Wild Blue Country headed yonder

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. John Ross
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  Ten of the 74 academy bandsmen are traveling to the Middle East in June to provide entertainment support.

Wild Blue Country, the country music group, will spend much of June and July traveling to forward operating bases that have never had live entertainment. They are the first musicians from the academy to perform throughout the Middle East as part of the war on terrorism.

“It is technically a deployment; we never tour for this long,” said trombonist Senior Master Sgt. Mark Burditt, who planned the trip. “We found out there are a lot of locations that haven’t been getting entertainment. I’ve got the group moving an awful lot, basically a series of one-nighters stretched out over the course of a month.”

From Djibouti to Iraq to Kyrgzystan, Wild Blue Country’s “FOB Tour 2006” will span a distance farther than the U.S. is wide, bringing a taste of home to those who have been hungry for a long time.

“I’ve done this kind of thing before,” said Master Sgt. Jerome Oddo, bassist and leader of Wild Blue Country, who made a similar tour of South America in 1996. “The feeling I got from playing for these folks who haven’t had entertainment for a long time -- I think I had a better time than they did, just watching their reactions. It was really a rush. When you get the opportunity to play for people who’ve been out in the sandbox that long, boy, they are appreciative.”

Preparation for the trip included standard pre-deployment training, including chemical warfare and weapons training.

“They had us do everything so we’re prepared in case (the unexpected) happens,” Sergeant Oddo said. “The good thing is we’ll be traveling mostly by air, either C-130 (Hercules) or by chopper.”

The group will do their best to reach every person at each site they visit. Their performance line-up doesn’t only include big USO-style concerts.

“We’ll go out with acoustic instruments, kind of like Christmas caroling,” Sergeant Oddo said. “We’ll go to work centers where people might not be able to get off work and make sure those people get some music, and maybe a little break as well. It’ll be a great venue.

“The focus is on troop morale,” Sergeant Oddo said. “We want to let them know the folks at home are still thinking about them, and everybody’s behind them -- no matter what they hear on the news.”