National champion head coach Bob Jones calls on community to help write letters for troops overseas

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- For Bob Jones, devising and executing a game plan is nothing new.

"Some of the cards I've got are so heartwarming," Jones said.

Less than a year removed from a 35-year career as a state and national championship-winning football coach, his new career as a flight attendant remains a commitment to the community.

"In my prior career as an athletic director football coach, I always stressed to our kids, our coaches, that servant leadership is critical", he said.

When he heard a radio campaign on The Bull 100.3 FM to write letters to the active military for the 4th of July, he jumped into action.

"I was listening to The Bull, and they were talking about writing letters to our troops," he said. "As an ex-National Guard Veteran and the head coach of the U.S. Army, All-American game. I go, 'I got to get involved."

He came up with the idea to hand out cards to passengers on United Airlines flights, where he works. He worked as a flight attendant. "I went to my boss, and I said, 'Hey, I want to do this.' They said, 'Go for it. 'He didn't call anybody and ask anybody. They said, Go for it."

United Airlines passengers, old and young, on his flight, wrote cards to show their support.

"Some flights I was able to do it; some flights I ran out of cards," Jones said. "When somebody gets this in a box, and it's from Jax, and they get this one from Logan, who's 8-years-old, you know, an 8-year-old that takes a little while to write to color, so on and so forth, and that they know that that's from the heart."

Jones understands the impact that one letter can have on someone serving our country away from home.

"If you read these cards, they're not like, Hey, thank you. See ya", Jones said. "They're well-written. Very, very detailed. And people are taking their time because, you know, Our troops are important."

The campaign was a success.

The Bull collected 29,682 cards for our troops. So many more than the 10,000 targeted initially.

Five hundred letters were sent by United passengers thanks to Bob Jones' efforts.