Kansas City Chiefs’ “Salute to Service” Gets an Emotional Upgrade
Categories: News
Last Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs took a tradition and gave it a serious upgrade, just in time for Veterans Day.
Equipment Manager Allan Wright looked at the sweatshirts meant to be worn for the “Salute to Service” game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and got to thinking.
“I was looking at a sweatshirt and it says, ‘Salute to Service,'” Wright told Chiefs reporter Pete Sweeny. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to salute the ones who pay the ultimate sacrifice and the ones that have lost their lives?'”
He immediately reached out to Chiefs in-house military liaison, Major Mark Lemanski, to obtain the names of local fallen service members. “Mark called the Gold Star group and I told him I needed 63 names and it would be here within the Chiefs Kingdom,” Wright said.
They set about choosing just 63 names from the list of over 18,000 gold star families in the area, going back through World War Two. Each name was designated to a player and was placed on their sweatshirt over the “Salute to Service” logo. Players also received cards that detailed the history of the person behind the name; where they were from, their age, and how they passed away.
You can find a complete list of the soldiers honored on the Chiefs’ website here.
You know what? Hell Yeah. This is about the classiest thing I’ve seen a team do in a long long time.
What a great way to step up Mr. Write & Major Lemanski.