SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2ND, 2022 – NASHVILLE TO DESTIN, FLORIDA FOR THE GARY SINISE FOUNDATION “ALMOST RED, WHITE AND BLUE COMEDY TOUR”:
After an absolutely spectacular weekend of events in Nashville hosted by The Gary Sinise Foundation honoring the military and first responders, James Stuckmann and I left today for comedy shows at four bases on the Florida panhandle. The group will perform at National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola tomorrow. Then Hurlburt Field on Tuesday, Whiting Field on Wednesday and Tyndall Air Force Base on Thursday. The comedians are Josh Blue (from “America’s Got Talent” fame), Adam Keys (triple amputee Army Veteran), and DeWayne White (retired Army veteran). This is the same tour we took to three Colorado bases in May and it was a huge success.
Everyone’s flights left on time from 4 different cities and we all arrived within a couple of minutes of each other. No one had lost bags. I’d say we are off to an unusually good start!
We rented a handicapped accessible van and Dewayne, Adam and Josh (plus Josh’s guest Mercy) rode in that for the hour and one-half drive to our hotel in Destin. James and I have a rental SUV since we have to depart to the venues so early every day.
The hotel had our rooms ready and everyone was starving. Mercy found a really cool Thai restaurant. We caught up on “life” while we had a nice dinner. Everyone seemed to be extremely tired, so we said our good nights as soon as we got back to the hotel. I know James is sleep deprived from working at the Gala this weekend. Me – the usual – have to stay up and work for hours!
No photos to post today but will have lots from tomorrow’s event!
Jude
MONDAY, OCTOBER 3RD – FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE “GARY SINISE FOUNDATION ‘ALMOST RED, WHITE AND BLUE COMEDY TOUR’” AT NATIONAL NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM IN PENSACOLA, FLORIDA:
James and I departed the hotel at 8:00 am for the hour and a half drive back to Pensacola. All the bases have worked hard to make sure our access onto the bases are smooth. However, from years of experience, that rarely happens. Our production company was arriving earlier than us because they knew there would have to be an inspection of the equipment on the truck before being allowed to enter. They went to the Main Gate as instructed but were re-routed to a different gate. No one seemed to know anything about any “paperwork” (which is again normal) so they were required to fill out all that same information again. We arrived at the Main Gate and were directed to the Visitor’s Center to secure a day pass but were “warned” by the gate guard that their “system” was down so it would be wise for us to call our host and have him escort us on the base. That’s exactly what we did and within minutes two young ensigns – Lucas and Nick – arrived. Nick jumped in the vehicle with us and entry from that point was easy.
The venue where we are performing is in the actual museum. The museum is only open to DOD ID holders which is a shame because it is absolutely fantastic. I’m sure the general public would love to be able to come to this museum. Unfortunately, security is even stricter since the horrible shooting here several years ago. If you have time, go to:
https://www.
And look at their website.
We’ve been working via email with various members of the Museum Staff for months planning this visit and James actually met a lot of them during his site visit a couple of weeks ago. They have been absolutely awesome! Our main contact was Captain Sterling Gilliam (USN retired and Director of the Museum). He was so awesome and is the perfect representative of the Museum.
The production crew arrived at about the same time we did. They had less equipment to load in at this venue since so much of what we needed to make the show a success was already in place. Other than a very short lunch break, everyone worked non-stop from around 10:30 am until 2:00 pm. The comedians arrived at 2:00 pm and Sterling gave us a short tour of the museum. There is so much to see and we only had one and one half hours to check everything out. We all thoroughly enjoyed his guided tour!
If you are on Facebook, go to my site for “Stars for Stripes”, “Judy Seale International” or my personal page “Judy Seale” and look at the photos of this amazing venue. There are aircraft hanging from the ceiling everywhere including right over the stage! The museum had set up 100 chairs for attendees and had to add more chairs as everyone started coming in for the performance.
The audience was a wide range of ages. The show always kicks off with a video from the Gary Sinise Foundation where Gary explains the mission and accomplishments since its inception. Then there is a very personal video message from Gary to the attendees. This means a lot to the people attending because they know that Gary is providing this entertainment to them and how much he appreciates their service.
Adam was the first comedian to perform tonight and the audience loved him. DeWayne followed him and Josh closed the show. All three comedians had fantastic performances. I sat in the back and watched the audience members more than I did the show. You know it’s a successful tour when you see everyone laughing so hard at every joke. This was a terrific morale boost for everyone attending.
The comedians did about a 20 minute Question and Answer session after their performances and that was as funny as their shows. There were some interesting questions from the audience and it was lively, fun time for everyone. Several people stayed to have photos taken with the group. One lady in particular talked to the comedians for a very long time. I was waiting to take her photo with them so couldn’t hear what the discussion was about. But, all three comedians hugged her before we took the photo so I had a pretty good idea. She is a Gold Star Wife who lost her husband in combat. She was inviting the group to come by her restaurant in Pensacola. So happy she came to the show.
It was the perfect “kick off” for the tour. Tomorrow is Hurlburt Field!
Jude
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4TH – SECOND PERFORMANCE – HURLBURT FIELD, FLORIDA:
I forgot to mention that James and I got locked in the Museum last night! We were the last ones to leave and the area where we parked the car was directly opposite where the stage was located. We hiked across the dark museum to the Exit but all the doors were locked! We tried several other doors and everything was locked. We finally wound our way back to the stage and found a security guard who let us out. We were both thinking “Night at the Museum”. LOL
We departed the hotel at 10 am this morning for the short drive to Hurlburt Field. I was excited to see the huge banner they said they were going to hang across the road at the front gate. Unfortunately, there was a lot of high wind when the hurricane hit South of here last week and the banner “disappeared”!
Our POC Master Sgt. Dorothy Whitfield had submitted all the paperwork for gate access and was sure everything would go smoothly for us. Based on prior experience, I was just as sure it would not. I won that bet. She had to come to the gate to “rescue” us. The Production truck/crew had been sent to a different gate but they were turned away as well. We had to wait for them in the Visitor’s Center Parking Lot and then Dorothy took us through. The whole process took 45 minutes!
The venue is beautiful but they had chairs set up for at least 400 people. We encouraged them to remove the chairs along the “sides” since the show is much better with everyone sitting right in front of the stage. They decided just to tell everyone to sit in the front/center as they entered the show room.
At 2:30 pm, the Comedians arrived and we all went to the other side of the base for a visit with a newly formed Unit called “Mission Support Team” (MST). The best way to explain it is that they are a Unit comprised of multiple career fields. They go through weeks and weeks of intense training so that everyone on the team can do the job of anyone in the group. They are several “phases” to their training which ends with “Mission Ready” which is the point this group was at. They were just waiting to be deployed to the desert.
They gave us a tour of their “tents” which were really cool. They can set them up in 5 minutes flat! There is an A-Frame that pops into place and then a second covering over the A-Frame. These tents are huge and can sleep lots of men/women. All the electrical wiring is permanent inside the A-Frame so all they have to do is plug it once the tent is up. There is a huge fabric “tunnel” that runs the length along the inside of the top of the tent. There are round holes in that tunnel and either hot or cold air is pumped through it to heat or cool the tent. So much nicer and quieter than the “wind tunnels” we had hooked up to the tents we stayed in overseas!
There was another tent that had shower stalls and sinks that could also be assembled in 5 minutes. I found all this extremely fascinating because of the amount of time I’ve spent in tents in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc.!
We returned to the venue and had a nice, quick dinner. As I feared, the entire front row was empty and there were lots of people on the sides of the room. I asked James to please announce that everyone sitting on the sides would need to move to the center section. He did this oh so politely but “firmly”. The GSF video was shown followed by Gary’s personalized message to the attendees. Then Colonel Richards took the stage to welcome the group and the show began.
Dewayne opened tonight’s show and it was immediately evident that this was a rowdy crowd. The difference in tonight’s audience and last night’s is the fact that alcohol was served tonight! Dewayne, Adam and Josh all had terrific reaction from the audience. The laughter was definitely non-stop! They again held the Q&A session and Adam added a special message about how he knew Gary accompanied by photos. There were lots of people who stayed tonight to have photos taken with the group. Not sure of the exact number of attendees but definitely over 200.
We finished loading out at around 9 pm and were back at the hotel by 9:30 pm.
Tomorrow’s show is at Whiting Field. Whiting actually got the show by “default” when Eglin had to cancel our visit with them. I got the message about the cancellation when I had just arrived in Switzerland on September 9th – less than a month before the show was to take place. I immediately reached out to Whiting and they were so thrilled to accept the performance. They have been amazing to work with and we’re expecting a fantastic visit. Everyone is so appreciative of Gary’s efforts in bringing entertainment to the bases and everything he does for the men and women serving in the military and the first responders!
Jude
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, – THIRD SHOW AT WHITING FIELD:
James and I departed for Whiting Field at 8:30 am. It was about an hour and a half drive. When we were about 10 minutes away, we contacted our POC — Xylene. She met us at the Visitor’s Center parking lot and we breezed right onto the base. Easiest entry it’s been so far!
Everyone at Whiting was so excited to receive the entertainment from Gary. They had the venue set up for 200 people with a partition in place and another 100 seats behind the partition. One of their staff members was going all over the base on a segway distributing more flyers to remind everyone about today’s show. We also noticed posters all over the base as we drove in.
The “Green Room” was actually a “suite” of two hotel rooms. They already had the lunch catering in place when we arrived. The comedians had interviews with newspaper and radio as soon as they arrived. As I said, “everyone” is so engaged on this base!
The first 200 chairs in the showroom were already full by 1:30 pm and the show didn’t start until 2:00 pm. The partitions were removed and the remaining 100 seats filled up quickly.
Another GREAT show tonight. The comedians brought so many laughs to everyone in the audience. No matter how many times I watch them perform, I still laugh at every joke. They are true “pros”!
The Q&A Session was definitely fun for everyone and there was a line of people who took photos with Adam, Dewayne and Josh afterwards. We had pre-ordered dinner and everyone decided to take it “to go”. We were back at the hotel by around 6:30 pm. Tomorrow is the last show at Tyndall AFB. Can’t believe how quickly this week has passed!
Jude
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6TH – FINAL PERFORMANCE AT TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE:
James and I departed the hotel for the 1 ½ hour drive to Tyndall AFB at 8 am. For the FIRST TIME in I think “forever”, the gate had the EAL Form and we were allowed to enter without having to do any additional paperwork or call for an escort. I should have filmed the procedure. LOL.
The Production Company was already on site and the Green Room was set up. The only “issue” was the fact that the WiFi and Cell service did not work in the Green Room and only had a really low signal in the Show Room. Master Sergeant Bellina met us upon arrival and took care of us – along with Gary Williams – for the remainder of the day. I set up my computer on a table in the back of the show room so I could work. We were not aware of the fact that a General on the base held an “impromptu” luncheon on the other side of the retractable wall. Once all the production was loaded in, the Production Company tested the equipment. Someone removed a cable incorrectly and it sounded like a bomb went off. Then the GSF video began playing loudly. Someone from the luncheon came running over to tell us to shut it down because the General was speaking. We were so embarrassed and apologized profusely.
Lunch was catered into the Green room and at 2:45 pm, the comedians arrived and we met them at the gate so they could follow us to a different area on base for a visit with 325 SFS 8-9 Unit. That was a real treat for everyone. First, we “met” the dogs in their cages and then we went outside to look at an “arsenal” of guns. The guys got to hold the guns and our hosts explained the various details about each gun. They were NOT loaded. LOL.
Next, there was a demonstration with the dogs “taking down” a suspect in several different scenarios. I’ve seen the demo many times overseas in just about every country but I never get tired of watching it.
After that demo, one of the airmen had volunteered to be “tazed”. I tried to talk the host out of doing that since we did not want him to go through that pain for us. But, they insisted. I saw this happen in Korea to an Airman and I vowed to never watch it again….and I didn’t. He was fine but I hate that he volunteered for that painful situation. I gave everyone coins and we all took photos with them before departing. They promised to come to the show tonight. It was a GREAT visit.
Dinner was catered into the Green Room. Major Christie (who was going to do the Intro tonight) came by to say hello and heard about the WiFi situation. He immediately secure and brought in a mobile hotspot for us!
This was the smallest crowd of the 4 shows but also the liveliest and most engaged! There were 126 people attending and once again, James had to coerce them to move from the back of the room to the front. I videoed a short clip of the show because the laughter was so loud and non-stop and sent it to Gary. Then – unsolicited – he sent me a video “thank you” message to share with the 3 comedians and James. Everyone was so appreciative and happy to know that he has been pleased with the tours.
The Q&A Answer was a pretty “wild” – but fun time for everyone. Afterwards, the comedians took photos with everyone. We arrived back at the hotel at almost 10 pm and I think everyone went straight to bed.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7TH – FLYING HOME:
The comedians had to depart the hotel at 7:20 am today and James and I left shortly thereafter for our flight to Nashville. Hard to believe how quickly the week passed. Every show could not have gone any better and they made so many people laugh!!! All the bases were so appreciative to Gary and they all also asked for us to keep them in mind for entertainment in the future.
Comedians all flew together to Atlanta and then from there to their respective destinations – Sacramento, Ft. Lauderdale and DC. The flight for James and I was delayed but not by too terribly much.
We already have a December tour lined up at 3 military bases in Mississippi so we’ll see each other at that time. Love working with all these guys and bringing such a huge morale boost to the men and women serving…thanks to Gary Sinise who believes he can always do a little more! Thank you also to Josh, Adam and Dewayne for sharing your unique gift of laughter with the men and women at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Hurlburt Field, Whiting Field and Tyndall Air Force Base! And, of course, to all our wonderful hosts at each base…and to James – my wingman!
Jude