SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23RD – MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2TH – GARY SINISE FOUNDATION TOUR TO SWA WITH CHINGY AND ASHLEY GUTERMUTH:
Off to SWA with Chingy and Ashley Gutermuth (comedian) today. I can’t include exact locations until the tour is over. Not sure why not since the people on the bases have already posted about the visit!
James (our production manager with Gary Sinise Foundation), Scott (Chingy’s manager) and I depart from Nashville to Chicago. Chingy departs from St. Louis and we all meet in Chicago for the flight to Doha and ultimately on to our final destination. Ashley is departing JFK and has a direct flight to Doha. We are all supposed to land within a few hours of each other.
Not sure where to begin with today’s “adventures”. When we checked in at the airport, no one was given TSA pre-check (same problem I had on the flight to DCA a couple of weeks ago! We traced mine to the fact that my Global Entry number had expired in January. Never received a notice and my travel agent had no way of knowing. It doesn’t pop up in any of my airline accounts either. Plus, it should not make a difference because I also have a Redress Number that I am supposed to use. That was given to me when I was accidentally placed on the “terrorist watch list” back in the early 2000’s. Didn’t work either. James and Scott were denied because the way their tickets are issued, the “II” and “JR” after their last name was listed after their first name and AA wouldn’t give them TSA Pre-Check. We all waited in a very long line to go through the security scan.
The flight from Nashville departed on time and Chingy landed early. We had to take a bus from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5. Terminal 5 is the International Terminal and I was shocked by the fact that there are only a couple of Airline Lounges. Delta has a beautiful one but we are flying on American and Qatar Airlines and I couldn’t believe neither airline has a lounge in the International terminal in an airport the size of Chicago’s. Scott and I walked around trying to find a solution since we have a 6 hour layover. Qatar Airline “partner” with Swissport but they would not allow us to come in their lounge until the ticket counter opened and we had our “boarding pass” verified. Huh? It’s a boarding pass. Not sure what that meant. But, it did mean we would not be able to enter their lounge until about 1 ½ hours before our flight when the ticket counter opened. Also, when we looked in the Lounge, there were a few tables and chairs, a small refrigerator with bottled water and some pre-packaged snacks on a table. Definitely not worth the wait.
We finally went into the Polish Airways Lot Lounge. It was a little bit nicer and had the electrical outlets we needed to work. But I had to pay $70 per person to use it. Remind me to never fly Qatar Airlines into and out of Chicago again.
About an hour prior to when we were supposed to board, I received a phone call from Qatar Airlines…never a good sign. They said we needed to go to the gate immediately to have our documents “verified”. As we were walking from the Lounge to the gate, I heard them paging me to come to the gate. They looked at our passports and boarding passes and handed them back to us. I should have paid more attention because when we got on the plane, it was a totally different aircraft and none of us had the seats were had selected. It was an incredibly old airplane…unlike any I’ve seen in service in decades. Totally different from the one we flew out of JFK last October. I finally convinced the crew to “find” an aisle seat for me. It was a miserable 13 hour flight. I had a really strange lady sitting next to me who obviously had never flown before. She kept demanding that the flight attendant bring her food items that weren’t on the menu. Then she called the flight attendant and told her to “make her bed” for her. The flight attendant had to explain to her that she had to use the seat controls to recline the seat. I won’t bore you with all the other strange things I witnessed other than the fact that as we were landing, she got up and tried to go to the restroom. Of course, it was locked and the pilot came on and told her to return to her seat or he would have to stop the aircraft.
We landed about 30 minutes late which meant Ashley was only about 10 minutes behind us. We have to go through a security scanner again even though we were just transferring to another flight. We went to the gate and Ashley got there before us. When she got off her flight, Qatar Airlines met her and took her directly to the gate – no security scan. We decided to try to go to the lounge for a few minutes. The first one we stopped at told us we should go to a different one because that lounge would take us directly to the aircraft when it was time to board. We hiked around the huge terminal until we found the Lounge. But once inside, no one knew anything at all about taking us to the plane! We gave up and went back to the gate to wait. It was a “bus” gate so all the passengers had to ride buses to the aircraft. Once we boarded, the pilot told us it was a short 25 minute flight to our final destination and there was going to be turbulence the entire way.
We took off and exactly 6 minutes later, we were told to prepare for landing. There was no turbulence and after announcing we were landing, it took another 20 minutes to actually touch down. We applied for and secured our Visas online but the line was still very long and slow. All our checked pieces made it. Exiting through Customs was confusing because the agent told me that all “checked pieces” had to go through a scanner – which is what we have always done here. But he let everyone else go through without scanning.
Our hosts were waiting for us with a van and it was about a 30 minute drive to our hotel. Khalid is one of our POC’s and I’ve worked with him many times. He’s awesome. A new guy named “Ya-Ya” is also working with us. There used to be a female here named “Mo-Mo” at his base but she moved to Singapore in a similar position.
This is the first time we have stayed at this hotel. I had problems booking it so was apprehensive about staying here. I called them before we left the airport and asked them to have our room keys ready for us because everyone was tired and just wanted to grab something to eat and go to bed. Of course, when we arrived, the desk clerk had not pulled the room keys. We only have 5 people and booked the rooms months ago. Even so, she gave one person a room that did not have a balcony and put one person in a handicapped room. She said they could move tomorrow afternoon if they wanted. Of course, no one is going to unpack for one night and then move to another room. Booking as far in advance as we did, she should have had the correct rooms ready. When I got to my room, I immediately walked back out. It was a SMOKING ROOM! I had no idea this hotel has smoking floors.
They managed to find another room for me and then I had to check all the other rooms to make sure they hadn’t put anyone else I smoking rooms. Chingy and Ashley were in smoking rooms. Ashley said hers wasn’t so bad and she would stay there. Chingy was in the restaurant and had not been to his room but said he did not want to stay in a smoking room.
I went back to the desk again and asked to talk to the manager. He took me to a couple of rooms that Chingy could move too. One also reeked of smoke but the other one was okay. When I got back to my room, a hotel employee was waiting for me. He was supposed to “unlock” my balcony but instead he started locking the door to one of the bedrooms. (All the rooms are two bedroom suites because this is the hotel where lots of military families stay while they are trying to find housing.) I sent him away and again called the front desk. All that took 1 ½ hours!
I worked until 3 am and then could not get the lights to turn off in my hallway and could not find a hair dryer. Someone from the front desk had to come up and show me how to turn off the hall lights and found a hair dryer in a drawer in one of the bedrooms (where I had looked previously but missed a drawer!). Finally made it to bed at 3:30 am. Convinced tomorrow will be a better day because we’ll be entertaining the men and women serving. Will make all these travel challenges worthwhile! Didn’t get to spend a lot of time getting to know Ashley but she is going to be great both on and off stage.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH – FIRST SHOW IN SWA:
I started receiving text messages at 7:30 am but did not get up until 8:30 am. Was going to try to either jog or workout but decided I did not have enough time based on needing to get some work done. I’m going to meet Geoff at 12:30 pm. Have worked with him for several years and love his family. He worked at the base we will be performing at today but transferred to the larger base where we will be performing tomorrow.
I worked until 12:30 and then met Geoff in the lobby. We walked right outside the hotel to “American Alley”. Lots of bases have a place like this. It is filled with “American” restaurants…Five Guys, Starbucks, Papa John’s Pizza, McDonalds, and on and on. Plus there are some “local” restaurants which is where we went. I definitely don’t want “American” fast food when overseas. We had a great lunch and enough left over for me to take back to my room and eat tonight after the show for dinner!
We departed the hotel today at 2 pm with our POC Kevin. We made one quick stop at the “Tree of Life” (which I’m sure has now given away my location). There was a new attraction there today for the tourists….a camel that you could ride. Unfortunately it was so cold and windy that we just jumped out of the van, took a couple of photos, touched the tree and left. On the drive there, we had to go through a small dust storm but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the ones I’ve been trapped in when in Iraq! Legend has it if you touch the tree, you will return to Bahrain. Has worked for me over the years!
Everyone says this is the coldest it’s ever been in this area and I believe them. It gets up to 130 degrees here during the Summer months but today it is in the low 50’s and seems even colder because of the wind. We had to go through several security checks because to enter the U.S. base, we had to drive through the locally owned base. Turned in our drivers licenses in exchange for a “day pass” and went to the venue. Really glad they decided to hold the show indoors.
The venue has a nice setup and it didn’t take James long to get everything dialed in so that Chingy could sound check. Took longer than usual since Chingy performs to tracks and James needed to run through the entire show so he would know when to pause the tracks. But, Ashley’s sound check only took a couple of minutes so it all balanced out.
We had a larger crowd than I anticipated. We had approximately 110 people in attendance and for a base that only has 200 service men and women, that’s a great turn out. Also, they have to work either a 12 hour shift or a 24 hour shift so getting that many people to attend was awesome. The venue set up chairs in front of the stage and then way over to Stage right, there were more tables and chairs. It took a while for the attendees to fill in the chairs in front (sort of like church…everyone wants to sit in the back for some reason!) but eventually it was full with lots of people still on the “sidelines”. Ashley’s show was awesome and so “geared” to military humor. We kicked off the show with the Gary Sinise Foundation info video followed by a personal message from Gary. Then Ashley performed for 45 minutes. The chairs had to be removed after Ashley’s set and we used that time to show the informational slide about Gary’s son. Then, Chingy took the stage and did a great show. Again, no one would go out on the dance floor in front of the stage. But, everyone was standing on the sidelines dancing! I went over and encouraged them to go out front and dance but could not budge them.
At the end of Chingy’s set, he has a dance contest and he was able to get some of the “dancers” to come up on the stage. They had a very lively contest and of course, then everyone was ready to party as the show ended.
Chingy and Ashley took photos with everyone after the performance and we loaded up the van and drove back to the hotel. It was around 10:20 when we arrived back at the hotel. I worked until 2:30 am and then slept for 4 hours.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH – SECOND AND (LAST SHOW) IN THIS LOCATION:
We had a 9:15 am call with base leadership. The base gate is literally across the street from our hotel, so Katie met us in the lobby and we all walked over. All we had to do was show our passports and go through a scanner. Now we can go on and off base all day.
I was surprised to see that the same leadership team that we had with Runaway June and Vertical Horizon in 2023 were still here. All really great men! Two of them are leaving here this Summer and Fall and one will be going to Singapore. Hoping to see him again on one of my tours there.
We had a really nice meeting with leadership again. They are very engaging and gave everyone a coin – which the group LOVES! No one but Scott wanted to go to the Mosque and Souq so I bailed on him, too. I really needed to get in a workout and catch up on my “work”! We don’t have to be back over at the base until 3:45 pm today for soundcheck. Show time is earlier here – 6:00 pm instead of 7:00 pm.
We stopped by a local Starbucks on the walk back to the hotel. I got in a pretty nice workout at the hotel fitness center and then worked until time to go back to the base. It’s a nice setup in their “activity center”. Show starts earlier tonight — 6 pm instead of 7 pm. It was a good sign when there were already lots of people sitting in front of the stage at around 6:30 pm. Ashley had a great set – the military LOVE her humor.
We took a quick break so that the chairs directly in front of the stage could be removed for Chingy’s set. The crowd last night was “lively”..they just preferred to dance from the side of the stage. It was a similar situation tonight with everyone being to shy to dance in front of the stage. Of course, until Chingy brought a few people up on stage to dance.
The Meet and Greet line was long but moved quickly. We had at least 220 people in attendance which is great for this base on a Wednesday night! Didn’t take long to pack up and go back to the hotel and it was still “early” enough to actually eat dinner in the hotel restaurant. Khalid was able to talk the front desk into letting us check out at 2 pm instead of noon and that is going to be so great for us to be able to sleep in for once.
I worked for about 2 hours and was falling asleep at my computer. I laid down for an hour and a half and then got up and worked until 4 am. There is a washing machine/dryer (all in one piece – not side by side or stacked!) in the room and I made the unfortunate decision to wash the clothes I’ve worn so far. Washing was easy. Then I couldn’t get the door to the machine to open. I had to call the front desk at 1 am and have someone come up and show me how to open door and how to turn on the drying unit! Dumb idea since I have plenty of clean clothes to last me the entire trip.
Going to get up and go jogging for sure in the morning.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2025 – FLIGHT TO OUR NEXT DESTINATION IN SWA:
Got up at 8:30 and the weather was perfect for a run. What wasn’t perfect was the place “where” I could jog. Had to jog the city streets and the pavement is uneven and cars park all the way forward almost touching the building. No vehicles yield for pedestrians. I made it 3 miles but is was like running an obstacle course! It started sprinkling before I made it back to the hotel but actually felt good. I made it into the breakfast room 15 minutes before they closed. Everyone has been raving about the breakfast here. I just don’t eat breakfast but I had an egg white omelet and some fruit and it was good.
Upstairs to shower, dress and get in a few minutes of work before departing to the airport. No problems getting checked in and had a few minutes in the Lounge before departing to our next destination.
Now I can say that our first two shows were at ISA AB and NSA in Bahrain. The shows were amazing. I have a QR code on the back of the autograph sheets and we show it on the video screen several times at each show. We ask people to make a comment and send it to me and I share with Gary and the Foundation. I got some great comments from these two bases. As a side note, these bases have been asking if Chingy could come there to perform for 4 years! Thanks to Gary and the Foundation, we fulfilled their request. And it was certainly worth it! Lots of smiling faces and happy entertainers as well. Ashley and I have a very “similar” personality and “view” of how things should be run properly.
There’s always something “special” that happens at each base and at NSA, my dear friend and our POC asked if he could post the info about Mac Sinise and his music on his Facebook page. He was truly touched by Gary’s loss. He’s a father of 4 and definitely feels the pain when tragedy strikes other parents.
Flight from Bahrain to our next destination was only about an hour. Landed on time and our escorts were there to meet us. Quick trip from the airport to the local hotel – which is one I love and have stayed in over 100 times!
Hotel had our keys waiting for us and we dropped our bags and went into the restaurant to take advantage of the HUGE Buffet Dinner which is always excellent – and now is “free” with the cost of the room.
When I got back to my room and unpacked, I realized the hotel did not give me my “normal” type of room. The bathroom is by the entry door and I have to walk from my bedroom through the living area to get to it. There’s also only about half the counter space. Also, there’s only one TV and it’s in the bedroom. I spend less time in the bedroom than any other room because I get so little sleep. I like to sit at the desk and have the news on in the background. I’m sure they will offer to let me change rooms tomorrow but there’s no way I’m packing up everything again…until we depart!
I also realized I left one of my GSF polo shirts “somewhere” in my room. No idea how that happened. Perhaps the washer/dryer “ate” it. I tried to call the hotel to ask if they found it but my cell phone won’t let me make outgoing calls! I had to text Lindsey, have her call me, and connect me to T-Mobile. They stayed on the phone with me for hours and never could fix the problem. Supposedly a “specialist” will call me within 3 days when I’ll already be at home. At least I can still make calls on What’s App. So frustrating!
More tomorrow. 2:30 am and bed time!!
Jude
FRIDAY, MARCH 1ST – PERFORMANCE AT CAMP BUEHRING, KUWAIT:
Beautiful day but very cold—especially for Kuwait. Had a quick breakfast with James and then we departed in two SUV’s for Camp Buehring. It was about a 2 hour drive over terrible roads – as usual. Much nicer in the SUV than the bus though. We passed a huge flock of camels and of course snapped of a dozen photos. Buehring is very close to the Iraq border. This is the camp where all our men and women came during the wars before deploying into Iraq and Afghanistan. The living conditions are still very primitive – tent city. Supposedly the U.S. Government won’t give them the money to spend to build “permanent structures” because they don’t know if we are going to be here permanently. Well, DUH, we’ve been here since the first Gulf War. I’d say that is long enough to make living conditions better for the men and women serving here!
We were originally scheduled to use the Tank Simulator but plans changed and we went to the firing range. Everyone got to “practice” on pistols for an hour. A commander’s call was next but he was running late so we went to the stage. The Commander arrived a few minutes later and gave everyone beautiful certificate and his coin. Several of us walked over to the Base Exchange. I was able to purchase a few things for my family. There is a jeweler right outside the Exchange who knows me by name. I always buy something for Zoe from him.
Sount check was next and we are using the same production crew we always use. Donald – the “head technician” has been my friend since our first tours into Iraq and Afghanistan. He and Louie and the entire crew are so awesome. Scott and Chingy are very impressed with our production in Kuwait and we have an actual LED wall. Much better.
After sound check we all walked over to the DFAC except for Chingy who can’t eat before the show. Our POC had a room set up and we ate dinner with a pre-selected group of soldiers. After everyone had finished eating, I had those attending go around the table and tell their name, where they were from, what they do on the base and any other info they wanted to share. It was really a nice time to get to know them.
After dinner, we headed back to the stage and had about half an hour before the show began. I rode back over to the Base Exchange with James and Scott. But the shops outside the exchange had closed.
The Show started on time and amazingly enough, the audience came to the front of the stage when Ashley asked them too. She had a great show and the audience engaged more than I expected.
Chingy was next and once again, the audience came to the front of the stage. He had another dance contest and Ashley had to come on stage and assist with getting the females to dance. It’s just a “fun” competition but every once in a while there is an amazing dancer on stage. That was not the case tonight. LOL
The Meet and Greet line was extremely long – about 150 people. The Army bases provide a staff photographer and he takes all the photos which makes the line move much quicker. Final count for the show was 490 people!
We “bounced” back to the hotel and it was approximately midnight by the time we arrived. Tomorrow is a performance at Ali Al Salem Air Base. Bedtime was 3:30 am.
SATURDAY, MARCH 1ST – PERFORMANCE AT ALI AL SALEM AIR BASE – AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES:
I felt like I had just laid down when the alarm went off at 8:00 am. Showered and dressed for the day and stopped in the Lounge on our floor to see what they had that was “healthy” that I could eat. It’s going to be a non-stop day with no time for lunch. Ashley was in there looking pretty disappointed by the food available. It’s officially the first day of Ramadan and the breakfast items were pitiful. It was too late to go down to the huge breakfast buffet so I ate a piece of sliced turkey and cheese.
Our escorts from Ali arrived a little bit early and are such nice young ladies with an emphasis on “Young”. The drive was longer than I remembered – about an hour and a half – but at least we were traveling on a major highway instead of the pothole filled back roads going to Buehring. We stopped for a quick photo in front of “The Rock” and then dropped our bags at the Green Room they had set up for us. There’s no buildings near the outdoor stage, so we are using an office for the Green Room and walking to the stage. Usually we have the Green Room in the movie theatre but not this time.
We had a Unit Visit with the K-9 Unit and Ashley “suited up” and let the dog bite her arm with the padded jacket on. Chingy was bitten by a dog when he was younger so he stayed a long distance from them.
We went to visit the EOD team next and that was so much fun for everyone. Ashely put on the bomb suit and we made her lie on the floor. She weighs 130 and the suit weighed 80 pounds so she was like an upside down turtle. She managed to flip over and get up without any help and we were all very impressed. We made an unplanned stop at the “boot chandelier”. It’s in an old blown up airplane hangar and has hundreds of booths hanging from the ceiling. The saying is that if you throw your boots up and they “stay”, then you won’t deploy to Iraq again.
When we arrived at the stage for sound check, Donald gave us the bad news that the generator wasn’t working. Someone from the base had gone to get a “part” to fix it but I found our escort and she was able to tell someone to get us another generator. We were up and running about 10 minutes later but still running behind the original schedule.
I went to the DFAC with Ashley and it’s “Chicken and Waffles” night! Again, we had a private room to meet with 22 young men and women deployed here. Chingy joined us for another lively conversation once he finished his sound check. We had to finish up dinner quickly because Ashley has still not had her sound check.
Once we finished sound check, I learned that no one was taking our Production Crew to get anything to eat for dinner. They were just going to eat “snacks”! They have been up since daylight and did not have lunch. So I gave them my credit card and sent them next door to the Italian restaurant. My dear friend Tameca came by to say hello and it was so great to see her again. She used to handle entertainment at both the Amry bases in Kuwait but got a promotion over a year ago.
Show started on time and we had a huge crowd. Will know the exact figure tomorrow. Ali Al Salem gets a special “exception” to serve alcohol at certain times of the month and this was one of those times. Crowd was great and Ashley and Chingy both had amazing shows. No problem getting people to come up and dance either.
After the show, we walked over to the Movie Theatre and held the meet and greet there. Another very long line with over 100 folks in line. We departed the base at around 9:45 pm and were back at the hotel by 10:45 pm.
Hard to believe tomorrow is our last performance. The time has just flown by. Lots of special memories from this visit, too.
SUNDAY, MARCH 2ND – FINAL SHOW AT CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT:
This was a great last day of our tour….except for being severely sleep deprived. It was 4:30 am before I got in bed. My “dream” of going jogging disappeared very quickly to be replaced by a few hours of sleep.
We departed to Camp Arifjan at 12:50 pm today. It was a little over a 30 minute drive so not bad at all. Our first stop was at the firing range and this time they got to fire the “Big Guns”. My dear friends – Don and Debbie – met us there. It was so great to see them especially since I missed them on my visit here last October. Have been friends with them for decades. Don was the CSM for Kuwait when I was bringing a group through every couple of weeks. He would bring us into his office and give us these great “briefings” about the history of our involvement in Kuwait and the current status. Then he always presented us with a certificate of appreciation and a coin. No matter how often I visited, he always treated me to the same honor.
The group had fun shooting the big guns and then the next stop was the Commander’s Office. We met her last October and she’s the first woman Commander at Camp Arifjan. She is so tiny and I believe she is from Puerto Rico. She also thanked everyone and gave them a coin and certificate of appreciation.
We had time to stop by the “big” base exchange on the way to the stage. There is also a smaller base exchange next door to the stage and what all the guys were looking for – a Starbucks. I actually like that Starbucks because they have Matcha Lattes.
Sound check was easy since it’s the same production company we used for the last two shows in Kuwait. I have been communicating with Chingy’s cousin – Sgt. Pam Davis (or “Little Pam” as the family calls her!) – who is stationed at Camp Arifjan. She came to the stage to spend time with Chingy and she was so happy to see someone from “home”. I’m sure it’s lonely for her here. She’s such a pretty, sweet girl.
Show started on time and Ashley had a great “final” set. Not sure how many people attended but will find out later tonight. Definitely over 300. Chingy’s last show was amazing as well. The dance contest was especially fun and he brought Sgt. Davis on stage and made her participate as well.
The Meet and Greet Line was extremely long but moved quickly because we had the Staff Photographer. We were actually back at the hotel earlier than I anticipated – 10:30 pm. Just enough time for us to shower, pack and leave for the hotel at 1:30 am.
Jude
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