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BACKCHARLIE BARNESNEWS NOTESCOMPRESSONIN MEMORIAMORIGINAL SEMINOLESARCHIVESUNDERWRITING

Former football standouts now serving in the armed forces

Kirk Coker

Dan Kendra

John Merna

Stanley Scott

David Stallworth

Greg Tony

by Steve Ellis, Condensed from the Tallahassee Democrat

Dan Kendra first entertained the idea of becoming a Navy SEAL when he was in grade school.

Classmates dreamed of playing football. Kendra wanted to be a member of an elite special-forces unit.

After an injuryplagued football career at Florida State, Kendra was on the verge of making the Indianapolis Colts as a fullback when he walked out of preseason camp.

"He said to us, 'you know what? I think this world needs more special-forces guys than NFL guys,' " said his mother, Diane. "It has always been his dream to pursue this. Football picked him; he didn't pick it. But this, he wanted to do.

"After 9/11, that really pushed him over the edge. It was, 'I'm doing this.'"

Kendra, training to be a Navy SEAL, is one of at least seven former Semi-noles players actively serving in the Armed Forces.

Kirk Coker, a part-time starting quarterback in the mid-1980s after walking on, and John Merna, who walked on as a tailback, are Marines stationed in Quantico, Va. Coker, a major, is an aide to a three-star general.

Former fullback Ren-dell Long is stationed in Korea. Ex-linebacker David Stallworth, a Navy helicopter pilot who also oversees helicopter maintenance, calls Coastal Systems Station in Pan-ama City home. Former defensive lineman Stan-ley Scott, who played in the mid-'80s, is an instructor at West Point. He is captain after a long stint at Fort Hood in Texas. Former graduate assistant Franklin Hagenbeck (1977 -78) is a major general and the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan. (See story about Hagenbeck in the August Florida State Times.)

Only Kendra and Greg Tony joined the military after Sept. 11. Tony passed on a chance to start at fullback this season to enter the Marines Officer Candi-date School. Kendra, at a a joint military base outside Fort Worth, is waiting on word when he'll begin Basic Underwater Demo-lition School, or BUDS, in Coronado, Calif.

For the veterans, the terrorist attacks only strengthened their conviction that they had selected a career that makes a difference. Stallworth was involved with the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo. From his ship, Marines were deployed and humanitarian aid was sent to Albania.

"What happened on 9-11, it makes you realize what you are doing is very important," Stallworth said. "After 9-11, if you are out in the community in uniform, you have strangers coming up to you and shaking your hand and thanking you for the job you're already doing. It makes you real proud and makes you believe the (career) choices you made were the right choices."

Coker has served in Southeast Asia, Somalia and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He had been to the Pentagon days prior to Sept. 11.

"Quite frankly, we in the military have been talking about the potential for something like this to happen for years," Coker said.

Football and the military service are perfect partners, according to these former Seminoles. Defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, who is also Stallworth's father-in-law, and off-season conditioning prepared the linebacker for Aviation Officer Candi-date School in Pensacola.

"The drill instructor had that same kind of tone you were already used to," said Stallworth, who works alongside a former Arizona State football player. "Everything I went through in football pretty much trained me for that training-the way they run the mat drills and defense.

"It's kind of easy to go from football to the military, especially when on the teamwork side. I went through two years of flight school beginning in 1995, and it was a lot like being part of a team at Florida State. Instead of working for an ACC championship or a national championship, you were working together for your wings of gold."

Coker credits FSU Head Coach Bobby Bowden for helping him develop qualities that benefited his military career. Coker is up for a promotion to lieutenant colonel next year. He said the regimented lifestyle he experienced in football also prepared him for the Marines.

"Playing for Coach had a lot to do with shaping my leadership skills that I needed up here," he said.
Merna told Bowden what his football experience meant to his military career. Although mat drills came under scrutiny after De-vaughn Darling's death last year, Merna applauds them.

"I've absolutely learned many attributes from those hard, hard days at Florida State," said Merna, who was in Saudi Arabia for four months during the Gulf War. "There were many days you wanted to hang it up, but you couldn't. And there were similar days in the Marine Corps. There's nothing that I've done in the Marine Corps that was harder than mat drills.

"I've told Coach Bowden much of what he did on the practice fields and training is very similar to the structure of the military training. Coach Bowden was a great leader. He oversaw what was going on, he held people accountable, and he and his staff taught lessons much more important for off the field. He is a great role model for young men and hopefully future Marine Corps leaders."

Merna's father and two uncles fought in Korea. Merna, now a major and instructor, graduated in 1989.
Stallworth spent his childhood not far from the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels. The lure of flying drew him to the military after graduating from FSU in the early 1990s.

Coker had no interest in the military until, one day during his last semester at FSU, he walked by a Marine Corps recruiting booth. On a whim, he talked to the recruiting officer and was hooked on the idea.

Kendra is well known for having a pet alligator and wanting to be a Navy SEAL. Once on campus, players said the military was what Kendra mostly talked about.

Kendra has been to Coronado, Calif., for testing before entering BUDS, a notoriously demanding phase of training for SEALS. He'll be part of an eight-man team that will be challenged physically and mentally. If he gets through that he will go to jump school in Fort Benning, Ga., and scuba school in Panama City.

"This is where he belongs," his mother said. "He was so fascinated by the challenge. The body is good, and everything is great. Things are really falling in place.

"With football he loved the camaraderie, working as a team to pull it off. That's what (the military) is all about. It's all team-oriented."

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