household that recurs in thousands of homes generationally. He went to a church up the way from campus and sat in service with some of his Buckeye heroes.
A native of Worthington, Greene spent a year at Ohio State and then Cedarville University before leaving college in search of something with more discipline, according to his words. From Oct. 1987 onward, that discipline was the United States Army. Greene retired as Brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Rich Greene two years ago.
But with leaving OSU, his fandom never faded but grew fonder as the distance geographically grew larger. Wherever Greene went around the world, the Buckeyes came with him.
Greene is a veteran of the Gulf War and served his time in various spots throughout the Middle East, though never keeping Ohio far from heart. He watched Armanti Edwards and Appalachian State eradicate Michigan inside a tent at Anaconda Air Force Base in Balad, Iraq.
"At the time the game started, there were only three of us in the tent," Greene said. "By the time they blocked the kick, there were about 70 people in this tent that was meant to fit no more than 20."
Another aspect to the experience of that game was the time difference. While all of us watched that game unfold on BTN on a Saturday afternoon, Greene and his band of brothers watched the game on a Saturday night, seven hours ahead of the game in Ann Arbor. It was sweet bedlam.
During those dog days of deployment, Greene and his fellow soldiers were accompanied by a piece of all of us here who write and all of you who read. Accompanying him into treacherous territory on his Humvee throughout Kuwait was an Eleven Warriors sticker, sent to him after he sent a letter to founder Jason Priestas while deployed.
He's been reading since the very start.
Another sticker was put on a civilian vehicle Greene and co. used while visiting fellow soldiers in Afghanistan. Though nobody outside of the base saw the official Eleven Warriors brand ambassador vehicle for Afghanistan and for good reason, according to Greene.
"Having an Ohio State sticker in Afghanistan would be worse than having one in Ann Arbor over there."
Team 1 v. Team 1(a)
Flash forward to 2017 and Ohio State plays Army for the first time ever Saturday afternoon and as one can imagine, it's a different kind of feeling and will be a different experience for Greene.
Green said that even if you didn't go to West Point, the investment and the pull to root for the team is still there. The Army was Greene's livelihood and for so many others as well. It's understandable.
"It's really hard after 25 years in the Army to say, 'Go Bucks, beat Army,'" he said, "Matter of fact, I couldn't."
That same interconnection Greene feels with the Army he undoubtedly feels for his hometown team. Although Greene in unsure of how he'll feel at kickoff and throughout the game tomorrow and likely even after, one thing that will always stick with him is the interconnection between the Army and Buckeye Nation.
"When you join the Army you take a piece of wherever you came from and fit it in to wherever you're going," Greene said. "And one thing I've always noticed is there are Buckeye fans everywhere."
