SOME PICTURES FROM Sarah’s Military Career

Graduation and commissioning, 1987.

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Japan, 1990-1993.

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Dragon fight, at the Kappa Festival at Komaki’s resort, near Misawa. The blue dragon won.

A parade down Green Pole Road, Misawa, Japan. Every block, we’d set down the float and run around it in a circle. I don’t remember why.

At the top of Mt. Fuji. A very long walk up, and almost-as-long, and very slippery, walk back down.

Hirosaki Ice Festival.

Europe, 1996-1997.

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One of the last standing sections of the Berlin Wall. The rest had been torn down and scattered around the world to stand as monuments to the city’s divided era.

Bosnia-Hercegovina. I was detailed to work with an Army Civil Affairs unit supporting the UN High Commission on Refugees.

This was the newspaper building in Sarajevo. They kept producing the newspaper from this building throughout the 4 years of war, which is probably why it came under such heavy attack.

A trip to Russia as a tourist. Moscow, St. Petersburg, and a few points between. This is Moscow, with a view of the Kremlin.

Africa, 1997-1998.

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Goree Island, Senegal. The round structure, the House of Slaves, was the last stop in Africa for a lot of people forced into slavery and taken to America.

In 1997, I became a general’s aide, which involved a lot of travel to Africa. Here we are in Mauritania, reviewing the Mauritanian Camel Cavalry and ready to ride too.

Me, pretty much falling off the camel at the end of my ride. Got felt-up, too, but in the man’s defense, it was a Muslim country and they don’t have a lot of interaction with women. He probably thought they were handles.

Views and people along the Niger River, Mali.

I was always amazed by the quantity and variety of things women could carry on their heads. I saw a woman at a market wearing a beautiful dress and a fancy hat. When I got closer, though, I saw that the hat was actually a platter of carrots.

Meeting President Jammeh of The Gambia. In 1994, then-Captain Jammeh returned from a U.S. Army training course and promptly overthrew his government to establish himself as president. It was very challenging to get inside the Presidential palace on this visit. The decorations on my uniform set off the metal detector at the entry and the guards pulled my aside for a thorough wanding and pat-down. As they concentrated on that, the general’s lead security officer, a US Army Warrant Officer, caught my eye and grinned as he walked back and forth through the metal detector. It never went off, though he was armed. Instead, they were fully focused on me – the least dangerous person in the room.

Qatar, Iraq, and Afghanistan, 2003-2004.

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Assigned to Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatar, with US Central Command Air Forces-Forward. I was responsible for communications within and between our air bases in the region, and this involved a lot of travel to those bases. Occasionally, it was possible to get out and see a little of the surrounding areas as well.

C-130 aircraft went everywhere, and almost all my travel was space-available on those aircraft. Like everyone else, I usually rode with the cargo, but every once in a while I got to ride up front and see the views.

Decorations left on various buildings once used by the Iraqi military forces.

The Ziggurat, in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, near Tallil Air Base, Iraq, and view from the top.

I think this was Kandahar Air Base, but it also could have been one of several in Iraq. They do look a lot alike.

Weekly market at Kandahar. It was part of the pace and practice of the area for some of the residents to fire mortars at the base on Fridays, and then there’d be a market set up right outside the base on Saturdays. I don’t know if the same people participated in both activities.

Singapore, 2017.

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The iconic ship-building in Singapore. Hotel, restaurant, and probably more. It has a stunning, 360 degree views that changes as the night falls.

High Flight, 2009.

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Taking off from Beale Air Force Base in a U-2 high-altitude aircraft, we passed over San Francisco

Northern California, Oregon, and probably parts of Washington, from the U-2.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -

and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -

wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.

Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along

and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,

where never lark, or even eagle, flew;

and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

the high untrespassed sanctity of space,

put out my hand and touched the face of God.

-- High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.