Texas A&M, Auburn vets reunite to fulfill promise made in Afghanistan

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In the U.S. Marine Corps, in Afghanistan, if you’re asking people to work for you, said Lt. Kolbe Grell, you’re asking them to fight for you. You’re asking them to risk their lives with you. And so while Lt. Grell was the boss, the platoon leader, he knew he had to break the ice.

How? College football. Lt. Grell loves, lives, eats, breathes college football.

“Like most people,” he said.

Like the guys in his platoon. Guys from Texas, Alabama, places where they worship the game. A Nebraska guy gave as good as he got (and a UCLA fan tried not to get left in the dust). You should have seen them during their downtime, going back and forth on who had the best team, the better program, the most passion.

One of them was the biggest Auburn fan any of them had ever met. Cpl. Christopher Montgomery. War Eagle through and through.

This was in 2010. The Cam Newton season. “He was winning every debate we had,” Lt. Grell said.

Lt. Grell is a Texas A&M former student (at Texas A&M they aren’t called alums), and so rabid an Aggie fan he keeps stats on who wins the coin toss.

He was following the rumblings on conference realignment. And he told Cpl. Montgomery that if -- when! -- the Aggies joined the SEC, they’d go to the first Auburn-A&M game together.

“By the time that happened we’d both be out of the Marine Corps,” Lt. Grell said. They’d be home. It’s the kind of thing you dream about during wartime, when you’re far from home.

On Dec. 7, 2010, Cpl. Montgomery was injured in an IED explosion, losing both his legs and severely injuring his left arm. He was medically evacuated to the U.S.

He got to see his beloved Auburn Tigers win the national championship. He watched the game in a hospital bed.

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