Undisclosed Base Middle East- 'Launchin' Levi LaVallee and 'Monster' Mike Schultz, big powerful names for two great Americans. Nicknames have been used by fans and sportscasters over the span of time to help describe in word form, the awesome, the unique, the standouts.
Levi and Mike are no exception. Early in both superstars racing careers they displayed a certain flair that caught the attention of the fan base and in the spark of a moment... the nicknames were applied by fans and sportscasters working in concert to attempt to add that special 'something extra' to help capture the essence of the man.
The Armed Forces Entertainment xHEAVY Medal Tour has placed these two ESPN X Games and AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series greats with our Troops in remote, hardship deployment locations throughout the Middle East. The mission: Give American Athletes the opportunity to Honor and Salute our American Heroes! It's a mission of resiliency building that the small nonprofit American300 has been working at in supporting Armed Forces Entertainment and our Troops for over 3 years now.
For over 14 hours today, the X Games Greats shook hands with security forces guards at their duty areas, mechanics out on boiling hot flight lines, and wounded at a world class remote location hospital. To top the day off, the group spent 3 hours sharing X Games Medals in a huge Meet and Greet 'Medals Ceremony' followed by a visit to the bases security forces night shift workers.
Amongst the medal sharing and high five'ing one underlying theme emerged: Behind the scenes troops felt the love, felt the importance of their roles in supporting the overall force. "Guys, I've been pretty darn lucky throughout my career, won some pretty cool events" said Levi LaVallee, 7x X Games Medallist to the various groups he encountered today " but none of it would have been possible, if it weren't for my right hand man, my Uber Awesome Crew Chief - Glen Kafka."
Kafka, has been a professional snowmobile tuner, team owner and behind the scenes man for over two decades. For those 'inside' the industry his name is well known, but for those like the millions who watched LaVallee pull off the one and only first ever Snowmobile Double Backflip at X Games or World Record 361' RedBull Distance Jump... Glen Kafka's name isn't household material.
"We spent the day visiting the 'Glen Kafka's' of our US Armed Forces and it was Awesome! It just doesn't get any better" said Mike Schultz, who while not a part of Team LaVallee, has
been a long time friend of this crew chief and master of the wrench work "in our sport the abuse that the machines go through is just amazing... snowmobiles simply weren't made to take the constant punishment that we put them through, if it weren't for the Glen Kafka's of our sport... we wouldn't have a sport" he added.
"These men and women are working on billion dollar aircraft in the direct sun with temp's north of 120 degrees for hours on end, turning wrenches, checking specifications, doing everything necessary to make the planes ready to fly, it's so damn humbling to see their greatness on display" said Kafka " Meeting these heroes of behind the scenes work today just put into perspective the entire XHeavy Medal Tour for me, Robi Powers told me about all the work our servicemen are doing over here in extreme conditions, today I got to see it being done up close and personal"
The xHEAVY Medal Tour rolls on to more remote bases here in the Middle East. The regional weather forecast is for more brutally hot days, days that will be spent by the US Armed Forces 'A Team' of behind the scenes work, heroes who put on their uniforms and perform their duties, standing on the front lines, protecting our bases, wrenching on our equipment processing our wounded, pushing through the logistics... all with the goal of ensuring that everyone 'comes home safely'!
Stay with us as the Tour Continues....
For more information on Armed Forces Entertainment please visit: www.armedforcesentertainment.com
For complete tour coverage in photos, video and stories visit: www.American300.org
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