Happy Fourth of July Camp Bond Steel
Even Kittens in Kosovo love America
Allot of Hazards: yet not one DJ Hazard (my dear friend)
My digs- Above: Room. Left bottom: Library Right bottom: Wreck Room
I went and grabbed breakfast at this coffee shop and saw the perfect example of the “Balkan Attitude.” The girl running the coffee shop is from Kosovo, she had a line of 2 or 3 soldiers, and she walked outside with a plate of food (I though delivering an order). She sat down with what appeared to be her boyfriend and started eating but always said please and thank you when you would order. I now think it isn’t rude, its self-first kind of feel.
The people who put this all together Renee, Jay, Sgt Maples, and we met up and hung out. Eating BBQ, potato salad, corn, and stuff just talking away for a while. Parker’s leg started really hurting, so they went to the on-base hospital (old skating accident gone wild). There was a band, I think they were from the base. As I sat and people watched, I laughed all the foreign soldiers smoke. With healthy people who are the warriors, wouldn’t you think they wouldn’t smoke? There was a small scare. It was going to rain; there was an extremely light sprinkle, but it passed.
Pre-game 
Whoever designed the toilets was crazy. They are backwords to the deep part is in the front, but there isn’t any water in it. When you dispose of whatever you are doing, it looks like it is on a ceramic slab like at a morgue. When you flush, it is sitting on the slab, and a gush of water knocks it into the hole that’s up by the front. If you are sitting, that means whatever you just released washes up on your front. NICE.
The show was set up to seem like it was going to be a nightmare. The stage was in front of the gym, facing a volleyball court and horseshoe pit. To the left were tables, and to the right were BBQ pits and grills. The late band was sound checking. Right before we were going to start slowly, but surely people were pulling chairs up and moving up close. The American Soldiers sat right up front, and English speaking people were off to the side: Danish (who were excellent), Swedes, Armenian, Italian, Greek, Turkish, and German. The Danish guys all wanted photos and couldn’t quit talking to us they were so high, and the one guy was joking about going after me because I was doing shout outs to the different countries and after the third where only one person cheered I bailed.
I love trying to figure out which soldiers were from where by there color then stereotype before I looked on the shoulder to see the flag.
The Swedes
Above: Greeks
Armenians
SHOW-TIME BABY
The line for the meet and greet was very long, and the troops were so thankful for us being there. I think we are still shocked because we are so honored to be here. We learned the group out of North Dakota is leaving to go home in two weeks. They were all excited to go back, and I was excited for them.
The line for the meet and greet was very long, and the troops were so thankful for us being there. I think we are still shocked because we are so honored to be here. We learned the group out of North Dakota is leaving to go home in two weeks. They were all excited to go home, and I was excited for them. These guys brought us back on stage and handed us awards and dog tags! I love NATO and CBS.
When we finished The Rising Stars (the Army’s version of American Idol) or as I called it, NATO got Talent. They are down to there final 3. They were outstanding, I mean really good. The winner goes to DC and competes for a massive prize against 16 other bases. The last band went on; they are called “Off the Wall,” and they were great. They rocked for hours. Well, I have a 4 AM flight to Vienna, so I got to hit the sack.
Renee (momma) getting an award from the man!
4th of July Party till dawn
