PARTY AT CAMP ALAMO

Last Thursday we had a party at Camp Alamo. There was really no special occasion except for the fact that the Air Force rock band was at our FOB. We were able to get them here because one of our officers has a brother in the band.

I helped bring the band members over from the airport. They did not enjoy the ride. I don't think they get "outside the wire" very much. It's interesting how constantly scanning the road for bombs, gunmen, etc has become a normal function for us, yet it's quite harrowing for any outsiders.

The party was actually pretty fun. Here I'm standing on the roof looking down into the courtyard. As you can see, each of the coalition members set up a table with food from their country.

Everyone at our FOB was authorized to wear civilian clothes. That's great, except for the fact that I was told repeatedly before leaving the U.S. that absolutely no civilian clothes were allowed in country. I guess no one else got that message. Since I am the rule abiding sort, and didn't bring any civvies, I got to wear Army PT gear. Aces.

Here you can see the Italians in the foreground. We still go to their base every week and eat with them. The have recently added pasta to their menu in addition to pizza. Really good stuff.

The French setting up their table and taking pictures. Interesting flag to the right on the wall. Modeled after our Stars and Stripes, or vice versa. Probably from one of their provinces. I haven't the time to research this. I'd be interested in any information about it.

Note the guy in hockey gear. Obvious self-parody by the Canadians. I am always impressed by creative lunacy such as this. It's a good thing the Canadians take their hockey gear to war.

The band was good, and the food was spectacular. I personally think the Italian food was the best, hands down. The German food was pretty good, as long as you avoided the sauerkraut. The French had good desserts of course.

Our libations consisted of all the non alcoholic beer that one could drink. I could hardly contain my enthusiasm.

The common perception is that we don't drink beer due to muslim considerations. That's not true. If it was, we wouldn't eat pork either. In fact, we do dine on swine quite often, such as it is.

No, the military decided that we would avoid a lot of disciplinary problems if we just outlawed alcohol altogether while in theater. As a JAG, I have to grudgingly admit that this is true.

I have never taken the time to sample these curious non alcoholic brews before. Now I know why.

Most of these so called ales are positively horrible. The Budweiser brand tastes like peanut juice, if there is such a thing. And if there is such a thing, the folks at Bud must have filtered it through an old tire before bottling. I shudder to even think about it.

Becks was marginally palatable, so I drank Becks. One of them.