As you can tell from the picture I finally got a chance to go to a USO show, and I got pretty lucky. I had flown down to the IZ on Friday morning with the group of officers and Iraqi dignitaries that visited both the Maintenance Depot and the Supply Depot. Besides my boss COL M, the Deputy Commanding General (DCG) a British BG was there as was the Secretary General (SECGEN) of the Ministry of Defense (MOD). I got the chance to brief the SECGEN about the Maintenance Depot and showed him the Small Arms Facility and he really enjoyed what he saw and was not aware of all that had been done so far on the project. So as a tasker I have to prepare a briefing with pics on the depot and brief him at a later date.
On the chopper back to the IZ I hopped into the first one since the second one looked full and after throwing my ruck into the chopper and climbing in and strapping myself in I look over and low and behold it's COL Alexander the Task Force Commander sitting there next to me with a big ass smile on his face. I shook his hand and asked him what the hell he was doing up in Taji and he told me who in the hell was in the second chopper because they were at BIAP and got diverted to Taji to pickup the dignitaries. Once I landed at the IZ I get out and while heading to the terminal run into COL Buechler one of the other guys on the task force who I hadn't seen in a long time. It's amazing that everytime I fly I run into my buddies either at the pax terminal or in the bird!! As usual I got a small 8X10 foot hootch over by the embassy, someone over at KBR housing must not like me or something to that effect. After downloading gear I headed over to the coffee shop and had my triple non-fat latte that I had been craving for a long time and off to work I went.
I briefed my boss on what was going on up at the Depot, sycnched up with CPT M the liaison officer in the J-4 section and we discussed all the things that tend to keep me up at night that pertain to the Depot. I then visited Wayne the bean counter and actually got a compliment from him (a rarity) that I was holding the line with the Depot budget and the few PR&C's that I was trying to get approved didn't look like fluff to him and were needed!! By the time I finished the rounds it was almost 1930 and every time someone opened up the door you could smell the cigar smoke from the guys outside. I ducked out for a quick smoke and was handed a Hoya de Monterrey Churchill from Habana which took me a long time to finish and it was definitely a nice cigar. By 2100 I had to head back to the office finish up the slides for the next day and off to the hootch.
That next morning at 0900 I attended the 3 hour meeting that pertains to the Contracting foks here in the IZ and the MG and the RADM who is replacing him were running the meeting. I got to brief the Depot Integrator Contract Status and more importantly what the status of the Depot was. There were a couple of O-6's from other commands that had questions on the project since they had add on projects that needed parts of the Depot to be completed before they could implement their project. After the meeting the General, a couple of the Contract Officers, his lawyer, Wayne and I met to go over the deadline, what he was expecting from his folks as to their time line to meet the deadline and what needed to happen between now and then.
After I got back I ran into MSG B who was an E-7 when I took over the Battalion back in April 2003 at Camp Parks and is now over here running the DFAC. She knows that I like country and asked me if I was interested in seeing Kellie Pickler in concert. I told her, :yeah right Kellie Pickler here in Iraq give me a break". Although up in Taji there have been concerts the artists are not national draws and it was ironic because the previous week Bill O'Reilly on the his "Radio Factor" show criticized the USO precisely for the lack of big name acts in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2007, and supposedly had the director of the USO on his TV show. When she told me it was for Sunday I was bummed since I was to fly out late that evening.
I got a chance to run with SSG Mike who hosted the CIM in Baghdad, and we did 6 miles in the IZ. It was nice to run on real roads and see real cars not just SUV's and dirt. The only thing I don't like from the IZ is that there are T-walls everywhere and you can't see anything to your side just cement T-walls. From what he was telling me looks like we may be hosting the Shamrock Marathon in the IZ in March, which means I have 6 months to increase the mileage and see if I can crack 3:50 so when I get back home I can qualify for Boston again and run there in 2009. After the run I had a couple of more meetings and was told the bad news that I was not confirmed on the flight that night and they had to rebook me on a Sunday evening flight. That was good for two reasons, now I could see the concert and smoke with the gang that night.
Sunday besides meetings and working with the Wayne on the budget, MSG B asked me if I was going to be at the show and I told her yes and she said that she would reserve me a seat. So at 1340 I headed over to the DFAC to lineup for the doors to open for the 1400 hrs show. I sat down with a couple of my buddies and MSG B saw me and told me that I had a seat reserved and when she point to the front row I was like you gotta be kidding me. I was sitting in the middle of the first row about 8 feet from where she was to be performing. At this time I was kicking my self in the ass for having forgotten my camera back in Taji, yes Carmen besides forgetting to buy what you tell me to by at Safeway I tend to forget other things if not written down. At 1355 hrs she came out and starting talking to us while the crew put the final touches to the speakers and other equipment. Since they fly in Blackhawks they travel light so she had two of the guitarists she travels with, a couple of speakers and that was it. She sang 5 songs from her current album Small Town Girl: Small Town Girl, My Angel and the three singles that were released from that album, Red High Heels, I Wonder and Things that Never Cross a Mans Mind and Independence Day from Martina McBride. She answered questions that the audience asked her, said that she really enjoyed coming over to Iraq with her band to sing with the troops and that her grandfather was a Marine and that got the Marines in the audience all riled up! We never got a chance for a meet and greet since they had a couple of other shows that day so off she went to another FOB. It was nice to listen to her sing and in person she's the same as she was on American Idol two years ago. She definitely has talent and I would believe like Carrie Underwood and Josh Gracin who sing C&W she'll be on the charts for a long while.
I finally got out later that evening and today am back at work. At least I will have tomorrow off, well sort of as my luck has it every time I take a day off an official visit is scheduled at the last minute to visit the depot, so I guess that for a couple of hours tomorrow I'll be a tour guide and get a chance to brief some visitors on the Depot.
That's it for now, it's almost 2100 hrs and I am heading off to the PX to see if there is anything new, I doubt it, but then again it's been awhile since I was at the PX last, at least I won't have to fight for a parking spot like some of you are having to do this time of the year outside of the malls or Walmart.
The Colonel
1 comment:
You lucky dog, Sir!
Post a Comment