Pizzas 4 Patriots' brings a little Super Bowl surprise to soldiers overseas

Retired U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Mark Evans was inspired a decade ago to airlift pizzas to troops stationed overseas by the wisdom of a child: his son.

He was watching, he says, news reports of the Iraq War when his teenage son asked simply if the soldiers there had pizza to eat on base.

"I said they're eating out of boxes at the forward operating bases, and he said could we get them some?" Evans said on Fox News recently.

And, despite his wife thinking he was crazy and betting him he could never pull it off, Evans managed to procure email information for former CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus who, according to Evans, said, "Let's do it."

"From there we've delivered over a million and half slices of pizza," he said.

This year's effort is called "Operation Pizza Bowl," and is designed to bring a little slice of home to troops in the Middle East as they watch the quintessential American sporting event: The Super Bowl, airing Sunday between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots.

Evans said hundreds of Chicago-style, deep-dish pies will be dropped to feed the troops. "And you know the pizzas are gonna get eaten like crazy," he added.