South Boston Allied War Veterans Council

10/05/2026

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An NFL rookie walked into a stadium today with four names stitched on his jacket.

They were a Black Hawk crew that went down last September.

One of them was the son of a man whose restaurants play the national anthem every day at noon.

The rookie is Landon Robinson, a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals, a Naval Academy graduate and a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

The jacket has four patches on it. Every one of them says C Company, 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The Night Stalkers. The unit that flies special operations missions in the dark. That company calls itself the Chupacabras, and the regiment's motto is stitched on every patch.

Night Stalkers Don't Quit.

Under each patch is a name.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Andrew Kraus, 39, of Sanibel, Florida.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Andrew Cully, 35, of Sparta, Missouri.

Sergeant Donavon Scott, 25, of Tacoma, Washington.

Sergeant Jadalyn Good, 23, of Mount Vernon, Washington.

On the night of September 17, 2025, their MH-60 Black Hawk went down near Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. None of the four survived.

Now here is why a Navy man put an Army patch on his coat.

In 2011 a marketing executive at Under Armour named Bill Kraus and a restaurant man named Steve Newton opened a barbecue place in Glen Burnie, Maryland. They picked the opening date deliberately.

September 11, 2011. Ten years to the day.

Mission BBQ is in 23 states now. Every location plays the national anthem every day at noon. On Veterans Day and on September 11 they feed military and first responders for free. The company became a significant supporter of Naval Academy athletics.

Bill Kraus has sons.

Alex went to the Naval Academy and became a Marine pilot.

Andrew flew for the Night Stalkers.

Three months after that crash, Army played Navy in Baltimore for the 126th time. Navy players wear unit patches in that game, more than 100 of them, picked because a player has family in a unit or because an alum wrote in and asked. Navy's defensive coordinator P.J. Volker called it "a way to respect and honor a lot of people."

Navy's captain and starting nose tackle picked the Chupacabras.

That was Landon Robinson. Today he wore the same four names into an NFL stadium.

Be honest about the limits. It is a jacket, and patches do not bring anybody home. Robinson never served alongside those four.

But Bill Kraus opened a restaurant on the tenth anniversary of September 11 so that every day, at noon, in every room he owns, somebody would stop and play the anthem for people who serve.

Then the thing he spent 14 years honoring took his son.

And a kid from his school keeps saying the names out loud.

Kraus. Cully. Scott. Good.

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10/05/2026

The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council is excited announce its 1st South Boston's Dog of the Year contest. This contest will help raise funds for our annual parade. Is your dog going to be the 1st dog honored with the title "South Boston's Dog of the Year"?

Fundraising events can be held from Nov 1, 2026-Feb 19, 2027 (midnight)

to register scan QR code on flyer or visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BRf9WgC6ExiGz_ASJzfFCLtvFKgc0yFGxzQU97Gmjeg

South Boston Today
Caught In Southie
South Boston Beat
South Boston Online

09/30/2026

The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council is honored to name South Boston native Dan Ferrera as the Chief Marshal for the 2027 South Boston Evacuation Day/St Patrick's Day Parade

09/30/2026

Never forget, Who you are!!!! Semper Fi Marine!!!

Landon Robinson walked into the stadium today in his Marine Corps dress uniform again.

Different one this time.

And that is the part worth paying attention to, because he is not repeating an outfit. He is working through them.

Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he arrived in Blue White Dress B. Blue coat, white trousers, ribbons on the left chest. That is the summer dress uniform, authorized for officers and staff NCOs.

Today he walked in wearing Blue Dress D. No coat. Khaki short sleeve shirt, no tie. Blue trousers with a scarlet stripe down the outside seam.

That stripe has a name. Marines call it the blood stripe, and only officers and NCOs are allowed to wear it. Robinson is a second lieutenant, so he has earned it.

White peaked cap. Black belt. Ribbons.

There are four variants in the blue dress family. A is the coat with full size medals. B is the coat with ribbons. C drops the coat for a long sleeve khaki shirt and a tie. D drops the tie and goes to short sleeves.

He has now worn two of them to work.

Somebody finally asked him why.

"I just thought it would be really cool for Week 1. At the Academy, we'd always wear our uniforms when we showed up for games."

That is it. That is the entire reason.

At the United States Naval Academy, the Navy Midshipmen walk to the stadium in uniform. It is just what you do there. Every game. Nobody films it and nobody writes about it, because everyone is doing it.

So when he got to the NFL, he kept doing the thing he had always done.

And it is not a one off. Robinson has made clear he intends to keep wearing it as long as he is in this league, as a way to honor people who served before him, people serving now, and people who have not signed up yet.

Every Sunday. For as long as it lasts.

Most people know the rest of it by now. He was the 226th pick, one of the last players taken in the entire draft. Six foot nothing, 295 pounds, told for years he was too small. A first team All American at Navy anyway, the first Navy defensive player to get there in 50 years. Then he led the whole NFL in sacks during the preseason and made the roster.

Today the Cincinnati Bengals are on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He showed up to that building in the uniform of the United States Marine Corps, carrying his own bag, with nobody asking him to.

There are a lot of ways to tell people who you are.

He picked the one where he does not have to say anything.

For more stories like this, follow us on any platform The Sports on Tap

09/30/2026

Honoring their sacrifice.

09/23/2026

It has come to the SBAWVC attention that an individual is going into local business soliciting donations for the South Boston Evacuation Day/St Patrick's Day Parade. The SBAWVC does not have anyone soliciting on it's behalf and has not begun to reach out to local businesses for donation to the parade.

PLEASE SHARE

09/22/2026

Move United Sport is bringing a free clinic of their USA Wheelchair Football league to the area 9/27