Toby Keith came through Taji Iraq with Ted Nugent in 2004 - they were coming into Iraq straight out of Afghanistan and had been traveling 16-20 hours at that point with Baghdad as the final destination for that night.
They landed late, started the show late - and then played an extra hour or more closer to two hours - "just because" they wanted to. We were running the flight to Baghdad for them, so holding the helos wasn't a problem.
I learned a couple things that night -
1. Regardless of the politics - both went above and beyond to ensure that they were there to break up what was a long tour with a personal connection to the troops.
2. We had no idea how may guitars were deployed with our soldiers - they sat and signed probably 120-150 instruments after the show - and didn't quit until the last one was done.
I got escort them out to the flight line and to the pad for lift-off, we were about 10 minutes late notifying the UH-60 crews, and VBC in Baghdad was having issues with indirect fires - so everything went on phase at the pad.
Both entertainers were smoked - they'd just added another 4 hours or more onto the 20 they'd already been through, and still had to get into VBC for the night. We're standing at midnight-30 in 85 degree heat, battel rattle, and listening to thumps in Baghdad from the rockets.
Toby still made a point to walk to every solider on the pad and shake their hand and tell them that they were doing good and were great Americans. You could feel the fatigue coming off him in waves, but he never once acted like "THE GUY" that had pretty much just won every award possible in Nashville 2-3 weeks prior. It was a special night many, and very personal look at an entertainer that went further than he had to, when he didn't have to.
Ted Nugent did the same - he only wanted a bottle of water to refill his canteen before the flight, and made sure that he made the rounds as well. Both of them could have cut the visit much shorter and stayed closer to the schedule - but they didn't. They stayed there for the troops and made it work.
My picture of Toby will be standing there in the dim light our flashlights, hands in his pockets, that crushed cowboy hat on his head, rocking the OTV vest, and so tired he can only mumble by the time the aircraft arrived at the pad.
I don't think he cared much for meeting the brass - but he'd make every effort possible to ensure a young troop in any uniform had a chance to meet him, and to tell that troop that he supported them.
YMMV
This great story is the impression that I got from Toby. It is good to hear that he was everything we thought he was. Good to hear that Ted was a stand up guy as well. Hard to replace these good Americans!
