Armed Forces Entertainment and local US Base personnel teamed up to give American300 more then ‘8 seconds’ of resiliency for troops serving at this small, isolated base that doesn’t even have a name. “We’ve been working with Armed Forces Entertainment’s staff for two years, developing a plan to take our tours to some of the most remote and isolated bases around the world” says Robi Powers, American300’s founding member and volunteer to both his nonprofit organization and Armed Forces Entertainment, over the past 48 hours that vision has come to fruition.”
Not only has American300 pushed for getting it’s resiliency oriented programming to remote bases, but they’ve also pushed for quality over quantity visits. “You can show up on a base and set up a autograph table in a dinning facility and have celebrities sign 500 autograph cards... quickly shake 500 hands, but where’s the true resiliency?" asks Powers “We worked with Armed Forces Entertainment to get the word out that our tours want to slow it down a bit, 'chill out', give our volunteer celebrity American Ambassadors of goodwill a chance to really connect.
Coming off just such a visit at a base in another part of the middle east the day before, fingers were crossed that today's Base Staff would deliver on this new approach to troop touring. After 9 hours in the blazing sun with temps in the 100's - sharing words of encouragement, thanks and personal stories with behind the scenes troops, The Wrangler Team and it's members; Jeff Chadwick, Annie Bianco Ellet, Lucas Hoge, Kaycee Feild, Maegan Ridley and MSgt George Roach found themselves a little sunburned but a lot happy. The result of a day spent with our hero service members that wouldn't be able to make it to the evenings base wide Hoe-down.
“I’ve got a friend that can never get out of work to come watch me compete each year at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas” says Feild adding “this bases staff had us spending quality time with a pile of folks who wouldn’t be able to be here tonight.. that’s as cool as it gets."
From Canine Handlers and their service dogs to Security Forces guard shacks, the Wrangler Pro’s and Country Music Artist traveled around the base... not just shaking hands and quickly handing out autograph cards, but taking the time to talk, share and get to know our nations heroes. “The staff on this air base, like the one we just came from, understands the importance of allowing a connection to occur” said Lucas Hoge, “sure there are going to be those times when all I have time for is a quick autograph or hand shake with my fans on the country music stages of America, but that's not how I or my colleagues build our foundation of support, it’s built on friendships... and today I made one heck of a lot of friends."
We’ve always said, the road to true US Armed Forces Troop Resiliency starts - One Service Member at a time... we believe that if you design programming that supports this basic theory... you get the desired outcome: A Stronger, Healthier Force... and that includes our Families.” says Major Jesse Stewart a highly decorated combat infantry officer and founding member of American300, adding “we’ve got to be strategic in dealing with resiliency, the days of thinking tactically on this subject are long gone in my humble opinion.”
After a long day of touring the base in triple digit heat, the sun finally set bringing with it cooler temperatures and an opportunity for the Wrangler National Patriot Team to kick back and chill out with hundreds of troops.. (who weren’t on duty) beating back the ‘ground hog day syndrome, a term that American300 and others involved in bringing stateside programming to the troops use for giving the troops something they don’t always get.
“When you can have an event that breaks the same old...(stuff) syndrome, you’re helping the troops out.” says a Army Veteran who works at this isolated base as a civilian contractor. “I served my 20 years, and I’ve seen it all...what this group brought to the troops today was simply awesome...I know I’ll remember the day for a long time.”
To follow the tour please visit: WranglerNationalPatriot
To stay up to date on American300 visit www.American300.org
The governments Department of Defense Armed Forces Entertainment website is: www.armedforcesentertainment.com
To join us on FACEBOOK click here: American300 Warrior Tours
No comments:
Post a Comment