Keep your elbows in when shooting hoops with the big guy
Posted by: Baller-in-Chief in Articles(From Paul Fattig at the Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune Online)
Central Point resident Gregg Ramsdell has never been one to shy away from a little athletic competition.
So the Army master sergeant naturally stepped boldly forward when the man in the gymnasium at Fort Myer, Va., asked whether anyone wanted to shoot some baskets.
“He said he wanted to play some hoops and asked who was up for a game,” he recalls. “I’ve always been one to state my mind. So I said, ‘Sure, I’ll play.’ “
Ramsdell may be 50, but he is in the Army’s Special Operations Command. Staying fit is part of his Green Beret mission, the rest of which is largely classified. A power lifter, he had been in the gym working out on weights in January while on temporary assignment in Washington, D.C. for the presidential inaugural.
“He said, ‘Aren’t you a little old to be playing this game?’ ” Ramsdell says. “I told him, ‘You go ahead and shoot from the outside but don’t try to come inside.’ “
With that, Ramsdell played a game of three-on-three basketball with his future commander-in-chief, Barack Obama, the man who would become president of the United States.
Turns out Obama frequently works out in a game of basketball at Fort Myer, which is adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery.
“He’s about six-one, and pretty strong — a very good athlete,” observes Ramsdell, who played football and baseball at San Diego State University. “I suck at basketball but I can shoot the ball pretty well.”
There was the usual horsing around that comes with a pickup game, including ribbing your opponent about potential fouls, thanks to a few flying elbows. Obama was a good sport who played well, Ramsdell says.
The three-man team that included the man who would be president won, incidentally. But it wasn’t the last meeting the soldier would have with his soon-to-be top boss.
We’ll get back to that later.
Ramsdell, who is currently stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, was reared in Fort Jones, Calif. He joined the Army 25 years ago in Medford, serving 17 years on active duty. He was mobilized as a reservist in 2005, and has since served four stints in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.
The son of a retired Marine Corps sergeant major, Ramsdell is a good fit for the Green Beret. Suffice it to say you want the soft-spoken fellow on your side should you ever be in harm’s way.
“A lot of what we did was classified — just operational, meeting the bad guys,” says Ramsdell, who received a Purple Heart for an incident in northern Iraq in which he explains, “I got blown up pretty good.”
Enough said, given the details are classified.
“I like what I do and I like to think I do it halfway decently — they keep me around,” he says, then adds, “I serve my country with pride.”
No doubt that’s why his military boss submitted him as one of more than 3,000 applicants to be assigned to the 2009 presidential inauguration. Of those, 300 were selected but only 10 were named to be military assistants to potential cabinet members.
Ramsdell was assigned as military assistant to Hillary Clinton, the then-nominee for Secretary of State.
Here’s a fellow who is not unfamiliar with power brokers. He currently works for Gen. David Petraeus and formerly for Gen. John Abizaid, both military heavyweights. And he had met briefly with former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
But he had never been involved in a presidential inauguration.
“I’m used to the political side, but this was really fascinating,” he says. “I met with Clinton three or four different times and drove her to the inauguration.”
He was even part of the inauguration parade.
“It was really the opportunity of a lifetime,” he says.
But it was his two encounters with Obama he likely will tell his grandchildren about in the years to come. The second meeting occurred a few days after the basketball game.
Ramsdell and a fellow soldier, both in full military dress uniforms, were inside a federal building in D.C. that day. If you’ve spent any time in our nation’s capital, you know it has a small-town atmosphere where you are likely to bump into all types of folks.
When the elevator stopped on their floor, out stepped Obama and his entourage. They apparently had gotten out on the wrong floor, but that didn’t stop the gregarious Obama from stopping to greet folks.
“He came up and said, ‘Don’t I know you?’ ” Ramsdell said. “I said, ‘Yes, sir, we played basketball a few days ago.’ “
After they joked a bit about the game, Obama asked him about his Purple Heart.
“I told him I fell off a bar stool in Singapore,” says Ramsdell, who then hastened to explain how it really happened. “I was very respective of the man. He wanted to know about our lives and where we were from. He asked how public schools were in Oregon.”
Ramsdell was not complimentary.
“He crossed his arms, tilted his head and said, ‘Let’s talk about this,’ ” the soldier recalls. “He spent about 25 minutes or so talking to us, getting to know our views, asking us about our families and our lives.
“He is my commander in chief and he wasn’t just listening — he was having a real dialogue with us,” he adds.
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