updated 8:56 p.m. ET April 27, 2008

NEW YORK - In full cadet uniform, Army’s Caleb Campbell sat upright in one of Radio City Music Hall’s plush seats. On his head was a Detroit Lions ballcap.

Cupped in his left hand was his ticket out of Iraq.

It was the card the Lions turned in to take Campbell 218th overall on Sunday at the NFL draft, changing his post-graduation plans to lead a platoon, one that may well have seen combat.

“I’m very fortunate,” Campbell said. “Without the Army and the academy ... I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

Campbell is the first Army football player to benefit from a new policy allowing athletes with a chance to play professionally to complete their service by serving as recruiters and in the reserves.

Campbell will still be on active duty. He’ll serve as a recruiter, spending his Tuesday off days from the Lions visiting high schools and working. If his career lasts more than two seasons, he will have the option of buying out the last three years of his active-duty commitment in exchange for six years in the reserves.

Meanwhile, his former teammates and classmates all face the prospect of going to war in Iraq, where more than 4,000 servicemen and women have been killed in the war that’s been going on for more than five years with no end in sight.

Campbell wouldn’t hesitate to join them.

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“I didn’t come to the academy to play football,” he said. “I came to the academy to become an officer.”

He initially had misgivings about passing up on the chance to lead a platoon. But he came around.

Lions coach Rod Marinelli, who served a tour in Vietnam, said on TV that picking the 6-foot-2, 229-pound Campbell was no flyer, and that the former Black Knights defensive back would be used as a linebacker, at least initially. The son of GM Matt Millen is a cadet at West Point.

Campbell “embodies what the academy is all about, and that’s what everyone in this country should be trying to be,” Millen said. “He’s got skills, he’s got desire and he’s going to get a great opportunity.”

On a star-starved second day at the draft, Campbell was the most popular guy in the room. Whenever he appeared on camera, fans chanted “Ca-leb Camp-bell!” and “U-S-A!” with only minimal egging on from ESPN staff.

“This is incredible,” Campbell said. “It gives me goosebumps. It’s awesome.”

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