Undisclosed Base Middle East- The X Games athletes awoke this morning to cooler temperatures then they'd experienced in days. Eleven hours worth of airline travel can have a profound impact on ones surroundings and perspective.
Gone were the tour days of big bases, instead the threesome of Levi LaVallee, Glenn Kafka and Mike Schultz found themselves starring out at unfamiliar surroundings on a base that 'doesn't exist' in a country that they had to google to even know exactly where it was.
While the name of the base, country and location will never be reported, what can be said is the fact that US Air Force, Army, Marine and sometimes Navy personnel occupy a piece of ground that functions as a key ingredient in American and Coalition Forces missions throughout the region. Like all Bases there is a commander, executive officer and staff of hundreds that perform all the functions necessary to accomplish the mission. " At the larger installations they have material assets, if something breaks they can fix it on the spot." said a unidentified US Air Force Sr Master Sargent serving here. " We're like a medical clinic compared to a full blown hospital, we have to do the best we can with the resources at hand."
Hands were exactly what was involved when American300 first created resiliency tours for the Department of Defense. " We start with a hand shake and let that lead to conversations." said X Games gold medalist Levi LaVallee "Having the gold medals we won over here is a bonus, I love slamming them around the necks of these guys." he added.
From guard posts to explosive ordinance detection specialists, doctors to dog handlers the American300 team of volunteers has been looking for behind the scenes heroes over the past 8 days.
"These troops could be on our team any day of the week, their work ethic, attitude and professionalism is exactly what we're looking for on Team LaVallee" said co-owner Glenn Kafka. "This afternoon we drove around visiting guard shacks, shaking hands and talking, it was so rewarding."
Rewarding Heroes...one at a time... American300 and it's sponsor Armed Forces Entertainment.
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