Today was the 4th of July. The wing commander invited local mayors from the surrounding villages out for our festivities and we even invited local Kyrgyz media out as well. I love escorting media - but it was strange having such a back seat with the language barrier. Working with us is a woman named Aigul who isn't only a translator and continuity for the public affairs office that changes its team ever six months, but she is a great communicator and is keen on getting the media what they need. All in all it was a successful day for our team. It was actually the only event we've covered that I wasn't attached at the hip to our photographer and videographer. I spend most of my day transporting media back to the visitor's center when they were ready to leave, hunting down transient soldiers willing to be interviewed by "foriegn" media and just being hospitable. We ate burgers today - my first one in country and my first bag of chips.
Two years ago JG and I spent our first and only Fourth together in New England. We had only been dating for 90 days, exactly, (the same number of days the standard Air Force deployment used to be in the 1990s, but I digress). Our families knew we were pretty serious - we had our first family vacation in May at the home of my now mother-in-law. I'm just excited and looking forward to our first Fourth of July as a married couple. Last year I tried to take the kids to the Air Force Memorial to watch fireworks, but we were walking up as the show was ending. In about twelve hours, JG will fly in a KC-135 during Spokane's celebration while the boys stay with another family we are all friends with. Maybe next year we'll all be together for the holiday.
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