Advertisement

Local soldier flies the UGA flag in Kuwait after Georgia's national championship win

When the University of Georgia Bulldogs won the national championship on Jan. 10, a flag with the big "G" emblem was flown in celebration in the faraway country of Kuwait.

U.S. Army Pfc. Trevor Mattox, a 2015 graduate of North Oconee High School, was deployed to Kuwait in December, and he took the flag with him in hopes the Dawgs would claim the title.

Mattox, the son of Doug and Sherry Mattox of Watkinsville, kept up with the game’s action online and through texting his father.

U.S. Army Pfc. Trevor Mattox, left, and fellow soldier Brian Hopson of Indianapolis, Ind., show the flag he was able to fly in Kuwait after UGA won the national championship.
U.S. Army Pfc. Trevor Mattox, left, and fellow soldier Brian Hopson of Indianapolis, Ind., show the flag he was able to fly in Kuwait after UGA won the national championship.

“He was frustrated because they didn’t have anything set up to watch the game, but he was able to get it online and his supervisor let him off duty a little while to watch,” Doug Mattox said Friday.

“There was a lot of excitement for the game and everyone wanted to see it,” said Mattox, who also served in the Army and was stationed in Kuwait in 2003.

“I remember when I was there we had a TV set. We convinced the general to buy us a TV,” said Mattox, who was a member of the unit that set up the base in Kuwait.

“I’m one of the ones that set up the base where he is — I never expected my son to be there,” he said.

Almost 20 years after his father watched UGA play in a bowl game in Kuwait, his son was able to hoist the G flag after a national championship victory.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: U.S. Army soldier from Watkinsville flies UGA flag at base in Kuwait