Penn State football visits Naval Station Mayport as bowl week continues

As it turns out, not only can an offensive lineman fit into a military helicopter, so can a defensive lineman and a linebacker, simultaneously.

Though center Angelo Mangiro did absentmindedly muse, “It’s not something I want to do all the time.”

Penn State players visited Naval Station Mayport on Wednesday afternoon, alongside TaxSlayer Bowl opponent Georgia, and were welcomed by Navy sailors and a heaping pile of barbecue.

After the teams ate (on separate sides of the base’s park, of course), they were escorted by sailors to the hangars on the base, and then to the Farragut, a DDG-99 naval destroyer, to tour the facilities.

Naval Station Mayport is home to 10,500 sailors and related personnel, and is the third-largest naval fleet concentration area in the United States, and sits at the mouth of St. John’s river, on Florida’s Atlantic Beach.

It also has a fire station that serves the surrounding town as well as the base. Lance Thibault, one of the station’s crew, brought a white fire helmet that many of the players signed, while his fellow crew member, Jeff Jones, is rooting for the Bulldogs and brought a red fire helmet.

Thibault grew up in Vermont but loved Penn State. He and Jones are both attending Saturday’s game — Thibault’s predicting that the Nittany Lions roll over the Bulldogs — on which the two have a bet.

“We can’t tell you what it is, even off the record,” he laughed. “After years of working together, you know everything about the other guys. You look out for each other ... but that means the bets are worse!”

Anthony Mortimer and his son, Ian, live on the base and came to greet the players. Ian wore a blue No. 22 jersey, and said he likes the jersey’s current owner, Akeel Lynch, “because he’s fast.” Anthony grew up in Pennsylvania and has been a fan his whole life. He is taking Ian to his first-ever Penn State game this weekend.

The hangar

“Pew-pew, pew-pew!”

Carl Nassib wrapped his finger around the barrel of a machine gun strapped to one of the dozen-odd helicopters sitting in the hangar and outside on the base’s landing strip.

The Nittany Lions had split into two groups, and the first stop of Nassib’s was a hangar tour, during which time the players could sit in the helicopters and interact with naval airmen.

Paul “Brick” Bridgers, an offensive lineman for Navy from 2004-08, went to four bowl games himself (the team was 2-2 in the postseason during his time), and is now a pilot on the the “Air Wolves” squadron.

Bridgers met and spoke with several Penn State players, including Mangiro and Nassib.

“We were talking more about the military and about helicopter stuff (than football),” he said. “It’s fun seeing these guys and seeing them have a good time ... I said play hard. With these bowl games, everyone’s going to be out of shape, so I said the team that tries harder will be better.”

Bridgers said the players mostly wanted to talk about fitting into the helicopter seats.

“Yeah, at Navy we tend to be smaller football players and even I barely fit into the seats,” he laughed. “I couldn’t even believe how big some of these guys are.”

Receiver DaeSean Hamilton grew up in a military family, so while some players were in awe at the size of some of the equipment on the base, it was nothing new to him.

“Yeah, I’ve seen all this stuff before,” he said. “Basically the air bases, the combat training facilities, things like that. ... But spending a lot of time with these guys off the football field is fun.”

That left him more time to ponder who he could see as a helicopter pilot — and who he’d never, ever fly with.

“I would say maybe (linebacker) Von Walker, I could see him being the type to fly one of these things. ... He’d probably think about jumping out of them, actually,” he said.

“(But) definitely Geno Lewis or Josh McPherson, I don’t think they basically know how to work a pencil, I don’t expect them to know how to work a helicopter.”

The battleship

Penn State’s final stop was the USS Farragut, where players were escorted all over the ship by Navy crew members.

The team got a full tour of the defensive weapons the ship contains, and it was explained that the Farragut’s purpose is to defend aircraft carriers and shorelines, instead of to attack as players were shown missiles that can travel up to 1,000 nautical miles.

“Yeah, we shot one of these off in Key West and it landed in Texas,” said one crew member. “So, that’s pretty far.”

“Where do you normally shoot them?” a wide-eyed Lewis asked.

“We can’t tell you that,” replied the crew member, grinning.

“I just want to know so I can get the heck out of there,” said Lewis, shaking his head.

Meanwhile, Brendan Mahon and Parker Cothren snuck to the bow of the ship, behind the cluster of players and re-enacted the famous “Titanic” boat scene.

Nick Scott put in a request to drive the ship to its captain (a firm head-shake was the response) and Shawn Gatlos, a lifetime Penn State fan from West Chester, who is a maintenance man on the ship, trailed quarterback Christian Hackenberg the entire visit and asked him questions about his time as a Nittany Lion.

“This is the best day of my life,” Gatlos said, giddily pacing around the bridge as the players grouped below and were briefed on the ship’s policies before stepping aboard.

Gatlos won’t get to leave base to watch the game in person, but he got his picture with Hackenberg and Nassib and snuck in some advice to the former about staying in college another year.

Penn State will practice Thursday afternoon, which is open to media, and select members will visit the Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Penn State football visits Naval Station Mayport as bowl week continues."