The 2021 Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff USO Tour has been moving at a breakneck pace to visit as many service members as possible during its weeklong tour. On Tuesday, the tour members landed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington. In the midst of a record-breaking heat wave, the team put on a great show and visited several units on the island.
Vice Chairman and Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, along with Ramon Colon-Lopez, the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman, took tour members to meet the sailors who keep the Navy’s EA-18G Growlers in the sky. Carrier-based electronic-warfare craft, the Growlers are essentially F-18s that have been designed for electronic warfare.
Comedian Taylor Williamson wasted no time making the aviation mechanics of the VAQ-135 “Black Ravens” laugh while LoCash singers Chris Lucas and Preston Brust took photos with fans.
“It’s just nice to get a break from the grind and see the USO out again and able to do these tours,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. AJ Dierks, an aviator, said.
Because the pandemic stopped in-person events, the 2021 tour marks the first time since March 2020 that the USO has been able to conduct visits to bases.
After exploring the Growler squadron, the tour moved on to NAS Whidbey Island’s Fire Search and Rescue hangar, where Navy firefighters demonstrated the capabilities of their custom vehicles. The firefighters on base are not part of a typical urban fire department; they’re prepared to respond to fires or crashes anywhere on the island, thanks to their Oshkosh Striker firetruck. The Striker holds more than 3,000 gallons of water, so it can put out fires without needing to tap into a fire hydrant.
Before leaving the base, the tour stopped by the Whidbey School-Age Care facility. As the tour bus pulled up in front of the school, a mob of children with signs welcoming Miss America and LoCash stood chanting “USA, USA!”
Miss America, Camille Schrier, was swarmed by young girls as soon as she stepped off the bus, but where others would have been overwhelmed, Schrier thrived. When the cheering kids announced that science was the class’s favorite subject, Miss America melted more hearts, telling them it was her favorite subject too. Schrier holds bachelor’s degrees in both biochemistry and systems biology and is just three years away from becoming a doctor of pharmacy.
As LoCash took selfies and played basketball with the kids, Hyten and Colon-Lopez got on their hands and knees to make chalk art. But despite the students’ being an enthusiastic crowd, the focus of the stop was to put on a good show for the base.
An outdoor stage facing the islands in Puget Sound provided the most beautiful backdrop of the tour so far. Service members and families brought blankets and folding chairs to brave the heat and enjoy the show. LoCash again put on a great performance and was joined on stage by Hyten and Colon-Lopez.
After wrapping up the visit to the isolated naval air base, tour members boarded their C-17 and headed south to their next destination: naval bases Coronado and San Diego.
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