GREEN BAY — While the rest of the football world wondered how the Green Bay Packers were going to survive without Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers was about as far away from the game as he could get while still being in the United States.

It was early March — just a few days after Favre retired, making Rodgers the Packers' new starting quarterback — and Rodgers was in Alaska, at the Fort Wainwright U.S. Army base in Fairbanks, visiting the "Arctic Warriors."

Except this was more than just a PR trip. He woke up at 5 a.m. every day. He wore camouflage fatigues. He dragged a 150-pound sled through the snow. He even went on a 4-mile run with one of the units. And he learned valuable lessons in conviction and commitment from the 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds preparing themselves for war.

"I was most impressed by the discipline, the lack of fear and the dedication they took to their work," said Rodgers, who went on the trip — organized by Unlimited Potential, a Christian outreach group — along with Packers teammates Noah Herron and Ruvell Martin and several other pro athletes. "There's a lot of scrutiny right now of our military, our president and the way we're dealing with foreign affairs — but none of that fazes them. They're not worried about what other people say about them. They know they have a job to do, and they're going to do it to the best of their abilities. And they're not scared to fail.

"A lot of those things I took away, saying, 'Hey, that should be my attitude. A lot of people are going to say stuff about me, but I should not be afraid to fail.' "

While Rodgers' participation in a sled-dog race got much of the publicity at the time, his talks and training sessions with the soldiers made a lasting impression, especially when he took part in the run.

"I was only supposed to go two miles, but once you get into it with these guys, it's kind of like I couldn't let the team down," said Rodgers, who hopes to do one such trip a year and wants to go to Iraq or Afghanistan next offseason. "I wasn't one of 'them' — but I felt like it. It was just an awesome, awesome moment. We ran for four miles, and then we had breakfast and talked. It was cool."

Randy Blanchard, who serves as Fort Wainwright's Director of Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation, said Wednesday night that he wasn't surprised by the effect the troops had on Rodgers.

"Those are the kind of kids (the players) get a chance to see and talk to," Blanchard said. "Aaron's right. These kids are dedicated to their job. They have a mission to do, and they believe in what they're doing."

So does Rodgers.

The future is now

Sporting a bad mullet that his mom desperately wants him to cut, Rodgers answered questions for 35 minutes in front of his locker following the team's organized team activity practice on Wednesday.

Although Rodgers has run the No. 1 offense in OTAs before, when Favre wouldn't participate, it's decidedly different now.

"The last couple years, I was (only) No. 1 until Brett got here," Rodgers said. "(Now) I'm the guy going into the season, and I think the guys are starting to rally around my leadership style and the way I do things. I've been waiting for this opportunity my whole life."

The longest wait has been the past three years, during which Rodgers, 24, threw only 59 regular-season passes and bided his time behind Favre.

Rodgers said he hasn't talked to Favre (they've "traded messages") since the retirement announcement, and Rodgers was cautious in his response when asked about Favre's unretirement talk ("He obviously is retired — he probably still thinks he can play — but as a football team, I think we're moving on") and the idea of Favre's No. 4 being retired on the same night he makes his first NFL start.

Rodgers also was careful when asked how his approach with rookie quarterbacks Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn differs from the cold shoulder Favre gave him as the Packers' first-round pick in 2005.

"I'm going to help them out as much as they want. If they want to come to me with questions, I'll be more than happy to help them out," Rodgers said. "They've got my phone number, they know where I live."

Ready to lead

Actually, the whole team knows.

For the past month or so, Rodgers has been holding an "open-invitation" weekly get-together at his home, putting to good use those lessons he learned in Alaska about building a tight-knit outfit.

"Anytime the guys on the team exert leadership on their own — without being prompted or coached to do something — that's a good thing," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said.

"But the bottom line," quarterbacks coach Tom Clements said, "is they're going to be confident in Aaron not because he had them over to his house for a couple dinners, but because they know he can perform. And they know he's done that."

Even if there are plenty of others who doubt him.

"A lot of people are expecting me to fail outside of this locker room. Maybe not expecting me, but maybe wanting me to fail. And I'm OK with that. I don't mind that," Rodgers said. "I'm not playing for anybody but the guys in this locker room.

"Yeah, I want to be liked, obviously. Everybody does. Everybody loves Brett, and they always will. But hopefully, if we can string together some wins this year, maybe I'll be a close second — or third behind Bart Starr — on their favorite quarterback list."