Celtic Aire Leaves Us O'Flabbergasted at the McUSO

USO at Camp Virginia recently hosted a concert by Celtic Aire, a musical group composed of the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants. Members of Celtic Aire are Technical Sgts. Joseph Haughton, Julia Brundage, and Emily Lewis, and Master Sgt. Eric Sullivan.

We were initially somewhat bewildered because we never previously had this type of group entertain at the USO. However, it took less than one song for Celtic Aire to win over just about everyone inside the Center.

Celtic Aire is a group of very talented, highly trained, enormously gifted singers and musicians. Any one of the members would be fabulous alone, but together they were phenomenal. The group played Irish folk songs and dance music, American Blue Grass and country, drinking tunes and bar ditties. Between the jigs and sing-alongs, the jokes and stories, their show seemed much shorter than the 75 minutes they played.

Come back, come back, come back soon Celtic Aire. We love you! You are awesome!

You hAVe to MoVe - NOW!**

After one year in the same room, I was "invited" to relocate to make space for the new command coming to Camp Virginia. The new room was nowhere near a bathroom, so I asked my new best friend JW if he could find me something closer to the facilities. Happily, luckily and fortunately, JW pulled through. My new room is 128 steps from the bathroom (exactly twice as far as my old room).

As you can see from the pictures, my new quarters are much different than the old. I had never seen any of my neighbors (except Mike) at my former CHU; my new neighbor ("Neu") is very friendly and I see him often. Previously I faced other CHUs on my block; my new place has a "meadow view."^^ Instead of other rooms like mine, across from me are bunkers, a smoke shack and water shed; behind those are the transient tents. There is a bright light that shines directly into my room, although since my windows are covered, the light is only an issue the four times every night that I open the door to go to the bathroom.

Isn't it just amazing how a change of scenery can give one a new outlook on life?

**When she was about 4 years old, Leorit's friend Rina was scheduled to come visit. For some reason Rina had to cancel, and Leorit was very angry. Leorit went to her room and slammed the door. 10 minutes later I saw a warning: "You hAVe to MoVe." I was impressed because that was the first thing Leorit had ever written that was not copied from something else. A few minutes later the door slammed again. Now the notice said "You hAVe to MoVe - NOW!" I still have the sign.

^^ We once went to Cambria for the weekend. Our hotel offered an "ocean view" or a "meadow view." We opted for the less expensive room with the "meadow view." The "meadow" was a vacant lot.

Happy Birthday to Us

It was the USO's 69th birthday recently. We had a small party with cake and ice cream.

A Couple of Funnies

We had a small party for the USO's 69th birthday, serving cake, ice cream and juice. There was quite a bit of cake left over so I asked CPT R if he'd like to take some back to his soldiers at T5. CPT R shook is head. "No, I'm not going to take any back to T5." He said. "Have you seen my guys?" (He has a point. Some of the men at T5 are sort of "big.")

-o0o-

I ran into Paul F. at the DFac. I hadn't seen him in weeks. "How are you?" "What have you been up to?" "What's going on?" etc., etc. Paul said, "I thought you were going home." I told him that I was going home but just for PTO. I was still living at Camp Virginia, waiting to go to Kandahar. I wouldn't be going home for good until August.

"Where's that?" he asked.
"It's right between July and September." I answered.

Paul didn't think it was funny, but the buddies he was sitting with did.

Be-Bopping Along

Lynn and I went to Camp Buehring the other day to order a cake and pick up supplies for a bar-b-que. We set off in the early afternoon. Down the road we came upon a military convoy which we determined must also be going to Buehring. However, after we and the convoy made the first right turn, the convoy took the next right while we continued straight.** "We just need to look for the radio tower and then turn left," Lynn told me.

We be-bopped along, chatting away. We saw quite a few flocks of sheep, a couple of herds of camels and even one goat herd. Amazingly, there are a few small flowers in the desert and the ground has a very thin film of green as a result of the recent heavy rains (see my post "Lake Camp Virginia"). We continued to joke, chat, gossip, and laugh.

"Are you sure we're on the right road?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I'm sure."

We kept going like this, be-bopping along for about 15 more minutes, until we finally came to a tower.

"I don't think that's the radio tower," said I. "That's the lookout for the border."
"Do you mean the border with Iraq?"
"Um, yeah. I think so."

SSSSSCCCCCRRREEEEEEEECCCCCCHHHHHHHHH!!!! (U-TURN)

I guess the convoy was going to Buehring.

We retraced our route, got to Camp Buehring, and managed to finish all of our errands, although it was long after dark when we returned to Camp Virginia.

**There's a double right turn on the road to Camp Buehring. It works when you're going there, but on the return trip you make two left direction merges directly into oncoming traffic. To proceed, you must cross two lanes, with traffic coming from the right and the left. There are no indicators or lines on the road, just one "merge" sign at each intersection. It's amazing to think that someone intentionally designed this connection. I'm pretty sure it was Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

He's Getting His

A couple of months ago I went to do something at Command Cell. I don't remember what it was or what happened, but my reaction was that I said, "s--t" under my breath. SSG J, who was sitting in his office, heard me and scolded, "Hey! We don't use that language here." The 2-3 people in the office eyed me with pity. I felt horrible and humiliated and continued to feel bad for the next 3 days.

Thereafter, every time I went to Command Cell I looked to see if SSG J was there. If he was, I kept a low profile and tried not to say anything at all. I didn't want to disgrace myself again.

The other night I was sitting with Lynn and David at dinner. Lynn said she was going to write an irreverent text message to SSG J. "Isn't he the one at Command?" I asked. We figured out it was the same guy, so I told Lynn and David the story about my bad word. They almost fell off their chairs laughing. "He cusses all of the time" Lynn told me. "He was kidding." David said. "He just has a really dry sense of humor. It's difficult to tell when he's joking." They thought my story was hilarious.

I, however, did not think it was that darned funny. I planned revenge.

Every day I've been leaving an envelope in SSG J's drawer. He's asked his staff about it and expressed his bewilderment. At least 10 people have seen me leave the envelope, but so far no one has told him who's bringing the "gifts."

He's received:
One AAA battery
2 pieces of gum
Packets of salt, pepper, sugar and creamer
A key
A Navy patch
One 10-cent pog
The front page of Stars & Stripes
Label from a water bottle
Napkin from Subway
A quarter
3 Rubberbands
Chrystal Lite drink mix

About a week ago SSGT J came into the USO to hang out with Lynn. They were sitting in the office, chatting away, when I sat down to use the computer. As soon as I joined in the conversation Lynn had to leave; it was impossible for her to keep a straight face.

A couple of days after that I was eating with Lynn in the DFac (she calls it the DFat) when SSG J sat down with us. There was far too much giggling, but Lynn and I managed to not spill any beans.

UPDATE: Well darnit. I turned myself in two days ago. SSG J didn't continue to be sufficiently disturbed and finding little things that fit into a small envelope got boring for me. OK, Curtis; you win.

Who's Line Is It Anyway?

It's been really quite around here lately. We had been hosting 1,000 to 1,200 troops per day; the other day we had 113 visitors the whole day. The Fire Marshall says our maximum capacity is 281 persons, and we get awfully "close" to that sometimes. However, when I left the USO at 19:00 the other night, there were 13 people in our tent. Sheesh.

What's exciting is that the group that was in Iraq when I was there came through Camp Virginia. I missed Patrick and Matt (they were here while I was in Long Beach), but I did get to see Sgt. C, Chief, Terrence, Sgt. H (The Guy Who Looks and Sounds Like Bill Murray), Randy, Fisher No-C, and my very best buddy Chris (in picture). It was great to see them, but now I'm bummed because they are all gone.

-o0o-

FINALLY received official confirmation from USO in Arlington that I am in line to go to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Don't know when. I'll keep you posted.

-o0o-

We recently had an "exercise." I knew we were going to have it and I was aware of the approximate time, but I wasn't prepared for anything else. I'm sitting in my room, minding my own business, when suddenly there is an explosion, much louder and much closer than any I've heard. I peek outside and see smoke but no one seems to care. Then I hear, "INCOMING!! INCOMING!! INCOMING!!" I listen for, but do not hear, an announcement declaring, "EXERCISE!! EXERCISE!! EXERCISE!!" After sweating for about 10 minutes I finally hear "EXERCISE!! EXERCISE!! EXERCISE!!" Whew!!

A few minutes later the lightening and thunder started. I went outside and ran into CPT. R ,who was in full battle gear and looked exactly like a soldier from the Doonsbury comic strip. "Wasn't that cool? Wasn't that just the best?" he asked me.

"No, sir. It wasn't," said I. "That was about as scared as I've been since I've been here."

"Yeah, that was so much fun!"

When I saw the Colonel in the DFac the next day I told him that I had been really frightened.

"Yeah, that was so awesome!! Didn't you just love it?? That was so exciting!! That was just amazing!!!" He was so pleased with the exercise that he was giddy.

Whatever.

Round, Round, Round, Round, I Get Around

I've been "in country" for over seventeen months.* During that time I have taken off from, landed at, or layed over (from 90 minutes to 4 days) at airports in these cities:

Amman
Athens
Barcelona
Beijing
Berlin
Cairo
Dubai
Doha (Qatar)
Istanbul
Kandahar
Kuwait
LSA at Ali Al Salem (Kuwait)
Frankfurt
Hong Kong
Kayseri (Turkey)
Las Vegas
London
Long Beach
Los Angeles
PAX Terminal at Basra (Iraq)
Shanghai
Szean
Tel Aviv
Washington D.C.

Also docked at ports in Barcelona, Malta, Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples (Pompeii) Livorno (Florence/Pisa) and Cannes.

I'm pretty impressed with myself.

*Updated 4 August 2010