Dinner and a Movie on Krab Island

The EMEDs hospital complex has two buildings with a walkway between them. Some time in the past someone was able to put some metal decking out there and cover it with cammo netting to create our very own KRAB island (you can see the netting is getting pretty ratty at this point).


This is the "social hub" of our squadron. It has been wired up with a steroe and lights and it even has its own little fountain-pond (a bit heavy on the algea).


A tradition had been started just prior to my arrival that we have a weekly barbeque as a squadron where we sit down to eat together and then watch a movie that we project on a 'screen' made of several pieces of white-painted plywood. Really it was one guy (Lt Nick Sauber) who was running the event with very little help from anyone else, so I started helping with the organization and execution of the weekly outings. One of the key elements that added greatly to the enjoyability of our events was when Nick and I were out and about (working on networking and finding out what was 'possible') and were able to get an 'in' with the guys in the food supply shop. That opened a whole new world of options tha we now had available for weekend barbeques.

Here is a picture of me and Nick (now out of the AF and on his way to medical school in Ohio) grilling up some chicken and pineapple.
Nick passed the power of the tongs on to me when he went home a month ago, and we have continued in his proud tradition and have served all kinds of different barbeque meats (ribs, burgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, chicken) and other grilled acoutrements.

Here are a few pictures of the group sitting down to eat and socialize, which is really what this weekly outing is about.

In the words of the 'immortal LT', "The unit that plays together, stays together." Of course we don't have much of a choice about 'staying together,' (at least for the period of the deployment) since we are all jammed into rooms together and we all work in these two buildings, but the spirit of his statement holds true. We may have to be here away from our families for this period, but we can do some small things along the way to make the time pass more quickly and pleasantly.