Greetings everyone,
It is time once again for my next diatribe about things in Iraq. I started out to write about my R&R pass trip to Qatar, but I realized that I had forgotten to mention some things in an earlier note. As I looked at the length of things, I decided to break it up into two notes. One this week and one next week.
In mid-February, I saw that Chely Wright was going to be touring Iraq giving concerts. In looking at her schedule, I discovered that she wasn't scheduled to come to LSA Anaconda, so I didn't think much more about it. Well, on 1 March, I was out of the office for most of the afternoon and then went to eat dinner. When I got back in the office, I made a bunch of phone calls and decided that I should get caught up on the afternoon's email. About 7:55 PM, I was talking to my counterpart in Baghdad, and looking at email when I saw an "All-Anaconda" notice that due to bad weather, Chely Wright couldn't land at Tallil in southern Iraq, and they had landed at LSAA. She would be giving a surprise concert at the theater at 8:00 PM... So I told my counterpart I had to go, jumped up, and dashed out to the theater. It was a small crowd (of about 300), due to the late notice. A friend of mine was in the front row and the seat next to him was empty, so I was able to sit there.
It was a great concert. Chely was very personable and really enjoyed
interacting with the soldiers. She told stories about her various tours, and she
sang. We had a really, really good time. The best part was afterwards when it
was time for her to take pictures with soldiers and autograph copies of her own
picture. Whereas Carrie Underwood didn't really talk to any of the soldiers, but
instead had her picture taken with five soldiers at a time, about 15 seconds per
group, Chely wanted to talk to each soldier individually and sign her picture to
them, or them and their wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/etc... It was really, really
cool. Because I was sitting in the front row, I volunteered to take pictures
with everyone's camera, so I sat for two hours taking several pictures of each
soldier/airman she sat with. I didn't have my camera, but the lady who arranged
Chely's tour, Judy Seale, took a couple of pictures for me and sent them to me.
JUdy told me that the night before,
in Baghdad, Chely had spent 3 1/2 hours signing autographs and talking to
soldiers! It was very, very neat.
Pictures of Chely's tour, and the couple of pictures of me with Chely can
be seen at
www.greydragon.org/trips/Iraq/misc.html#chely
Easter was pretty interesting. I received a string of Easter eggs, so I hung them on my evergreen tree (from Christmas) and called it an "Easter tree"! I also received an Easter basket with a woolly lamb and some chocolate eggs. The tree and basket are still displayed in my room because I haven't finished eating the chocolate. I am being very good about only having ore or two pieces per day... The Vorpal Bunny is not amused because he thinks the woolly lamb is an interloper waiting for the opportunity to sieze his spot on my pillow. Pictures are on the same link above.
cheers,
Peter / Terafan
P.S. My pictures from the Carrie Underwood concert at the top of that same page.