Operation “Enduring Band”

January 26, 2007

First of all, so sorry for missing a post. As you will see below, we got ourselves stranded and in a no internet access area for the last 24 hrs.

Now, on with our adventure.

Before we left Camp As Sayliyah, I noticed there were a lot of bulletin boards and walls of encouraging and supporting notes and cards from US school children around camp. Here’s one that was in our barracks:



When we got to the air base we noticed another group of soldiers enjoying a homemade turkey recipe book from some kids:



With the kids connection we also observed this airwoman waiting to go home:



On a related note, we met a soldier in Djibouti who had a small note on the back of an American flag from a grade shcooler saying her name, hometown and “our prayers are with you”. He told us he pulls it out every day and reads it. If you are a student, I would encourage you to have your class do a similar class project. It really means a lot over here.


The USAF air base here processes all the soldiers coming in and out of the base and all military operations in Qatar. They vary between 3,000 - 15,000 a day.You may remember that Qatar was the base of operations for Desert Storm and is still the center for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” so that means a lot of military personnel are coming and going here.

We left Camp As Sayliyah Thursday at 4pm to come to the air base for out-processing and board the plane to Kuwait at 8:45pm.

As I write this blog into my word processor, we are still at the air base and it is now 6am Friday-14 hrs later.. It all started when we boarded the C17 transport (a cool cargo jet) 2+ hrs late at 11pm. We had been sitting on the jet for a half hour when we got the announcement they were having mechanical problems and it would be 12 hours to get it repaired. Meanwhile there was a 3am flight scheduled to leave that we could take. But then a fog rolled in and all flights were canceled until further notice.

We, of course, weren’t the only ones stranded. About 300 Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine personnel were also. The majority of the stranded soldiers were heading to Iraq, so it wasn’t exactly a pleasant wait for them.

Several of them recognized us from the show and at first we broke the monotony by chatting with them about home, fishing, wives, girlfriends and military duty - especially jokes about the scheduling of flights under war time conditions.

I spotted a soldier who was carrying a pretty decent Epiphone guitar and it was immediately obvious what we had to do. So we took “center stage” - which means in front of the tv set (which was showing some boring tennis match) and put on an impromptu concert for the men and women stranded there. Once again they loved it and once again, were incredibly appreciative in their response.

Here are some pics of the performances.







and most important, our audience:



We agree that as much fun as the full band performances are, these unscheduled acoustic events are becoming our favorites. Knowing these men and women are going into hostile territory and combat makes us even more appreciative of our opportunity to offer a little entertainment and distraction from what’s going on around them.

Meanwhile, because we have no way of reaching our contacts at As Sayliyah, the air base found us a quonset hut tent with some cots. Here is our “home” from the outside:



And the inside:



Not exactly your sweetest accomodations. We met a soldier that had been stranded 3 days in this hut. Apparently this is not an unusual situation here. Rumor has it that some soldiers were going through this every day for 16 days. The problem, as I see it however, is those soldiers are being put through some harsh uncomfortable sleep-deprived situations and when they finally are put on the plane they are exhausted and from there have to go back into battle. Doesn’t sound like a good R&R plan for our men and women there.

While the others try to get some rest, we all are taking 2 hr watches in the hopes of hearing something regarding our flight to Kuwait. Its pretty hard on everyone with the sleep deprivation and overall discomfort, but compared to what the soldiers are facing, our situation is insignificant.

News updates as they occur....

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Update:

It is now 11:30am and we are still at the air base. Our flight to Kuwait is now scheduled for 6pm tonite, - 24 hrs later- meaning we’ll miss our show there tonite. Fortunately, we were able to reach the MWR contact here and he has graciously given us a comfortable area to rest in, and we can try to get back on some semblance of the feeling of a normal schedule. We’re all pretty tired and looking forward to crashing on something other than a cot.

The media center at the air base restricts most websites and web email. They also do not allow use of any laptops and even my blog site is blocked - must be all those subversive comments.

Hopefully when we reach Kuwait, I’ll be able to check in.

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Update:

Yay!!!!! We finally made it onto a plane and we are now checked into our rooms in Kuwait City. It is 11:00pm.

The plane we rode in was an Air Force C-5. It is a huge monster of a cargo plane that transports tanks, helicopters and band gear. It is purported to be the largest plane in the Air Force fleet, and I believe it.

We were very excited to be on the plane. When we boarded and were taken thru the cargo area to our seats, however, our exuberance was quickly quieted. There in front of us were 2 metal rectangular boxes each draped with an American flag. We were sobered by this site and quickly reminded of what is happening here.

Tomorrow we head for the base to have lunch, set up and do our first show in Kuwait.

Meanwhile a hot shower is calling me.

Back soon.