This story was originally published in The Fayetteville Observer and online at fayobserver.com
An Associated Press photographer's picture of former Gray's Creek football player Caleb McNeill running onto the field Saturday before the U.S. Military Academy's game against Tulane went viral.
McNeill was holding the French flag as he ran onto the field, running just behind a teammate holding the American flag, a symbol of solidarity with France in the face of the brutal terrorist attack Friday that the Islamic State has taken credit for.
But McNeill's father, Whit, said in a telephone interview that his son wasn't sure why he was chosen to carry the flag, or if officials at West Point were aware of Caleb's connection to the history of French and American support for each other, playing high school football in the backyard of a city named for a French hero of the American Revolution.