Fort Drum officer takes boxing with him to Iraq

A little ambition, some plywood and donated punching bags were all that Chief Warrant Officer 2 Steven Badgley needed to set up a boxing ring outside of Kirkuk, Iraq.

The Kiowa helicopter pilot with the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade has been training other soldiers to box and has organized weekly fights to help pass the time.

"We've been here for eight months and it's getting tedious," he said in a phone interview from Base Warrior. "Every day that we have a fight, everyone hangs out, and it's bringing up the morale a little bit."

Badgley was a boxer for the Army when he was stationed at Fort Carson, Colo. After becoming an aviator and being assigned to Fort Drum in August 2007, he found the Watertown Area Boxing Club and John Pepe.

After a show at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds in the fall of 2007, Badgley approached Pepe about becoming a coach at the club.

"He was so excited that we had boxing in the area and he has some great boxing experience," Pepe said. "We've had soldiers box with us before, but it's difficult to keep up the training with the deployments."

Pepe said it takes three to six months to train a boxer for a fight, and a soldier's deployment schedule sometimes leaves time for only one fight. Now that Badgley is training soldiers deployed to Iraq, that could mean they will be ready for a boxing match upon their return this fall.

"I know they love to train and it's hard sometimes," Pepe said. "We've brought a little piece of us to them in the desert."

For the first few months of the deployment, Badgley spent time constructing the plywood ring and makeshift gym. He said the sand was like concrete and it took forever to dig through in order to put in the ring posts.

Badgley took the donated heavy punching bag, speed bag, headgear and gloves and has set up a training rotation that coincides with his flight missions. He said it can be difficult, especially when his schedule changes almost every month and can involve 24-hour shifts.

"The chain of command doesn't want people out there sparring without me, because I'm the only certified instructor," he said. "My shift will change, so it can be difficult to make the schedule work, but most definitely the mission comes first."

For him, boxing and coaching are a release. He said he has plans to open his own club once he retires from the Army and will continue to coach at the Watertown club for as long as he is stationed at Fort Drum.

And he hopes that his makeshift gym will be put to good use for the unit that falls in after the Aviation Brigade.

"I will bring the gear back," he said. "But I definitely will leave the gym set up."