May 4, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey will be part of an eight-man delegation that will travel to Kuwait from May 22-28 as part of Operation Hardwood IV. The United Service Organizations (USO) and Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) sponsor the tour.
Joining Brey and the team of service members during the six-day trip will be Ed Conroy (The Citadel), Jim Crews (Army), Dennis Felton (Georgia), Fran Fraschilla (ESPN analyst), Mike Lonergan (Vermont), Reggie Minton (National Association of Basketball Coaches) and Skip Prosser (Wake Forest).
Operation Hardwood tours have visited bases in Kuwait and Japan over the past two years, bringing great coaches and service members together in a fun and competitive environment. It continues USO and AFE tradition of bring professional athletes and sports-related events to troops serving far from home. Last year, the USO — as part of its Operation Links tour — brought professional golfers to bases in Kuwait and Iraq to visit troops during Thanksgiving.
For more than 66 years, the USO (United Service Organizations) has been providing morale, welfare and recreational services to U.S. military personnel and their families. The USO is a nonprofit, charitable organization, relying on the generosity of the American people to support its programs and services. The USO is supported by Worldwide Strategic Partners AT&T Inc., BAE Systems North America, Clear Channel Communications, The Coca-Cola Company, DRS Technologies, Inc., Military Channel, S & K Sales Co., TriWest Healthcare Alliance and The Walt Disney Company. Other corporate donors, including the United Way and Combined Federal Campaign (CFC-11381), have joined thousands of individual donors to support the USO. For more information on the USO, please visit our Web site at www.uso.org.