By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany, December 10, 2015 — The chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thanked USO performers for touching the lives of
service members during the week-long holiday trip that ended here last night.
Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. led the 2015 USO
Holiday Show, which included actor/director/producers Elizabeth Banks and David
Wain, singer Chris Daughtry, singer/songwriters Kyle Jacobs, Brett James and
Billy Montana; comedian Sydney Castillo and Red Sox baseball players Steve Wright
and Heath Hembree.
The group met and entertained thousands of troops and
civilians on three continents, stopping in Sigonella, Italy; Camp Lemonnier,
Djibouti; Manama, Bahrain; and Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, before ending
here.
In an interview, Dunford recalled his first experience with
the USO.
“The first one I remember was in 1985 and I was having
shoulder surgery at the Naval Hospital in Okinawa, and I woke up after the
surgery and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are standing around my bed,” he said.
“And it wasn’t a dream --- it was the USO show was in town on tour and stopped
by the hospital.”
Thirteen Years of Chairman-Led Holiday Tours
Then-chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers led the first
holiday tour in 2002.
“And it is my honor to do so this year,” Dunford said.
The shows are more than just entertainment, he said.
“I can tell [the troops] that people back home support
them,” the general said during a farewell dinner in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
“But after a while, it sounds like just talk. But when we go out there and say,
‘Look who is here with us,’ they see that Americans really do support them.”
The performances really do touch the soldiers, sailors,
airmen and Marines, Dunford said.
“I asked how people liked the show,” he said, “and about
four or five times people told me, ‘For a couple of minutes, I actually forgot
I was here.’ You know, when you are in Djibouti or you are in Bagram [and] just
for a few minutes you actually forgot that you were there -- it’s a big deal.”
In addition to being on stage, the performers also meet with
service members who explained their jobs, how they do them, and why they are
there. The performers met special operations forces in Bagram and pararescue airmen
in Djibouti. They toured a minesweeper and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in
Bahrain. The examined C-130 Hercules refueling tankers, C-17 Globemaster III
aircraft and Predator and Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft.
Everywhere the performers went, they spoke with service
members and got to know them. They also visited the USO Wounded Warrior Center
at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany.
“You brought a piece of home out here to young men and women
that I am incredibly proud of,” Dunford told the performers. “For those of you
who hadn’t been around them before, I hope what you’ve seen this week tells you
why I am so proud of them. Because they are incredibly talented, capable, smart
young men and women who are committed, yes, to America, but really to each other.”
Humbling Experience
The performers said that they often felt humbled on the
tour. “It’s easy to feel insignificant compared to them,” Daughtry said. “I
mean, we’re entertainers. We’re having fun. To see the gratitude and
appreciation on their faces is moving and humbling.”
Wain said it is one thing to read about a deployment or
watch a news report, but it is quite something else to be there. “Speaking to
[troops] one-on-one and understanding these are people who are smart,
interesting and caring and have families and dreams and being able to do that
has been inspiring, educational and a true honor,” he said.
Banks said her father served in the Navy in the Mekong Delta
during the Vietnam War. “My father tells very few stories about Vietnam, but he
tells a story about when he left Vietnam and was transferred to the eastern
[Mediterranean Sea],” she said.
“His ship hosted David Niven and his very hot and
considerably younger wife. That’s what he remembers. He remembers that day very
fondly and not many others,” Banks said. “And I really felt if I could make
someone’s deployment feel a bit more like home -- feel special, give them a
special day they can focus on rather than the bad -- then that is definitely
worth my time.”
James called the experience “life changing.”
And Jacobs -- for whom this was his 9th USO trip -- said
he’ll “continue doing this as long as I am needed. We owe it to them.”
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