AL ASAD, Iraq -- While college football fans fill stadium seats, local bars and comfy couches, Oregon soldiers spend the season deprived of live games, cold beer and television. In Iraq, the season will go by very slowly.

KVAL.com decided to find Duck and Beaver fans serving in Iraq and bring their stories back home -- even if the games don't always make it overseas.

Executive officer 1st Lt. Daniel Cotton, 26, of Beaverton, Ore., graduated from the UO in 2006. Cotton was a UO cheerleader and spent his last year as the team mascot: the Duck. And he was executive officer 2nd Lt. Libby Smith's first cheer partner at the UO.

Cotton deployed to Iraq with Delta Co., 2nd Battalion of the 162nd Infantry of the 41st Infantry stationed in Al Asad, Iraq

And he's a Duck fan who follows the team -- even from far away in Iraq.

How did you juggle cheerleading and the Army?

Cotton: The idea that people will give you a hard time for being a male cheerleader, most of it is all in good jest, which passes after high school. In fact more people were jealous of the fact I was doing an athletic sport.  It got me out of having to come in to drill at 6 a.m. to do PT (Physical Training) because I was doing my workouts with the athletic program.

How many games have you watched in country?

Cotton: I have been able to watch two of the games, the Boise State game, which was very disappointing, but it is what is. Then the following game I watched using ESPN Game Cast. I watched the little arrow tick across the screen, and you can read what the last play was. I watched the next two games like that. I still feel as much as part of the game as I can. I was able to watch the Ducks destroy Cal and that was fantastic and I ran around my room and yelled and screamed and was all excited.

How do game times work with your schedules?

Cotton: They’re generally on early in the mornings somewhere between four am and five am so I set my alarm. The problem isn’t really waking up for the game it’s going to sleep because I’m so excited to watch the game. It’s like the thing I look forward to all week long and like the Cal game I seriously couldn’t go to sleep. I slept maybe an hour then I woke up to the alarm, turned on the TV.

How do you feel watching the games from Iraq?

Cotton: It is frustrating to not be able to be there. When I was at UO I never missed a game. I was on the field for every single game from 2002 all the way through 2006. That was an awesome experience.

How do you like working and living with Beaver fans?

Cotton: I was the first one to put up UO memorabilia on my door and someone else quickly defaced that. So then I responded by defacing their stuff.

Cali Bagby embedded with the Oregon Army National Guard from the 41st Infantry for KVAL.com. Her work has been published in the Washington Post and the Eugene Weekly.
More stories | Visit her Web site