Breakfast with the VEEP

across the room

across the room

Yes, that is right. Breakfast and photo op, me and hundreds of my new very best friends.

Standing in line waiting for security screening it was well below freezing at 0615 in the morning. Most of us, haven been given an 0630 show time new better. Early is much better than the end of the line. Even so, I wound up around the corner along the Disney fence from the Dragon DFAC. Right behind me in line were some no so happy young soldiers and airmen. You would think that they would have thought to wear jackets…..

Anyway, these type of situations are always great for meeting new people. The kind of service members who spend their lives behind the scenes, doing a job on a daily basis for which they rarely get credit. In fact, I don’t think that most of us even realize that these jobs even exist.

For example, I wound up talking to this very interesting pilot. Married with three children, he and his crew have been doing 3 months home in AZ, 3 months in theater for a significant length of time. They fly aircraft that are restricted from the rest of us. After having first spent 10 years in the Navy, he is not sure that he wouldn’t rather do 6-9 months, then get a solid 12 months home. Since he doesn’t get a vote, he drops in and out of the family. His job is critical to the safety of ground manoeuvre troops, most of whom don’t even realize that they have this level of protection.

Pilot

Pilot

Then there is the guy who just returned this morning from R&R to stumble into the DFAC not realizing that we had an event in progress. On a daily basis? He is one of the iron majors who just happens to deal with news, information services and media. Also married with three kids, we discussed the great and not so great things about being stationed in Germany. He would like Heidelberg as his next duty assignment prior to retirement. Failing this dream? It would be nice to get his protective gear checked out of hold so he can catch a flight back to his job in Kabul.

Iron Major

Iron Major

Vice President Biden worked his way around the DFAC, shaking everyone’s hand, stopping for every picture that anyone wanted (yes, cell phones and cameras were allowed, no pointy objects or weapons, no surprise). I had not planned on being in the picture queue – I was the only one of us three at the end of our table with a camera. Didn’t stop VP Biden – so here is my picture as well.

Biden is older than I

Biden is older than I

Unlike the President, smart dudes with me cleared it with the security detail and gave the VP unit patches, receiving Coins in return. Not a bad souvenir of an otherwise long deployment.

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14 Responses to Breakfast with the VEEP

  1. Lynne says:

    The President and First Lady are coming to Tucson tomorrow… this would be a great move in a “can you top this ?” game if he wasn’t coming here for such a sad reason. This last few days has felt like a war zone… so sad.

    I started this post at 11:11 on 1-11-11.

    Won’t be able to say that again … J

    Thinking of you…

  2. AlisonH says:

    Wow. That’s one for the memory box and books. And my thanks to all of you deployed for all that you do.

  3. Ron says:

    You should have smiled. He is a funny guy

  4. Kathryn says:

    Nice photograph ma-am! (Did I tell you that I caught a glimpse of you on the news when the President was there – but only because I knew where to look!)

    Wish we could find a way to send you some of the excess water in Queensland and NSW right now. (I think that lack of water is always going to cause places like that to be economic failures – but perhaps I am too pessimistic.)

  5. Berg says:

    Nice break in the boredom.
    It is important that he was personable and “good”. I met too many Pols while deployed that were all about themselves and were transparently shallow

  6. Mary says:

    Liked the story of your morning and it was good to see a photo of you!

    Take great care and pls stay well and safe!!!!

  7. Allison says:

    Very cool! Is that you smiling in that last one? 😉

  8. Steve says:

    Holly….SMILE PLEASE ! ! !

  9. Carmen says:

    Awesome!!!!
    Joe Biden is one of my Favs!

  10. Linda says:

    wow, very impressive. I hope he was able to help boost morale if only for the day.

  11. Bob says:

    Quit with the “older” already. He has an easier lifestyle, more folks taking care of him medically and otherwise, makes more money, and probably has half or less of the everyday trials and tribulations of uniformed service members. And, yeah, he gets more choice in what to wear on any given day. Thanks for sharing.

  12. ruth says:

    You are so famous! Nice pic of you and the VEEP.

  13. Mitch says:

    When the news of the VP’s visit to Bagram aired this morining, I commented to about whether you might have seen him. Obvioulsly you did.

  14. Ann says:

    Holly, it seems you’re almost smiling!

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