The USO Comes to... Camp Phoenix!

Americans at home need to know something. When you see reports from actors, singers and comedians that they spent some time over the holidays with the "troops" in Afghanistan they are referring to the troops that are easy to get to. The same troops that eat well, are seldom, if ever, shot at and who live in a world where Friday is a "reduced work day", better known in the civilian world as a day off. The guys that I work with don't ever get to Camp Phoenix where there is a Subway, a Dairy Queen, a Massage Parlor (the legit type... you know, properly monitored) and a local version of a Starbuck's called The Green Bean which is open 24 hours. My guys feel good when they get back to a location where there is some type of shower and a flushing toilet.
Even at Jalalabad Airfield (JAF), the Eastern home of the 10th Mountain Division, there is no scheduled USO entertainment. We get to see high ranking officers and politicians from home but there is no attempt to get us a planeload of entertainers to take the edge off of missing all of the holiday festivities that the rear area troops are seeing. I am not bitter about personally missing some of these events and facilities. I just would like to see some deeper thought about including more of the "marginally" forward areas into the travel schedule for these visits. I could get some of my Soldiers to JAF but Phoenix is 3 hours away by truck and trying to fly guys in to see the show is impossible. We are, however, invited. Which is probably worse than not knowing about it in the first place.
JAF is still a bit too close to the fighting for us to risk the possibility of losing people who were watching, or performing in, a USO show. If I was in charge of scheduling these things I would probably do no better than the guys doing it now. It's just frustrating to see the inequities that exist in this type of operation. I hope the show goes well and the entertainers know that their gesture is appreciated by any service member that knows they're coming. But Toby Keith, if you're reading this, rent an up-armored fleet of vehicles and a security crew and drive down near the area where the fighters are and you'll see some very appreciative people.

Sarmajor