It was his choice, but Tabb Patrick still had a year left on James Madison’s football roster if he wanted to keep playing.

The former linebacker could be practicing and taking the field now in pursuit of another deep postseason run with the Dukes.

“Decided to forego it,” Patrick said. “Not for the NFL, though.”

Instead, Patrick is currently in the middle of his Basic Officer Leadership Course at the Maneuver Center of Excellence in Fort Benning, Ga., beginning the military career he’s always desired since enrolling in Army ROTC during his sophomore year at JMU.

And he’s not the only ex-member of the Dukes serving either as the country observes Veterans Day today.

Another former linebacker, Justin Wellons, is an Aviation Logistics Officer working on Marine Corps Air Station New River attached to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C.

Wellons, who blocked a punt in the first quarter to setup the opening score in the Dukes’ 2016 national championship game victory over Youngstown State, said six months after capturing the FCS crown he was in Officer Candidate School starting his journey in the Marines.

“My dad was enlisted,” Wellons said. “He was in the Air Force for a little bit and I knew coming out of high school it was something I was extremely interested in. I just had to tailor which branch I’d be going into. Then once I got into it and figured out what each branch had to offer, the Marine Corps aligned with everything I was trying to do at the time. And it’s just been a great fit so far.”

He was stationed in Quantico for about a year before moving to North Carolina, where Wellons’ day-to-day job is critical to the success of his squadron. He likens the responsibility he has to one of an assistant coach on a college football staff, aiding players with game plans and other essentials they must know about come time for kickoff.

“I make sure everything that the squadron needs,” Wellons said, “to fly or to do any type of mission throughout the day, month or year, that they have what they need to get the job done. And that’s ammunition, ordnance, flight gear or aircraft parts.

“Really, the logistic train runs through my job and then we have about 200 enlisted Marines underneath of us [officers] that do everything from maintaining the aircraft to crewing the aircraft to shooting guns off the sides of the aircraft, but we get them everything they need to get their job done.”

When Patrick leaves Fort Benning in February, he’s headed to the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C, he said, where he’ll serve as a Scout Platoon Leader.

At the Maneuver Center of Excellence, he’s learning how to operate an Abrams tank.

“I think always growing up just being in sports, you like that fast action, fast-paced lifestyle,” Patrick said. “And I think in military the only way to get that is through a combat arms branch – Armor, Infantry, Artillery – so I was drawn to Armor naturally, because who wouldn’t want to shoot big weapons and blow stuff up? I got lucky enough and that’s what they branched me into.”

He said he always considered the Army as a career path since his mother Phyllis Carpenter is a retired Lieutenant Colonel and a JAG Officer in the Army, and his stepfather Scottie Carpenter was a Major General.

But Patrick said it was during his time in JMU’s ROTC program that he first started sorting through the options he would have after graduation.

“We had a branching session where you rank yourself among your peers all throughout the nation,” he said, “and certain branches are harder to get into like Military Intelligence and then some branches are not as sought after, so you’ve got to rack and stack yourself. But they teach you about everything and there are 15 different branches you can go into. I was naturally drawn toward the action, the fastest pace you can get at least as an officer.”

Wellons and Patrick said playing football in college helped propel them to begin their service with success. They adapted quickly to the physical demands the Marines and the Army, respectively, requires as well as the discipline structure both branches need their servicemen to maintain.

They each said the physical part was the easiest.

“The discipline transition was one I thought would be difficult just because the seriousness around you is a bit more,” Wellons said. “And obviously the purpose for which you’re there is a bit more than just a football game, so I thought that would be a much more difficult adjustment, but it wasn’t and it was very much so along the lines of football. The way I look at it and the way I tell anybody else that’s looking at the Marine Corps or any branch of the military is that it’s very much like football. You have a command structure and it’s very much a team environment.”

Wellons said the various personalities he encountered in the locker room and interacted with at JMU taught him to thrive with all the different types of people he meets in the Marines, whether they work below him, alongside him or are his bosses.

“There’s nothing that could’ve prepared me more,” Wellons said. “Playing for all those different coaches and assistant coaches, you got high-dollar guys and then you’ve got guys in the Marine Corps that are higher-ranking officials, which some are intimated to talk to. But when you’re in a meeting with [former JMU coaches] Mike Houston or Everett Withers that prepares you for meeting with a Colonel or a General. Every time I look back on it, I’m like, ‘Wow. That was a total comparison to what we were doing at JMU.’”

Patrick said his brother, Mac, JMU’s former starting center along with the ROTC folks at the school, assisted him as he learned how to eventually perfect balancing Division I football and meeting all the standards of the ROTC on campus.

He said figuring out how to manage his time is certainly benefiting him now.

“It was tough going from practice or early-morning lifts to training during the day to ROTC in class straight back into practice,” Patrick said, “and then on some weekends we’d have a field training exercise where I’d put the pads down and then go put the uniform on. I’d go two days straight of training and then start back up football with film on Sunday.”

Since they transitioned into military life, neither Patrick nor Wellons are surprised they’ve found other past college football players and athletes in their respective branches. Wellons said his good friend Marzae Brooks, another former JMU linebacker who graduated after the 2014 season, is stationed also in Jacksonville. Patrick said he’s become friends with former Army-West Point players. He’s in BOLC with ex-Army lacrosse and rugby players, too.

And both of them said there’s a reason why they and their fellow Marines or Army members have chosen to what they do.

“When you look at Veterans Day,” Wellons said, “you look at the guys that came before us and they made the ultimate sacrifice. And there are guys still living and still breathing after all they’ve given to this country and really you look back on it and you think it’s a privilege to be here and be part of this country, especially when you meet the different types of people.

“The military service a melting pot. There’s every different type of race, every type of gender, but everyone is together and so when you look back on Veterans Day to see everyone that’s given to this country, it’s extra motivation for not only myself but I’m sure a ton of other service members.”

Said Patrick: “I’m proud to serve and be part of the military. One percent of America at any given time is in the military and as you know it’s a volunteer force, so no one can force you to sign up. I take pride in that.”