*Video of Wednesday's interview with Charlton Warren posted at the end of this piece.
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive backs coach Charlton Warren met with the media following practice Wednesday to discuss the secondary, but mostly his life at the Air Force Academy serving ten years, and then getting into coaching.
Saturday is Military Appreciation Day for the Tar Heels, as they host Campbell for a noon start at Kenan Stadium. So, Warren was made available this week because this is a special game or him, and to share his amazing story.
Above is video of Warren’s interview, and below are some saliant comments he made about his experiences, and how he relates his service to coaching football.
*Warren’s opening comments: “Obviously, this game being military appreciation week for me is pretty important. It stands out for me because of what I was able to do for 14 years prior in my life. I appreciate the university, I appreciate Coach Brown giving these troops the opportunity to be celebrated, because they are heroes, and just recognition for what they do for us.
“And really, right now with what’s going on in the world, and all different parts of the world, it hits home a little bit more, because for me, I got buddies, I got teammates, I got friends who have kids or are fathers that are out there defending us and our freedoms while I’m able to coach a game of football.”
*Warren graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1999 with a degree in human factors engineering. He spent the next decade on active duty, and during that time earned an MBA and started his coaching career as a GA at AFA under legendary Falcons Coach Fisher DeBerry in 2005 while still on active duty.
So, what were some of Warren’s jobs when on active duty?
“I was an engineer, so I started off as an avionic program manager. And one of my jobs early on was to take old cockpits across the world, and we updated those to digital glass cockpits. So we put new bells and whistles. So that might be in Taiwan or Japan or Germany. I was working with C130s.
“I did electrical system modification, so different communication systems that have to send signals to satellites. So, basically working engineering-based programs on the money side and the war fighter side.
“Um, 9/11 happened, and I was working a weapons program. And from there, we wanted to do things with special forces to put certain weapons on certain platforms at the time. Because of that, I started doing some special forces work with air-to-ground munitions putting GBU 38s on predator drones, GBU 38s and B2s to drop 80 at a time at certain locations and targets across different parts of the country.
“From there, I went into a world that was unbelievable for an unbelievable cause after we had the terrorist attacks of 9/11. One of my greatest roles in the war on terror was finding ways to neutralize different things and different targets at different locations with special forces people using drones and B2s and F16s and F18s. And it was a joint program with the Navy.”
*After doing that for six years, and he went back to AFA to work under DeBerry but also be an instructor at the academy. Warren had never thought about being a football coach, but that move back to Colorado Springs changed his life. Being able to mentor young men moved him into the direction of coaching, which he has done ever since.
“From that standpoint, I’ll never tear away the military part of my life. The discipline, the accountability, the way I walk, the way I talk, the way I instruct, the lessons I teach my players outside of scheme and coverage and technique. Everything sort of brings itself back for me to discipline and accountability and service.”
*There are militaristic connections between football and the military, but there is a fine line where to push some of the militaristic commonalities, so what is it for Warren?
“I think the things you can bring and cross over is the intensity, the attention to detail, the discipline. Not only going to class, being on time, being in the right uniform, but also executing a coverage. Being able to, if I’m supposed to be outside 50 percent, I’m outside 50 percent. If I’m supposed to be seven yards deep, don’t be 12.
“And I think all those little details are exactly what makes our military unbelievable. I think you can impart that on kids, and it’s practical to them.
“What you can’t do is talk over their heads or say every day like, ‘hey, this is like me going in the desert and my life is on the line because it’s not that, and you can’t make those parallels. But teamwork, camaraderie, believe in each other, taking care of your wingmen, taking care of the guy next to you, going to a certain type of battle. All those things transcend and cross over.
“So, for me, the way we talk, the way we communicate. One of the biggest things I learned in the military when it comes to being where you need to be is how you communicate. Man, the game of football with tempo, with formations, if it ain’t communication we communicate one way: name, command, and volume. And I learned that as an 18-year-old in freaking basic training.”
*One former Tar Heel, whom Warren coached was inspired enough by him, he ended up going into the service. Donnie Miles, who played 45 games for the UNC from 2014-17, starting 38 times. He missed the last half of his senior season after suffering an injury versus Notre Dame. Miles got some looks in the NFL, including with his hometown Atlanta Falcons, but never caught on. Warren coached Miles in 2015 and 2016, seasons in which the Tar Heels combined to win 19 games.
“He played safety here. Once I left, we’ve stayed in contact. He actually ended up in the Army, and I think he’s currently still in the Army, maybe in a reserve capacity. But he was a guy I talked to a bunch while I was here, ‘Hey coach, if I don’t go to the league, this is interesting to me.
“And he was able to do that. I would say that I was instrumental in helping him do that because that was my background and something he wanted to get into.
“Now, I wanted him to go to the Air Force, but my man decided to the Army. Hey, it’s all for a good cause.”
*So, Warren was asked all the different places he was stationed.
“Colorado; Warner Robins, Georgia; Eglin Air Force Base Florida; back to Colorado; and some undisclosed locations in the sand box.”
