A desire to serve

Houston Chronicle:

Whenever Army Spc. Jason Pittman hears someone talk about football, he inches closer to the conversation. If he hears anyone mention the NFL, he can't resist telling them that his brother Bryan plays in the league.

The Texans' Bryan Pittman may be the most widely known long snapper in the NFL — at least among U.S. Army personnel stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.

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These days, Bryan brags about Jason, too. His younger brother is less than two weeks away from being deployed to Iraq.

Jason's unit will embark on a 400-day tour of duty beginning in Kuwait, where it will spend three to six weeks getting acclimated to the weather. It will then travel into Iraq for the rest of its tour.

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Neither Pittman took the most direct route to fulfilling his dream. Bryan, who is in his fifth NFL season, toiled in semipro football for three seasons until the Texans signed him in 2003 at the age of 26. Jason tried to join the Marines out of high school but failed the physical. Weight issues have plagued him since his sophomore year of high school. In January 2005, he weighed 320 pounds.

That's the month everything changed for the Pittman family. Tragedy struck when Jason and Bryan's older sister — Cheryal, 29 — committed suicide.

"I came to the conclusion that life is too short to not do what you want to do," Jason said. "So I made a commitment that I was going to do this, because I didn't want to look back when I'm 60 years old and say, 'I wish I had done that.' I have wanted to be a soldier since I was a little boy."

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With advice from Bryan and support from the family, Jason started to eat healthy and exercise. He was down to 230 pounds by June 2005 and joined the Army Reserve that month.

During one visit home, Jason saw some friends who were leaving for their second tour of duty in Iraq. That prompted him to want to do more, so he asked his retention officer if he could switch to a unit planning to deploy.

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Four days after volunteering for duty in Iraq, Jason received word that a unit in Montana was scheduled to deploy but needed more soldiers. Jason said he would join them immediately.

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You have to wish Jason God's speed on his mission to Iraq and be grateful that we have such men in this country. Those who think our military is broken need to take another look at people like Jason who go out of their way to serve and to help in Iraq.