Brittney’s Blog From Africa – Day 2
Woke up bright and early this morning ready to rock the day! As I left the dining tent (DFAC) at 0200hrs the night before (Thursday), I saw a sign on the door to meet at the front gate at 0730 on Sat the 28 for all who wanted to run the 5k. I wasn’t really sure what day it was, so I pulled my phone out, and it read “Friday, May 27.” We didn’t have anything scheduled first thing in the morning, so I was pumped! I was going to run the 5k! 0630hrs- Back to the DFAC for morning chow and then straight to the gate to run my 5k. 0730 came and went… 0740, “Excuse me, sir, is anyone else coming for the 5k?” “Is there a 5k today?” “Well the door said Saturday morning to meet at the gate for the race “Ma’am, Saturday is tomorrow.” “Hmmm, well I guess I’ll be racing myself this morning.” This is what happens when you go to bed too late!
“So I decided to run the perimeter of the base anyway.”
Our first team today was spent with the Air Force Joint Special Operations Air Detachment Aviation Team. Most of the team is from Pennsylvania, and they expressed their extreme love: insert sarcastic tone:: for the weather here. Today was Staff Sergeant Cathermans 25th birthday! We shared in the celebration with song and some of the best birthday cake ever; World Champion Cowgirl Annie Bianco and the rest of Cathermans team even roped the birthday boy to add a little western Americana flair to the fiesta. They took a few of us out on their security check, and it’s rumored that we might have even had some fun ‘mud’n’, but I can neither confirm nor deny.
After, we went over to spend the rest of the afternoon with our Navy Seabees. These men have been working incredibly hard to build new facilities on the base and throughout the region. They explained to us that the cost of the building is so high, not because of the materials themselves, but because they have to ship materials from Germany. The local supplies are just not the desired quality to be able to build the structures they need.
After chow, we invited the entire base to join us at the ‘movie tent’ for a show by our ever talented Lucas Hogue and Thomas Becker. They decided this show was going to be different- completely based off requests. They played such a wide variety of music to include some of Lucas’s originals. There’s something very special about the friendships we have been able to form with our troops here. Big stage shows are fun, but mixing in with a room full of our military men and woman, singing ‘Boom Boom’ to Lucas latest and hottest hit is pretty unbeatable.
Well, it is 2300 on Friday, May 27, which makes tomorrow Saturday, May 28. You know where I’ll be at 0730!
‘Click on and hang on’ as the 7th annual Wrangler National Patriot Tour continues down the trail!
Brittney Truman — out
