Ty and I were talking at dinner tonight and we were both trying to come up with one word to describe the day. My first one was surreal, his was humbled, then I threw out admiration, he came back with respect.

It truly was all that. We had a chance to see all the things you don’t read about and the men and women we met today said as much.

The most important piece of this post though will come near the end. Since Ty isn’t here yet I don’t have the write ups, but we met and spoke with soldiers who we asked for names and a message home. At the end of this post I will post their name, rank and message home. But I’m waiting for Ty to arrive and he could have passed out already.

The morning started with two wake up calls, both of which I was already up for. Tough night of sleep but the morning went great. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel (The staff has been phenomenal and the service exceptional) and it featured the best buffet I’ve ever seen. Every piece of food was cooked as if it was the only thing being served. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally here. Ten hour and 50-minute flight, pretty uneventful until someone rolled up a window at what I thought was like 2 a.m. and it was noon, bright sunshine outside. Body clock on overdrive right now. Full day planned for tomorrow beginning at an oh-something hour …

Slept zero minutes on the flight over. Watched about 4 1/2 seasons of ‘The Office’, first episode of Heroes (which I’ve never seen), talked to Tracey our USO contact on the flight for awhile.

Pretty amazing to step off the plane into a place like this. It’s a different world.

Ty and I were talking yesterday about saying goodbye to the family, and we both remarked that it was ‘different’. We’re on a USO tour, they’ll do whatever they can to keep everyone safe but it’s a totally different feeling getting on a plane to head to a part of the world where war is openly recognized and acknowledged.

I said goodbye to my dad a bunch of times but was so young I never knew what it meant. Weird. Neither of us are serving, obviously, but there is still a very different feeling when saying good bye for a trip like this.

The one thing that did resonate with me is the men and women who do this as a way of life, pretty awesome and incredible that they serve OUR country and the United States.

Not sure how long I am going to make it tonight. Up VERY early tomorrow for meet and greets, excited as hell.

Two and a half hours late but safe, so it’s all good.

Ty was at the gate and it was nice to see an old friend. We got settled in for the lay over, which is now only about an hour and a half. We stopped off at a fast-food, taco place, if there is such a thing other than Taco Bell. I’m all about making his 11 1/2 hours as uncomfortable as possible and it appears this is one legitimate way to do it.

Ty’s acquainting himself with the video camera, his only job this entire trip. I brought a camera, with no instructions, should be interesting.

First cool event … We ran into a small ‘squad’ of Soldiers, looked to be some officers, maybe all officers. I very shyly approached them to say thank you, and to pass out the first lot of 38 Studio patches. We said hello and the gentleman I met first I don’t think knew who I was (which I am expecting a lot of this trip), but as always they were incredibly kind and very respectful. We exchanged hellos and I told them Ty and I were headed over. Mentioned my dad served in the 101st and they remarked that the “One-O-One” was serving in Afghanistan. Something I’ve (for some reason, not sure) stayed on top of.

They thanked us — which was nice but incredibly uncomfortable since it’s us that needs to be thanking them — and I gave them patches, they checked out my ‘07 World Series ring and we wished them the best.

We are sitting in the club here and there are two guys that I am POSITIVE are either Rangers or Delta Force guys that checked out Ty’s camo backpack. We could tell they were definitely military due to the haircuts and 2 percent body fat. I told Ty they were checking his bag out and he said they might come back, break his neck and take it, to which I replied, “No need to break your neck, they can have it”. I am also wearing my fourth ID hat. I hope they don’t think I am trying to pass myself off as military, that would suck …

I have a special affinity for Rangers and Delta Force guys since my cousin served in both. He was in the first Gulf War, and a bunch of other conflicts. His unit was the Delta Force unit portrayed in the movie ‘Black Hawk Down’.

Somewhat ‘Funny” story there — My cousin was really sort of my big brother growing up, since I didn’t have one. He entered the Army Rangers out of high school and was a highly decorated service man when his military career ended. I searched high and low for him during the 1993 season, badly wanting him to attend the playoffs. After the season when I finally reached him he apologized and said he was ‘busy’. Not long after that he told me ‘There’s a movie coming out soon, and when it does I hope you’ll understand why I couldn’t be there”. That movie was ‘Black Hawk Down’.

Amazing stuff from an amazing guy. Oh, and Ty has the camera working, so the video blog has begun …

Sitting in Logan right now, waiting to head to DC and then the short 11 hour 54 minute trip to Kuwait, Kuwait… Wait, is that right? Is that like New York, New York just hotter?

All packed, and I promise you it’s 1/100th what a woman would pack for an eight-day trip and I will NOT have to wear any underwear two times.

The USO doesn’t permit family to travel with you so I am taking one of my old college roommates and good friends, Ty Van Dyke. Ty will likely chime in with a few ‘Curt’ stories (such as the first time he ever saw me, much less met me, I was passed out in a bath tub), and he’s one of the funniest men you’ll ever meet. He’ll also have one responsibility, to video blog the crap out of this trip.

The DOD has rules in place (understandably so) for video stuff so I don’t know what the timing, if any, will be for me to post or put up any video blogging. Likely we will compile everything and put something together when we return.

I’m a bit nervous, won’t lie. Even though it’s a USO trip it’s still an active war zone, and people are trying to kill other people. That being said I can only reiterate what I said earlier in that this is one of the biggest thrills of my entire life.

I have about 3,000 38 Studios patches to hand out, I bought a ton of ’sundries’ that I know folks over there are desperate for as well.

My goal this year for Medfield 4 the Military will be to find folks over there that will be away from their families and see if we can’t help get gifts to their loved ones back here in the states. It will be a challenge but we’ll try.

I’ll update once in DC as we have a lay over there. We depart sometime around 10 tonight and the first two days are spent in Kuwait so I should have some internet access. After that it will be limited at best. I certainly won’t be pushing in line to get access on military bases with soldiers over there trying to get on.

(Update: 4:50 p.m.)

It begins.

Apparently the folks running United Airlines believe their passengers communicate telepathically, or through some other method not used by the rest of the modern world. It took a man well past his 120th birthday to inform me that our flight from Boston had changed departure time, from 4:40 to 5:35. All the while I am sitting like 15 feet from the gate and departure desk, you know that thing with a microphone that most airlines use to communicate travel information with passengers? Ya, that one.

So a slight delay to the start. Ty is already in Washington, having arrived from Flagstaff via the Pony Express to LA or somewhere close that actually has modern transportation!

We aren’t slated to depart D.C. until late this evening so I don’t foresee any issues with connections.

The only thing I’m concerned about on this leg, other than landing safely on both stops, is the rumor I have heard that approximately 50 percent of your luggage is lost in flights into Kuwait. That means I’m possibly landing there with NOTHING to hand out to the troops, or one pair of underwear for 8 days.