For three straight years, Navy nose tackle Landon Robinson has been a “freak.”
The hulking, 6-foot, 287-pound senior on the U.S. Naval Academy’s football team was ranked No. 13 this season on The Athletic’s annual Freak List, a roll call of college football’s biggest, strongest players. That spot was a jump from 48th in 2024 for Robinson, and it’s not hard to see why: though short for a Division I lineman, the Ohio native is the strongest player on Navy’s team with powerlifts last summer of 465 pounds on bench, a 665-pound squat, and 350-pound power clean.
But in a twist that could only happen at the Army-Navy game, Robinson, a team captain for Navy, will take the field Saturday in Baltimore, Maryland, wearing a patch that honors one of the Army’s most renowned and secretive units, C Company of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment’s 4th Battalion — the Chupacabras. The unit’s patch will be stitched to his shoulder, featuring a devilish lizard-figure and the 160th’s regimental motto, “Night Stalkers Don’t Quit.”
Robinson will wear the patch to honor a crew of four special ops aviators from the Chupacabras who were killed in September when their MH-60 crashed near Joint-Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
The crew were all soldiers, but one of the pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Kraus, 39, had deep family ties to the Naval Academy and the football team in particular.
That Robinson, who was co-MVP of the 2024 game, is wearing the Army patch will put a spotlight on the team’s recognition of the 160th crew, but the Chupacabras are just one of over 100 units that the players will recognize with unit patches during the game.
The patches come from Navy and Marine Corps units around the world. Many are sent by Naval Academy alumni who have reached out over the season to request that a player wear their current unit’s patch in the annual rivalry game. For others, players will pick a unit in which family members have served or are serving, while others are simple nods to significant moments in history.
Junior Safety Giuseppe Sessi will wear the patch of the USS Truxton, a guided-missile destroyer on which his cousin, Carlos Muniz, a Navy petty officer, is currently deployed.
“I was emailing him, and he would respond, like, a week later, and I’d respond like a week later. He’s on a deployment schedule, and I’m here at the academy, so it’s kind of difficult to stay in contact all the time,” Sessi said. “But I let him know I was picking his patch, and he was super excited about that. He’s telling all his buddies and his shipmates when he was out there, and he said he was looking forward to watching the game.”
Coleman Cauley, a junior linebacker from Macon, Georgia, is wearing a patch for the VMG-352 Raiders, a Marine air refueling squadron based in California.
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“I’ve had [former players] that are in the Marine Corps or in the Navy, reach out to me about guys on the team wearing their patch, or their brother’s patch, or, you know, a family member’s patch,” said Navy defensive coordinator P.J. Volker. For the Raiders’ patch, Volker said, he got a letter from Sion Harrington, a former Navy linebacker and now Marine pilot with the squadron. “He sent two patches, one for me and one for a linebacker to wear. And I brought it into the linebacker meeting room, and Cauley raised his hand immediately after I read the letter, was like, ‘I’ll wear that patch.’ It’s a way to respect and honor a lot of people that deserve a heck of a lot more than we can give them.”
While most of the patches are for Navy and Marine Corps units — ranging from ships and squadrons to full infantry divisions — a few are from other services, including the Army.
Or even farther.
Stephen Glenn, a backup punter from North Carolina, will wear a NASA patch from the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, which sent the first American to orbit the Earth, Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn — Stephen’s great uncle.
The team’s top running back, Alex Tecza, will wear a patch with a P-8 Poseidon jet, a converted 737 the Navy flies as a subhunter and spy plane. Rather than honor a unit, though, Tecza’s patch memorializes Lt. j.g. Zak Kennedy, an Annapolis, Maryland native and 2019 graduate who was headed for P-8 duty after finishing flight school when he was killed by a drunk driver on Jan. 1, 2023. Kennedy’s mother has been Tecza’s civilian sponsor at the academy, hosting him and other football players for weeks at a time during summer practices.
But Robinson’s patch holds a direct tie to the Navy’s team, through the family of one of the 160th pilots killed in the September crash.
A mission for a son’s service
Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Kraus, 39, joined the Army to fly after service as an enlisted Marine. He died in the September crash, which is still under investigation by the Army, along with Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Cully, 35, of Sparta, Missouri, Sgt. Donavon Scott, 25, from Tacoma, Washington, and Sgt. Jadalyn Good, 23, from Mount Vernon, Washington.
Kraus’ father, Bill Kraus, was a longtime executive at Under Armour, the sports apparel company founded in Baltimore. In 2001, he met Steve Newton, an executive with Outback Steakhouse, and the two became fast friends. In 2008, Andrew Kraus enlisted in the Marines.
Andrew Kraus’ decision to serve inspired his father to launch Mission BBQ in Glen Burnie, just outside Annapolis, focused both on good food and direct support of military and veteran-focused causes.
The two opened the first location on Sept. 11, 2011. The chain now has close to 150 locations, many near military bases and operates with unabashed themes of military support. Each day at noon, the staff stop serving as the national anthem is played.
“Every day is Veterans Day for us,” Kraus has said about the chain.
Since opening, the company says it has given away $25 million to military and first responder charities and organizations.
Early on, Kraus and Mission BBQ became major supporters of Naval Academy sports and on-campus events. Andrew’s younger brother, Alex Kraus, attended the school and is now a pilot in the Marines.
When Andrew was killed in September, news spread through the team like a death in the family.
“He’s somebody that everybody here in our football program knows, loves, and respects,” said Volker, who has coached at Navy for seven years. “When his son passed away, it was really tough for a lot of people around here, and I can’t imagine what it was like for Bill and his family.”
And while Kraus and his crew’s legacy will be on Robinson’s shoulder on Saturday, there’s a final connection, off-camera. Mission BBQ is catering the team’s post-game meal.
“Our family is incredibly grateful to Navy Football for this gesture in honoring Andrew and his crew,” Kraus said in an email to Task & Purpose. “Humbled that Landon was willing to be involved.”
