One of the Most Frightening Experiences of My Life

The Aussie’s again were great supporters and although the American’s told us how much they enjoyed our concert it was extremely hard to tell during the show; they just sat back and listened and none of them got up and danced. During our few days at Camp Andy we had a little bit of time off to sleep, and do a little bit of shopping at the PX store. Our shopping day into the local town was cancelled due to troubles with the government trying to organize our visas. Some of the Aussie’s took orders and went in for us and we got perfume, DVD’s, remote cars and lots of other goodies. We went on a tour of the base and saw some amazing things, the jobs some people do are just crazy. We saw the bomb squad, F15 and 16 fighter jets, British Tornado’s, the trusty old C130’s and the US C17’s. All in all it was a very interesting day and the British guys put on an awesome fly past for us. After this the jazz group and the acoustic version of Kintama set up and we had a pizza and volley ball night. Our time here in the Middle East is rapidly coming to an end and tomorrow we fly out for a few more concerts (can’t say too much about that but HMAS Melbourne received some Christmas cheer from us as well.). Our last day started early (again) with cleaning the equipment. We say goodbye to our Aussie troops and head for Dubai. Once in Dubai we had a few hours before our flight to Sydney departed. All of us headed into town for some retail therapy………. All in all I think we can say that we’ve had one of the best experiences of our lives and careers. It’s been an amazing experience and we’ve made friendships and memories that will never be forgotten. The guys of Kintama did an awesome job and were brilliant, Angry was fantastic and might I say is the massager from heaven (and the other girls will attest to this). Our mover for the trip, Perryn, did a wonderful job and made our travels go smoothly; it didn’t take him long to settle into our group! Thanks must also go to our Chief, Andrew Stapleton, who had a lot of running around to do, making sure that we were all informed of what was going on throughout the trip. To our boss, Lieutenant Commander Anderson, thanks for your hard work in getting us here, you picked an awesome bunch of people. Lastly, to Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds, the Commanding Officer for Tour de Force; this has been amazing, thank-you for giving us the opportunity to play for our troops—we certainly won’t be forgetting this anytime soon.

ONE OF THE MOST FRIGHTENING EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE

Article by Able Seaman Grant Metcalfe

The deployment of ten personnel from Baghdad International Airport to the Security Detachment in Baghdad City was one of the most inspiring and frightening experiences of my life. Upon arriving at Baghdad International Airport we were greeted by soldiers from the Security Detachment in two Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs). We then loaded all music equipment onto a Unimog truck. Movement orders were then issued in an extremely serious, matter of fact tone. It was then that it hit me that we were going into Baghdad. Picture it; eight bandies in Desert Cams with Combat Body Armour, Kevlar Helmets, full Patrol Webbing and a Steyr rifle at the load state, stepping into the rear of an ASLAV—very surreal. Joining us for this leg of the tour was Angry Anderson and the tour Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds. Our convoy travelled into the centre of Baghdad. The exact location is secret; however, it is certainly in one of the main areas of security concern in Baghdad. The trip was hairraising. ASLAVs travel through the city at top speed with soldiers aiming the 1.05mm turret gun and sighters to each side—120kmph in an ASLAV is fast. We arrived safely and disembarked. The soldiers live in a heavily fortified building with no windows or doors; basically, it’s a gutted high rise that provided ample viewing aspects for force protection duties. The scenes in front of our eyes of ASLAVs, soldiers, 50 cal weapons in sandbag bunkers was straight out of a movie, except for one thing; it was very, very serious and most definitely the real thing. Our duty for the evening was to perform two gigs to two groups of soldiers on watch rotation. That sounded easy enough but before any of that we had to receive more safety and security briefs, establish our sleeping arrangements, put together our racks and try to come to terms with our surrounding.