Concert Observations

Last night, we drove down to Albuquerque NM to see Trace Adkins and Toby Keith in concert. Yeah, it's what you do when you live out in the middle of nowhere; drive four hours, catch a concert, and drive back for work the next day. YIKES

Anyway, the concert was worth it. I like Toby Keith and Trace Adkins both, so to see two for one, hell, you gotta. We had great seats and loved every minute of it. The music was good, people well behaved, and nice weather. Good time. Heck, there was even a suprise visit on stage of Eddy Raven and David Allen Coe!

I like watching people at places like this. There are some very interesting folks out there! I saw several women around my age (forties) that looked like nice respectable ladies from the neck up. LOL, they had nice hair, makeup etc, but from the neck down it was slutville! I was cracking up! Skimpy tank tops with no bra, shorts so short Daisy Duke would have blushed, and mile-high heels. One lady dressed like this was with a guy with a huge beer gut and dressed in business casual. Very odd couple! Another lady had on a bright yellow mini dress with bright yellow cowboy boots. And I couldn't count the number of brand new cowboy boots worn last night... Hell, we still had horse crap on ours! I seriously LOL'd several times.

Okay, enough poking fun at the posers and groupies... One thing happened that rubbed me the wrong way. First off, no one supports the troops more than I do. No one has more respect for them than I do. Hell, I spent most of my adult life serving my country and know the sacrifices made to wear the uniform. Both Toby Keith and Trace Adkins are HUGE supporters of our Military and have traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit the troops. They both are Patriots. Now, what got in my craw last night was two soldiers in the crowd, wearing their utility uniforms. During the encore, they made their way to the front and got invited up on stage, then went back stage with Toby and Trace after the final number. Oh yeah, they waved their girlfriends/wives up on stage too. Okay, fine. Good for them. I'm sure they had a very special experience. So what's my grief?

Maybe I'm a cynic, but I think it's a disgrace to all the men and women who serve to use your countries uniform to meet a celebrity. Albuquerque is an Air Force town. A major USAF base is right there. I'm sure there were thousands of military people and vets in the audience, and these two Army clowns dressed in their utilities so they would stand out and get invited up on stage. New Mexico has three USAF bases and only 1 Army base (which BTW is a long way from ALB.) The New Mexico Army National Guard is in Sante Fe, 60 Miles North of Alb. So, either these two Army soldiers had to drive down from Sante Fe or over from White Sands. Either way, there was NO reason for them to be wearing the uniform except to exploit it.

Okay, so why does this piss me off? First off, it is against military regulations to wear the utility uniform off-base EXCEPT for short convenience stops. Short convenience stops are generally described as less than 30 minutes. The concert started and 7:30 and went till 11:00. Secondly, like I said earlier, Toby and Trace have done ALOT for our troops, and these two decided to take advantage of their patriotism for their own personal wishes. To me, they showed a lack of HONOR, not only for themselves, but dishonored their brothers and sisters in uniform.

I'm sure most civilians are probably thinking that I'm just jealous and full of sour grapes. Fine, think what you want. The Vets and the majority of those serving know what I mean, and that's what matters.

So, to the Army clowns at the concert last night, I hope it was worth it. I hope that if your Senior NCOs find out what happened, they take appropriate disciplinary measures. To all those who serve and have served with honor, Thanks for doing our uniform proud. And to Toby and Trace, keep it up, you guys ROCK!