VIP Day

So today was a pretty stressful day. We had media from 9 nations recording what the US has been doing on Azerbaijan's military training base and how they are integrating with the Azerbaijani Soldiers. The US Ambassador came to visit as well. I took a buttload of pictures of the event and was allowed to be in the VIP room with all the high up officials and officers. I was the lowest ranking person in the room, which felt kind of awkward but at the same time I felt really important. In one of the briefings we were all crammed in this room and went through a presentation about the communications on the base. When it was super quiet in the room, I dropped one of my still camera lenses. I thought no one noticed until I looked up and saw one of the officers (I won't say from where) started to laugh at me. :( Anyways, the US Ambassador visited the barracks that the US has been staying in. She needed to use the restroom and I got to personally escort her to the third floor and show her to the restroom. I had to kick the media off of the floor because they followed us. Now people are calling me the "Potty Guard" because I had to make sure the Ambassador was not disturbed while she did her business...I guess that's an honor...right? Afterwards I had to hop on the media bus as we followed around the distinguished dignitaries from Iran, Turkey, Georgia, Kanzistan, US, and Azerbaijan. Throughout the event, a lot of the photographers took pictures of me because they don't get to see American females in the military. I posed in pictures with the journalists...hopefully they don't use my image for anything bad. :I When we stopped at the cordon and search lane, we were told not to leave the bus while the event was going on. So all the media were stuck on the bus. I wanted to go out to the lane and since I was in uniform, I get special priveledges that the media doesn't have. So I jumped off the bus and ran out to the lane and got to hang out with CSM Oman and CSM Summers (the highest ranking NCO in the Utah National Guard and General Tarbet's right-hand man). The media was totally jealous!!! :D After the lane, we returned to the main detachment and had a photo-op with the Ambassador and I got to hang out with all the high ranking officials. I felt totally out of place but I still had a great time hanging out with everyone. I met the Azerbaijani 4-star General and got to catchup with UTNG's 2-Star, General Tarbet.

Thank goodness I'm going home soon. I can't stand the MRE's anymore because I've been eating the same freaking MRE for the past week...crappy grilled chicken breast. IT'S NOT GRILLED WHEN THE GRILL MARKS ARE FREAKING PAINTED ON IT!! Anyways, I'm looking forward to eating real food. But being in Azerbaijan really opened my eyes to new things. I'm totally grateful that I have a good home and food. Once we leave, the Soldiers will go back to eating flavorless bread and watery goulash. The Soldiers I've become friends with are conscripts and don't get paid for being in the Army. Some of the Soldiers just returned from the trenches in Armenia and have been in combat along side Marines in Iraq. The Soldiers are just kids...between 18 and 19 years old. I feel so lucky that I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful and talented people. I can't wait to go on another AT. I'm trying to hop on the mission to Georgia later in the year. It would be awesome if I could do PA in that mission.

Well I gotta photoshop some of the pictures from today. Hope all is well with everyone. I'll see you soon Doug!