Back in the U.A.E!….You don’t know how Lucky you are boy! August 13-14th

We travelled out of Bagram on Friday the 13th-great day to fly by the way, and flew in C130 style back to the United Arab Emirates, US Airforce Base, Al Dhafra, 380th Expeditionary Wing. We left Bagram at about 8:30 pm and landed in Al Dhafra at about 1:00 am. Yes that's 4 1 / 2 hours on a C130. The good news was that we were the only ones on it, and the crew let us go up in the cockpit and look through night vision goggles. Below are some pics of the guys prior to going into the cockpit. Thanks to Jodi for letting me copy her sd card.

Kevin Martin celebrating his B-Day on the C130. Tony getting ready to go into the cockpit.

Jamie. Major Miller.

Justin. Myself listening to Jim Croce at max volume.

Jodi.

BCG Benham. Oll rite! Kevin K.

Kevin M.

Upon landing in UAE we promptly dropped of our old pistolas-oh yeah, I forgot to say, but in Afghanistan they were with us all the time, with clips in. Seeing how things are over there, it kind of made sense, though in practice its kind of a bitch. Its not like I am unaccustomed to carrying a gun, but not normally when I play music. Huh .... maybe that's why everyone clapped at our shows. Ok, enough with Afghanistan. Once our guns were turned in we dropped of our gear in our rooms-only 4 to a room here, and then several of us-Kevin K., Justin, Pat , And myself went directly to the rec center to have a beer. I'm not sure if Jamie and Jodi came-its all a blur of happy Newcastle drinking. Kevin Martin came by and we toasted him to his birthday-another one of us - Tony, him and I, to have birthday over here.

Saturday the 14th, we had two jobs. Our first was a long acoustic set at the dining facility, aptly named the oasis. Once again, a good place to play, because the people are forced to listen to you. Most do appreciate it, and we had fun. Tony and Kevin sound really good on their songs-Tony with the James Taylor, and Kevin with the Marley and Bowie. Jodi and Jamie sang some great harmonies to the Marley and the Jamie also sounded awesome on the Frampton. It was a good set. Pat's Roland Cube works great for vocals and his bass. Kevin K. and I used the little Roland cubes to amplify our guitars, which also worked well. Adam played the cajon, rounding out our rhythm section. The acoustic gigs have been fun, and I think it's a great bang for the buck since we usually have down time during the day anyway.

See that look of concentration. That's what happens when you give a sax player a guitar. MSgt Gates is hiding behind me for some reason.

Myself and Kevin.

Tony singing some of his James Taylor.

The whole group. Acoustic wise anyway.

P

Pat jamming away on bass.

Jodi thinks we're funny-I'm not sure why. This has to be the Bowie. CAN YOU HEAR ME MAJOR TOM!!!

Our second gig was a retreat ceremony where the band played some marches, and I busted out the bagpipes and ABU Kilt. Finally! Man, everyone should be wearing a kilt over here. On to the gig-well first I want to say that my theory on the plastic chanter reeds being impervious to heat is out-I guess that after being baked in the case, at temperatures over 120 degrees, for about 3 weeks does bad things. I started playing and I basically sounded like one of those Indian snake charmers playing a whole set of bagpipes. Now ok, some of you may say really what is the difference, but it really was bad. To the casual listener it definitely was bagpipes, so at there was that. The band then kicked in with some marches and I went back to my room to get another reed, which improved it somewhat-but not greatly. The show must go on though, and I finished it up with Amazing Grace while they folded the flag. Not great, but now they can say they've had bagpipes playing at Al Dhafra.

ABU Kilt. Great for hot weather wear. Commando? I'll never tell.

Playing what basically sounded like someone strangled a snake charmer and stuck him in my bag-the bagpipe bag that is. It definitely had a middle-eastern flair. Not a good one, but never-the-less.

A cut-down cut-down band. It was that small. It sounded good though.

Adam's artistic shot. It's a good view of the troops though. They turned out.

We played Sunday morning at about 2:00 am, with a full electric set, supposedly for the night shift folks. Well I think that they didn't know, because there wasn't many there. We shortened the show, and went to drink a beer. Another one down.

The Stage. So far this has been the best stage-look how excited Kevin is! The sound was also the best so far. Go figure, one of our last gigs. That's how it always happens.

Jamie is sad to have to give up all the Stardom soon.

MSgt Gates-our Afcent Ops guy. He is totally thrilled to watch another one of our concerts-especially at two in the morning.

Justin and Kevin do what they do best ... ... you figure it out.

The Mackie Magic-happening right there. That's right-feast your eyes.

So far that's all the news for Al Dhafra-three gigs within 24 hours, thats pretty good. All for now. James

This is me and Kevin lamenting the fact that we couldn't sit at the big table due to being so low in rank. The table below. This was for a briefing with the Vice Wing Commander about what they do here on the base. It was actually pretty good, but we thought it was funny that we had to sit in the cheap seats.