Live from Kuwait- USO Cartoonists Tour 2009
Our group of ten National Cartoonists Society cartoonists spent Sunday visiting multiple U.S. bases in Kuwait, drawing for and visiting with the troops. According to USO and military blogging and twittering guidelines, I cannot be specific about where we are currently at or where we are going to, but I can name places we have visited and left from safely. I also cannot post any photos until they are approved by the USO for release. I am hoping to have some pictures I submitted for approval available to share before our trip is complete, but once we have returned I will be blogging extensively about our experience and should have lots of pictures, etc.
In the meantime, I can say that yesterday our group visited Camp Arifjan where we were briefed by the head of the U.S. Army MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) about the MWR’s efforts in the Persian Gulf and the logisitics of the bases we would be visiting. We were then split into two groups and visited two bases each. Our group consisted of myself, Jeff Keane, Jeff Bacon, Mike Peters and Chip Bok as well as USO tour leaders and photographers. We stopped at Camp Buerhing and Camp Virginia and spent time in their USO centers meeting both bases station personnel and soldiers who were staying there either training and prepping for deployment into the theater or were decompressing in preparation for going back home after a tour of duty down range.
These soldiers work incredibly hard under conditions of great stress to defend our liberties and to combat the forces of terrorism to help keep not only the citizens of the United States but all the world safer. It is a great privilege to be able to give back in our small way and bring a few smiles to their faces.
More later when time and USO protocol allows.
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My greatest respect Tom,
jan
Man, its cool you guys were in ramstein, sucks that I missed it. I am stationed in germany and hope we can catch you on the way back.
We won’t be stopping in Germany on the way back but there are plans for a rotating cartoonists tour into Landstuhl every 6 months or so.
Hope to catch you in six months.
You should be proud of yourselves, Tom, for the cheer you’re bringing to those troops. I’ve been told that the cartoonists visits are the most popular entertainment the USO currently brings to them. All members of the NCS, by extention, should be proud of these trips organized by Jeff Bacon.
[…] Tom Richmond, the most prolific blogger among the group, has posted photos of their stop at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, a report on visiting troops in Germany and their visit at Camp Arifjan. […]