Folks often want to know what or more accurately, who is behind the San Diego Padre’s support of the military. For the last 15 years, that could be answered with a name; Jack Ensch.
Jack Ensch is the real deal. As a Navy Lieutenant he was held as a POW by the North Viet Namese. In fact, he is listed by the POW Network as a bonafide POW which verifies the stories of POWs and outs fakes.
But I digress. In an article by Bill Center of San Diego’s UNION-TRIBUNE, he explains how “Captain Jack” as he is affectionately known is retiring from his position as the Padres’ Director of Military Affairs.
“I’ve always looked at this position as being an ambassador from the Padres to the military and from the military to the Padres,†Ensch said last week. “I’m not sure who I was working for hardest.â€
“We were military before military was cool,†Ensch said. “I love it when people on the outside refer to the Padres as ‘the team of the military.’ â€
The new camouflaged Padres jerseys we wrote about last week are the latest in a series first introduced by Ensch in 2000. According to the UNION-TRIBUNE article, “Other Ensch innovations are Military Opening Day and the Sunday home salutes to the military that includes hosting Marines from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Camp Pendleton.”
“They make sacrifices for us; we should make sacrifices for them,†he said. “I hope the Padres never view the military just as a revenue stream. Our programs were always designed to honor, respect and support military service with no strings attached.
“Revenue generation should be merely a secondary result of the first.â€
