For security reasons, there never was a firm date given for when Brad Childress would be leaving to be part of the NFL-USO coaches tour that would visit U.S. military troops overseas.
We now know the Vikings coach -- along with the Eagles' Andy Reid, the Bengals' Marvin Lewis and the Panthers' John Fox -- have departed. According to a blog that is being written by David Krichavsky of the NFL, the first stop of the trip was at Ramstein Air Base, which is approximately an hour outside Frankfurt.
Childress and the other coaches got an opportunity to spend time visiting with wounded soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which serves U.S. and NATO forces injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The plan after that was to take another overnight flight so the coaches could visit troops in an active war zone. However, the plane on which they were traveling hit a bird shortly after takeoff and had to return to Ramstein. That meant Childress and the other members of the traveling party had to spend the night in Germany.
