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Chairman Dubs USO Tour ‘Smiles Around the World'
(December 22, 2008) |
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American Idol contestant and country musician
Kellie Pickler grants a Christmas wish for a
kiss to Marine Corps Sgt. Christopher Lambert at
the 2008 USO Holiday Tour stop at Al Asad Air
Base, Iraq. |
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CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo, December
19, 2008 -- The
enthusiastic reception servicemembers are giving
performers on this year's Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff USO Holiday Tour have led Navy
Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation's top military
officer, to call the trip “Smiles Around the
World.”
The tour started its third day today with shows
in Mosul and Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, and ended
with a performance here.
At Mosul, more than 1,500 servicemembers trooped
into a large fest tent for the show featuring
Kid Rock, Kellie Pickler, Lewis Black, Tichina
Arnold, Zac Brown, Kathleen Madigan and John
Bowman.
In Al Asad, the performers
entertained more than 3,000 Marines, sailors,
airmen, soldiers and civilians at the soccer
field from a stage that Navy Seabees built for
the occasion. |
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The show at Al Asad started with decent
temperatures, but once the sun went down, the temperature
went south pretty quickly, too. The musicians felt the cold
the most, but still kept “pickin' and grinnin'” through a
number of songs that brought the house down.
The comedians – led by
Lewis Black – clearly were enjoying the energy
they were getting from the crowd, and all of the
performers were on longer than scheduled. At the
end of the show, the servicemembers started a
chant of “One more song, one more song, one more
song!” Kid Rock, Kellie Pickler and Zac Brown
played John Cougar Mellencamp's “Little Pink
Houses.” The servicemembers all sang the chorus
-- “which begins, “Ain't that America?” -- along
with the performers.
The show here didn't start
until midnight. It originally was scheduled to
begin at 8:30, but the plane was late getting
in, and then weather forced the group to
motorcade from the airport in Kosovo's capital
of Pristina to the base. The sound equipment took some time to get to Bondsteel
and be set up. Mullen came early,
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Grammy-award-winning musician Kid Rock
entertains Marines and sailors stationed at Al
Asad Air Base, Iraq |
| spoke with the servicemembers and passed his personal coin out.
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Musician Zack Brown
warms up the crowd at the 2008 USO Holiday Tour
stop |
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Few members of the mostly
National Guard audience left the theater, despite the
long wait. “We're sort of forgotten here in
Kosovo,” one specialist said. “Believe me, we're
so pleased to have people like this come and
entertain, we'd sit here all night, if
necessary.”
This is Mullen's second holiday tour.
“‘Smiles Around the World' is what I call it,” he said
during an interview aboard the C-17 taking the troupe to
Kosovo. “These performers can relate to the troops, and they
appreciate the troops' sacrifices. They know how they feel
at this time of year.”
During the day, the chairman not only introduced the shows,
but also received operational updates in Mosul and in
Pristina. Earlier in the morning, he met with leaders of
Multinational Corps Iraq at the Al Faw Palace at Camp
Victory, outside Baghdad. |
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| Marines Cpl. Chantel
Saville, left, and Sgt. Jonathan Oaks cheer at
the introduction of Grammy-award-winning
musician Kid Rock and Zach Brown during the 2008
USO Holiday Tour stop at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq,
December 19, 2008 |
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Article by Jim Garamone
DoD photos by Navy Petty
Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2008
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