Johnny Jihad and the Detainees

Well the name may not be very politically correct, but I spent my Christmas Eve listening to live music performed by three lieutenant colonels and a full-bird colonel who are also deployed here. The four colonels strummed out mostly 70s classic rock in the coffee hut for a couple of hours Christmas Eve night. They’ll never make any money as a band, but it was great entertainment for a deployed environment. It made me want to play my guitar and sing 70s songs, too. In fact, after I left, I went back to my tent and looked through all of the guitar tabs I’ve saved on my computer. I read the songs, singing them in my head, and imagined playing the chords. I didn’t have a guitar, but wanted to play so bad I had to just visualize it. I’m debating if I should ask Val to mail me one of my guitars. It would be great to play every now and then, but storage space is already limited and I don’t get that much free time to play.
Speaking of free time, that’s how I spent most of Christmas Day. Having stayed up until 2 a.m. the previous night, I slept in the next morning…until 11 a.m.! Then I took a long, hot shower (a rarity) and went in to work just to check the unclassified e-mail. It was nice to receive several Christmas messages from family and friends. Thank you. Then I called Val and the kids at 8 a.m. their time to wish them Merry Christmas. They all seemed to have a great Christmas morning. Then I went back to work to surf the web some more, but work-related e-mails came in and people were stopping by asking for stuff, so I actually had to do some work for a few hours. But I was able to leave work early around 6 p.m. A late start and an early leave from work felt almost like a day off, so it was a pretty good day.



This picture includes the full-bird colonel. He didn’t sing any, but he played the harmonica pretty well, especially on Tom Petty’s “Last Dance for Mary Jane”. He also played a little lead melody on a few songs. I’m wondering if they need a finger-picking-folkie-hybrid-glass-slide-blues guitar player and backup singer…


Here are three of the four band members. Notice the one in the Santa hat. Many US soldiers (and a few Brits) were wearing them ALL day long. I know it’s Christmas, but my personal military bearing wouldn’t let me wear one in uniform. It must be my Marine training because I didn’t see a single Marine wearing one. Still the music was great.