Camouflage cannot hide the Titans Cheerleaders support of the troops

Captain Jena during the last Tennessee Titans home game
Captain Jena during the last Tennessee Titans home game

On the eleventh hour of November 11th, 1918, the armistice between Germany and the Allied nations that ended World War I was signed on that day and a ceasefire went into effect. The origins of Veterans Day date back to President Woodrow Wilson, who proclaimed Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919 to mark the end of WW I.

After World War II, there was a movement to turn Armistice Day into a time to honor all those who served in the armed forces. President Eisenhower signed a bill into law in 1954 and Congress voted to change the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

In honor of Veterans Day, for every point scored during the NFL’s 32 Salute to Service games, the league will donate $100 to each of its non-profit partners: the Pat Tillman Foundation, USO, and Wounded Warrior Project. Next Monday night, the Titans will host their Salute to Service game, and the Titans Cheerleaders will be there to support the Titans and the troops. But the TTC salute to the troops is just not a one game service, as they visit military bases throughout the world throughout the year.

Here are the TTC at their last home game against the Texans, in their camouflage uniforms:

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Titans Cheerleaders Visit American Troops in Japan

Titans Cheerleaders traveled to Japan to entertain and visit with U.S. military members stationed at Camp Zama and Osaka

Titans Cheerleaders Yalea and Heidi recently traveled to Japan to entertain and visit with U.S. military members stationed at Camp Zama and Osaka.

During their six-day tour, managed by ProTour Productions, the ladies had the opportunity to experience Japanese culture, while simultaneously bringing the troops and their families a little bit of America to keep their spirits lifted high during football season.

The cheerleaders spent time with service members during meals and various events throughout the week. They also taught a cheer and dance clinic to children living on American military bases, and enjoyed a meet-and-greet with young Japanese women aspiring to become NFL Cheerleaders.

“I come from a military family, and I understand the daily sacrifices military personnel and their families make on a daily basis to serve this country,” Heidi said. “Having the chance to travel to Japan and personally thank the troops stationed there meant a lot to me. I felt so welcomed by everyone at Camp Zama, and I hope that we were able to bring our troops a little taste of home.”

It marked the fourth visit for Titans Cheerleaders to American military bases in Japan. Over the last three years, the cheerleaders have entertained American troops in Kuwait, Djibouti, Guam, Diego Garcia and Alaska, among other locations.

To see more pictures from their tour, follow Yalea and Heidi on Twitter at: @Yalea_TTC and @HeidiLWest .

Pro Tour Productions is led by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Director of Cheerleading, Sandy Charboneau. Created in 2010, ProTour Productions has worked with various entertainers, including NFL players and cheerleaders, comedians and musicians, to raise morale for the U.S. Armed Forces on six continents through dozens of international tours. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/protourproductions.

NFL cheerleaders visit deployed Fort Polk troops

Sgt. 1st Class E.L. Craig, U.S. Army
The Town Talk
Jan. 31, 2014

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN — Army helicopters arrived, midmorning, delivering a taste of American tradition and entertainment to a group of Fort Polk soldiers at Forward Operating Base Fenty.

Nine members of the cheerleading squad for the NFL’s Washington Redskins visited the troops Jan. 22 during a tour of Afghanistan. Forward Operating Base Fenty is home for two deployed 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Task Force Patriot battalions — 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment and 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion. There are various smaller units assigned there as well.

During their visit, the cheerleaders and an Elvis Presley impersonator performed, ate lunch with the troops and signed autographs during a meet-and-greet session immediately following their performances.

“We want to be here; we fought our teammates to come here, not physically, because we know how important what you guys do for us is,” said Ashley A., co-captain of the cheerleaders. The Redskins do not release the full names of members of the cheerleading squad.

“I think it’s great,” Spc. Matthew Acker said. “It lets us know that people back home care.”

Entertainment like this can play a part in lifting soldiers’ morale, which encourages them to make it to the end of their deployment and ultimately make it home, Acker said.

“It motivates you for a while; you need motivators sometimes,” he said. “It’s a reminder that you’re doing something good and that people believe in what we’re doing over here.”

For one cheerleader, performing for troops comes from a sense of duty that for her is close to home.

“My whole family was in the military so I have a big heart for (deployed soldiers). I know the sacrifices they go through, I’ve been through it,” said cheerleaders co-captain Mila T. “I just want them to know that people are still waiting for them when they return home.”

Even though an all-female cheerleading team visited a combat zone, there were female soldiers in the audience as well.

“We try to include them in the show,” Ashley said. “We make sure to give them a shout out in our show, interact with them and let them know that they’re just as important to us as the males because they’re doing just as much.”

Accommodating the female audience members was noticed and appreciated.

“I thought it was outstanding –– I’m a big Redskins fan,” said Sgt. Tiffani Fisher, a radiology technician. “I was more than OK with the dancing and outfits. I appreciate beauty where it lies.

“It’s also nice to see people come out to the desert just to show us a good time and support the troops.”

Pom-poms, Ready! Meet the U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Who is About to Make Her Super Bowl Debut as a Seattle Seahawks Cheerleader

The Daily Mail

When the Super Bowl starts up on Sunday evening, the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback won’t be the only high-ranking team member to hit the field – in fact, there will be a first lieutenant among them.

Alicia is a member of the Seahawks’ cheerleading squad who also works as a full-time production manager for the Air Force.

The San Diego, California native joined the team as a rookie this season after dancing on the cheerleading squad at the U.S. Air Force Academy, her alma matter.

Alicia has been on active military duty for the last seven years.

After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 2010, Alicia was stationed in Seattle to help manage the production of military air crafts.

Last fall her mother suggested that she continue her cheerleading career as an adult while also serving in the military.

In fact, she comes from a military family – her older brother is an army green beret. She has said that she always wanted to follow in his footsteps and be a soldier.

After some research, the buxom blonde decided to try out for a role on the Seattle Seahawks’ ‘Sea Gals’ squad. But she had to seek approval from the military before even applying for a spot on the team, as the auditions’ final round is aired live on local television.

She told Seattle TV show Evening Magazine that she had to ‘write a talking paper about how it would be beneficial to the Air Force for me to be a Sea Gal. They decided it would be a great idea.’

In April, she auditioned for a spot on the squad alongside 250 other hopefuls.

After multiple elimination rounds, it was decided that Alicia would be one of 34 girls on the team.

‘It was awesome, very surreal,’ she told blog On Her Game of how it felt when she learned that she had been accepted.

In her Sea Gal online bio, she says that her best life experience came ‘the day I joined the Military. I was 18 years old at the time, and the Air Force shaped me into the person I am today. Some days have been hard, but every day has been worth it.’

She made her Sea Gal debut on August 17 at Seattle’s CentryLink Field.

She told Evening Magazine: ‘We do have to stay in line while we are cheerleading and do a lot of the same things as the person next to you – much like you do in the military. They do complement each other.’

This year was a good one for Alicia to to join the Sea Gal squad. On Sunday the Seattle Sea Hawks will face off against the Denver Broncos in the 48th Super Bowl.

The young dancer could not be more excited. She wrote to fans on her Facebook page: ‘I still cannot believe that next week we will be in New York! I am so proud of our Seahawks team and all of the amazing Sea Gals! And thank you to our awesome fans for helping us get there! Go Hawks!’

[Alicia at Seahawks.com]

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Visit Camp Casey

US soldiers receive an unexpected holiday gift
Story by Staff Sgt. Carlos Davis
2nd Infantry Division
Defense Video Imagery &Distribution System
January 2, 2014

[Photo Gallery]

CAMP CASEY, South Korea – Normally around this time of year, most people are trying to finish up their holiday shopping, but a few lucky fanatics received an early holiday gift at the Hansen Field House Gymnasium and the Community Activity Center on Camp Casey.

Twelve Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders visited with soldiers, family members, Department of Defense civilians, and Korean nationals Dec. 20, 2013.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Sgt. 1st Class Edward Smith, from Oklahoma City, a platoon sergeant assigned to 333rd Field Artillery Target Acquisition Battery, 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment, 210th Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. “I think it is a great opportunity for the kids to interact with one of America’s favorite teams.”

As much as the troops and family members were happy to receive their holiday gift, the cheerleaders were honored to meet some of their heroes.

The United Service Organizations and the Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders have been teaming up to visit troops all over the world in a tradition that has been growing strong for 77 years.

“First of all, I am honored to be one of the 12 cheerleaders chosen to be a part of this opportunity,” said Olivia Rene, from Dallas, in her second year as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. “We have been doing this for a really long time and not a lot of people get to go and visit troops in their environment and to be able to tell them thank you face-to-face during the holidays.”

During the visit, the cheerleaders interacted with more than 60 boys and girls in a two-hour football and cheer youth clinic and signed more than 100 autographs.

According to Rene, their overall message to the kids during the clinic is teamwork, being a good leader, and health and nutrition.

For Maj. Michelle Myers, from New Orleans, a communications officer assigned to 2nd Infantry Division, having the cheerleaders here in Korea for the children is a wonderful opportunity.

“It is a great motivation for the girls,” said Myers. “They are able to learn the importance of everything that is incorporated in being a cheerleader, not just cheering.”

“They must have other skills associated with that,” Myers continued. “When the cheerleaders introduced themselves, a lot of them went to college and received their degrees. Just by them doing that it shows the girls it’s more to being a cheerleader than just the games.”

Having the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders here in Korea was a wonderful experience. Whether Cowboys fans or not, everyone involved made memories for lifetime.

“Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts,” said Rene. “It really means a lot to us that you accommodate us and let us come visit you. We are so thankful for your service, and as much as we can give back to you we are willing to do that.”

Former Eagles cheerleader now stars for Army

Gary Mihoces
USA TODAY
December 19, 2013

As a Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader, Rachel Washburn toted pom-poms. As an Army intelligence officer with a special ops combat unit in Afghanistan, she carried an assault rifle and pistol. She was a pioneer in a special mission to relate to local women in ways that would be culturally inappropriate for male troops — including helping deliver an Afghan baby in a snowstorm.

Washburn, 25, who recently returned from her second tour in Afghanistan, will be honored Sunday night as a “Hometown Hero” by the Eagles at their home against the Chicago Bears.

Cheerleader turned soldier? Did that turn heads when she was in military training or living in a mud hut with Green Berets in a village in Afghanistan?

“Initially, it was kind of a novelty to people I met if they ever found out,” Washburn said Thursday in a phone interview from Savannah, Ga., where she was on the first day of her post-deployment leave.

“It’s kind of a bit of a shock. You don’t expect those two things to go hand in hand with one person.”

She didn’t join the Army on a whim. During her three seasons with the Eagles, Washburn was an Army ROTC student and history major at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He father was an Army helicopter pilot and an Air Force fighter pilot. She figures she moved 17 or 18 times growing up, but she calls Philadelphia home even though she just attended college there.

“I am so proud of Rachel and all of her extraordinary accomplishments. She has tremendous courage and has made an amazing impact on the lives of others,” said Barbara Zaun, Eagles director of cheerleading.

During Washburn’s freshman year at Drexel in 2006, she had a friend who was a basketball cheerleader with the Philadelphia 76ers. Washburn loved dancing and thought that would be a “cool experience.” With her fondness for football, she tried out for the Eagles squad in the spring of her freshman year.

“I knew it was kind of a long shot with all those beautiful, talented women that try out every year,” she said. “I just thought, why not? Go big or go home.”

PHOTOS: Rachel Washburn from cheerleader to soldier

She made the team and cheered for the Eagles from 2007-09. In 2008, she went on a military goodwill tour with the cheerleaders to Iraq and Kuwait. In her case, it also was a military internship.

“ROTC is a very canned version of what the military is going to be. So getting to actually talk to people who are in the military and doing their jobs day in and day out … was very eye opening,” she said. “It was kind of what re-lit the fire and my passion for the military.”

After graduation, she was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Army (She’s now a 1st lieutenant stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga.). She went through paratrooper training, but her role was military intelligence.

Prior to her first eight-month tour in Afghanistan in 2011-12, she became part of a new “Cultural Support Team” program to attach women to special ops units to relate to Afghan women.

“I was always seen as somebody they could relate to and not this American imposter who brings my values to that country,” said Washburn, who wore a head scarf when amongst the Afgahns.

“We kind of noticed that women everywhere share certain similarities. They obviously care about their home, their children. Women everywhere love pretty things. So if we wore a pretty head scarf, it would be like an ice breaker.”

Near the end of her first deployment, on the day her unit was supposed to leave a village, a snowstorm hit. She and her partner learned a local woman had gone into labor. Her husband was unable to get her to a midwife. The husband did not want male troops to see her.

Washburn and her partner took the woman in a military vehicle to their unit’s mud hut. On an Army radio, a special ops medic helped them deliver the baby.

“Everything was successful,” said Washburn. “Her husband gave us a little trinket. He was so grateful to have a boy.”

Washburn returned from her second tour in Afghanistan on Nov. 17. In those nine months, she had a different role as a platoon leader of an Army intelligence unit.

She and other women who participated in the Army program in Afghanistan have considered a book. Some kept journals. One is a writer. “We were the first to ever do anything like that. We bonded so much,” said Washburn.

According to Washburn, her military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Combat Action Badge, Airborne Badge and Air Assault Badge.

Washburn said she has about a year left in the Army, but she is considering signing on for a few more years. “There are some opportunities that are enticing me.”

There are issues surrounding women in the military, including opportunities for advancement and sexual harassment

“My eyes have been opened to those issues,” said Washburn. “Considering the communities that I have been working in, those issues exist, and I think they’re ever present in the media these days with all the changes that the military is pursuing as far as gender equality.

“But with the program that I did in my first deployment, we were part of that change, and nothing motivates me more than being an example of what motivated females can be in the military. I just hope the military continues to progress and that skilled individuals are afford the opportunities available to them.”

Washburn and the other woman assigned with her the “Cultural Support Team” with their unit in Afghanistan lived in a mud hut with the males.

The two women had separate living area. “It was a pretty big hut,” said Washburn. “So we had our own female quarters, which was nice.”

It would be incorrect to say that Washburn traded her white cheerleader boots for combat boots. The Eagles cheerleaders wear uniforms designed by Vera Wang. But for dancing purposes they wear designer Gant sneakers.

“I like to think it’s because we were more athletic and did more complicated routines,” said Washburn.

She added that cheerleaders – like women in the military – should not be labeled with stereotypes.

“The woman I met in cheerleading were all incredibly intelligent, ambitious women,” she said.

She’s in the Army Air Force Now.

Sweethearts for Soldiers? This was an organization created by two former NFL Cheerleaders, Bari Yonkers (Arizona Cardinals) and Tonya Helman (Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers.)

SFS recruited NFL Cheerleader alumni from all across the country to visit American military bases in the US and abroad, doing handshake tours, performances, and meet and greets. They did a lot of good for many years before the organization was dissolved last Spring. I haven’t spoken with Tonya and Bari, but I imagine, it was just one of those things where it had served its purpose and life was taking both women in new directions. I know Tonya had remarried, but I wasn’t sure what Bari was up to. When I found out, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather. Bari joined the Air Force Reserves.

Bari's days and as an ACC
Sweethearts in action

Charger Girls Salute The Military with Special Themed Uniforms

This past Thursday, the Chargers organization celebrated their 25th annual Salute to the Military with special pregame and halftime ceremonies honoring local servicemen and servicewomen.  And this year, the Charger Girls wore special military themed uniforms to help celebrate the occasion, a first for the venerable cheerleading squad.  Now if only the Chargers could have put up a better effort against the visiting San Francisco 49ers, the event would have been complete.  But alas, it was not meant to be as the 49ers crushed the Chargers in convincing fashion, 41 – 6.  Not even a special halftime performance by rock band Madison Rising could help raise the spirits of disappointed Chargers fans.

But the Charger Girls could and they looked amazing in their special game day uniforms.

As is custom for these game day reports, let’s begin with the Line Captains in their military themed uniforms: Ariel (Army), Kara (Marine Corps), Katelyn (Navy), and Natalie (Air Force).

This week’s Charger Girl of the Day is a rookie that caught my eye.  With a flirty personality and All-American good looks, this week’s Charger Girl of the Day is rookie Shelbi.

Shelbi was recently voted one of the 100 hottest NFL cheerleaders by the Bleacher Report.

BR96Shelbi

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