Marty Kirkland: Iraq trip worth it for Foster

By Marty Kirkland

Any number of things might have reminded Andy Foster that he was not in Kansas — OK, in this case, Georgia — anymore as he played a key role in helping put on Iraq’s first-ever sanctioned mixed martial arts event last month.

It could have been the freeze-and-fry weather conditions Foster, a Dalton resident, dealt with while spending several days in the desert, where temperatures reached a sizzling 120 degrees with the sun up, but dipped into the 50s overnight. It could have been the fact that one leg of his journey involved a C-130 flight, traveling clothes that included a Kevlar helmet and bulletproof vest, and a sprint from the aircraft because in Mosul, that’s just the way you unload for safety reasons. It could have been that he had to adjust to working with new people quickly and perform more hands-on duties than he might normally in his role as the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission’s executive director.

But it was probably the night vision gear.

Foster flew from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany to Kuwait City, Kuwait to Mosul, Iraq last month to help Armed Forces Entertainment stage a 17-bout card that premiered the sport of MMA on an official level in that country. Most of the fights were amateur bouts and all but one of the fighters were members of the U.S. Armed Forces. And most of those who were fighting in the ring — because it was held on one of two major U.S. military bases in Mosul, the audience of 3,000 was also mostly servicemen and women — are also serving in Iraq.

Which brings us back to the night vision equipment.

“One group that fought that night, two hours later they were geared up with their night vision to go on patrol — and some of them still had black eyes from fighting,” said Foster, who volunteered his time to help make the International Combat Sport Federation-sanctioned fight happen. “Those guys are heroes.”

Foster came away from the trip impressed for several reasons. A combat sport enthusiast who’s been involved with MMA as either a fighter, trainer, referee, official or organizer on some level for the better part of a decade, Foster was pleased with the energy and efficiency from all involved with making the fight night happen.

One of his first tasks after arriving in Mosul was to give contractors the specs for building the ring, parts of which had been brought along with the group of 19 who traveled from the United States — including three pro fighters, one of them the lone civilian who competed — for the event. But turning nothing into something didn’t take long.

“It was amazing,” said Foster, who stayed in the same bases and tent cities as U.S. troops and said he never felt worried about his security. “The army’s pretty good. They built that ring really quickly.”

Foster was busy throughout his stay — sometimes to the point where the fact that he was on the other side of the world wasn’t at the forefront of his thoughts — partially because he didn’t have what he referred to as “the mechanics” he already has in place when he’s overseeing an event in Georgia, which he’s likely to be doing just about every weekend. But that was OK. He was glad to do whatever it took to make this happen.

He did get time to spend an evening training with some of the fighters and enjoyed knowing how seriously the sport is taken among troops, who have incorporated it into their hand-to-hand combat training.

“I no longer fight, but I still train so I have an idea of what they’re doing,” Foster said. “I went and trained with some of the instructors and was real impressed with the way it’s come along. The army is really embracing MMA. The instructor I trained with knew what he was doing.”

Although there’s probably nothing routine about an event on that scale involving U.S. troops in Iraq, it went off hitch-free. Security, naturally and thankfully, was tight, Foster said, but the audience was able to relax for a few hours.

“It was unreal,” Foster said. “They just loved it. They cheered loud. And one of the generals told me, he said, ‘Look, for a while tonight, I forgot I was in Iraq.’ And that’s what this is all about. He said it was a real diversion, more than watching a movie or anything, because there was a real human interest. And because so many of them have trained in it, they had a real interest in watching.”

For security reasons, Foster’s group had to clear out of Mosul soon after the fight ended. They got a few hours of shut-eye and were on a plane back to Kuwait City at 7:30 a.m. It wasn’t lost on Foster that as he slept, some of the fighters were on night patrol.

“I can’t say enough good things about our military over there,” Foster said. “They’re over there day in and day out. I was glad to go home, but I was also sad because they’re still there, carrying out our policies and defending us. I’m glad I did what I did, but it was such a small part compared to what they’re doing.”

A documentary about the event, “A Fight for the Troops,” was filmed, and judging from a trailer you can check out at mmamemories.com, the movie looks like a quality production that should give further insight into what the operation was like.

Foster’s part in it all may have been a small one. But he knows it was one worth playing.

Marty Kirkland is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen.