Flying Toby Keith in Afghanistan

April 24, 2009

I was just telling Dad yesterday that every day is like groundhogs day around here.  I have been in Afghanistan for 5 months now, and life is pretty routine.  I guess boring and routine isn't so bad if you live in a combat zone, and when its not boring is when you have to look out.  Nevertheless, today was a little different.  

Last night at around 11:30 I was awakened by one of the night crew pilots.  I was actually schedualed to have today off, but he woke me up to tell me there was a change of plans.  It seems that Country Music Star Toby Keith is in Afghanistan doing a USO tour.  I was told that I had to fly Toby Keith around East Paktika so he could perform for the troops.  Now I am not a country music fan, but as things go, I suppose if I had to work with any country music singer, I would choose Toby Keith, because well some of his songs are pretty funny.  

Anyway, so I got up bright and early this morning and flew out to FOB Sharona, about 40 minutes away.  We were late arriving at Sharona, because our sister ship had some mechanical problems, but it didn't matter anyway, because the C130 that was flying Toby into Sharona was late anyway.  Toby got in my aircraft and so my crew chiefs, (both southern redneck boys) put him up on the headset.  As we flew him around, I chatted with him the whole way.  Both of our crew chiefs were so excited, and but they were shy to talk to him at first.  But I talked to him a lot.  He is a very personable guy, and he's very down-to-earth and approachable.  He was joking around with me and made me laugh, and he laughed at my jokes too.  He laughed out loud when I confessed to him that I watched a pirated copy of his movie, Beer for My Horses last week.  I asked him how many times he had been to Afghanistan, and he told me that this was the 7th year in a row that he has volunteered for a USO tour in this country.  I told him that since he had more time in this country than I have, he should have a combat patch.  He told me he hadn't gotten one yet, but he joked he might just make his own.  Since he has 7 tours here and I only have 1 I gave him my authentic 101st Airborne combat patch.  

We flew him around all day today and took him to a few different bases to perform.  At our lunch stop I was able to watch his show, and I have to admit I really enjoyed it.  He is a very funny guy, and his songs made me laugh.  He played I Love this Bar, The Taliban Song and Beer for My Horses, plus a couple other funny songs that I never heard before.  One of them was a song that he wrote about a young soldier who's recruiter told him he could see the world and be all that he could be.  The recruiter made lots of promises, "But he never told me that they were going to shoot at me!"  That song was hillarious.  I laughed all the way through it, Its funny because its true!

Anyway, at the end of the day, Toby's staff asked us to shut down the helicopter so Toby could take pictures with us in front of the helicopter.  So I got my picture taken with Toby and my crew and I got a chance to just sit and talk with him for about 10 or 15 minutes.  I really enjoyed it.  He was very friendly and fun. 

~Jonny