CH-46E mechanic carries rifle, guitar while deployed in support of OIF Submitted by: 3d Marine Aircraft Wing
KUWAIT(June 7, 2003) -- All is not quiet in the "tent city" at an air base here in the evening. After working on and around aircraft all day in temperatures that can reach more than 120 degrees, many of the service members here take advantage of an evening breeze to socialize, play cards and watch other Marines go about their business.
Entertainment is hard to come by here - there are a few small portable televisions and several sets of playing cards and dominoes, but almost everyone has some type of portable radio, compact disc player or mp3 device. Music, it seems, is difficult for these troops to live without.
Each General Purpose tent in the tent city will often have its own type of music wafting through the tent fabric; the latest rap or hip-hop hit can be heard from one 'hooch,' country music blares from the next.
All of the music is loud enough to hear from a distance, but one musical sound somehow carries above the rest, as a Marine with an acoustic guitar plays a classic song that almost everyone within hearing range knows some of the words to.
Lance Cpl. Bobby E. George, aviation ordinance technician, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 165, has become proficient at strumming the guitar he has been playing for less than five years.