MASH and a country evening

Yesterday was LtCol V’s departure date…yet again I watch someone come in after I got here and already they’re going home. But LtCol V got extended 30 days so he definitely did his time plus some. He told me two nights ago he felt like he was bailing on us but I told him not to worry. Do your time and go home. He’s the first Director of Logistics I’ve seen here who truly cared…about the job and about the people working for him.
Unforseen events caused all ground transport to BIAP to be canexed yesterday so we found him a seat on an outbound Blackhawk. Lt L and I carried his bags to the helipad and on to the helicopter. Doing the low duck under the rotating blades we did a quick handshake and wave good-bye then in a swirl of sand the helo was gone…just like the last episode of MASH.
Quiet day all day yesterday. I worked out then went to a short farewell ceremony for YN1 C. Afterwards it was out to the pool to see Chely Wright in concert. I’ve known of Chely Wright for ten years but never followed her music much except for that one song, Jezebell. She also had a song called Single White Female which was a number one hit but I don’t much care for it. One song she sang last night was horrible – The River. It’s a song about two of her friends falling or having a car wreck into a river and drowning. Sad.
Chely is a pretty girl, 30-something as her web site says. I think we are about the same age. I remember years ago she said she used to play Minnie Pearl in a show at Opryland…Nashville’s defunct theme park which now is a big mall.
At the end of the show she sang a song she’d written about a lady flipping her of because she had a U.S. Marines sticker on the bumper of her SUV. It’s a true story but I really expect she must have cut the lady off in traffic or something…I couldn’t imagine a Marines bumper sticker causing anyone to flip someone off. But the song was very good. In my favorite part she talked about the places she’s been on USO tours (Korea, Japan, Kuwait, Iraq) and wondered if the people who always disparage U.S. military operations have ever been to any of the places they are so opinionated about. I know that many have but most haven’t. Experience goes a long way in my mind for validating someone’s point of view.
Chely did a great job and more importantly she came to a dangerous place to take our minds off of where we are for a couple of hours. We actually had a brief before the show to tell us what to do in case of an indirect fire attack…but we haven’t had one of those in three or four days.
Afterwards my friend Angie and I sat on my front steps critiquing the show and talking about…going mushroom hunting in Oregon. She said they could make $200 in a couple of hours selling mushrooms to restaurants.
Between Chely Wright and mushroom hunting if that ain’t country then tell me what is.