The News Tribune has a nice little write-up of Stephen’s most recent shows from Iraq, in which he interviewed two Washingtonians, CSM Grippe and Lt. Gen. Jacoby.
From *FOB Tacoma:
I Corps’ Grippe, Jacoby ham it up on ‘Colbert Report’
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 11:58:20 am
. . .
Welcome to “The Colbert Report,” Iraq-style. The Comedy Central show featuring a self-important talking head – the credits list the host as Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA – spent a week with troops in Iraq. Many of the hundreds in the audience are serving in Baghdad with Fort Lewis-based I Corps, which is running daily operations of the military in Iraq.
The tour, organized by the USO, was a great distraction, Grippe told The News Tribune by phone Friday. He and corps commander Lt. Gen Charles Jacoby sat for interviews, and hundreds more were in the audience for the tapings. Colbert also shook hands and chatted with the service members after the cameras were off.
“His audience really fits the demographics of a lot of people in the military today,” said Grippe, a 46-year-old New York native. “They’re all about Steve.”
. . .
The host later convinced Grippe to call the service members in the audience to attention and order them to “put their right hand in.” When Colbert asked Grippe to order them to “take your right hand out,” the command sergeant major’s patience seemed spent.
He stopped barking out the orders.
Cue Colbert’s faux horror.
“You can’t get them to do the hokey-pokey?” Colbert asked. “What kind of commander are you?”
Instead, I Corps’ top noncommissioned officer led the hundreds in the audience in the Army song.
“I can play around a little bit,” Grippe told The News Tribune, “but you can’t play around too much with a high-discipline force on world TV.”
. . .
Well, much as I wish CSM Grippe had gone along with the “Hokey Pokey”, I’m not about to argue with his decision to refrain. It’s been a superb week of shows, and it’s great to get these follow up articles. Kudos to all involved!
*I’ve clearly been reading a lot of military-related stuff lately, as I now immediately think “Forward Operating Base” when I see the acronym “FOB” printed anywhere. My usual lawyerly response would be to think “Free/Freight On Board” (a shipping term). Gawd, what’s up with my life?
Actually, surprisingly, I felt that moment turned into a very powerful one when he did that. It said to me that jokes are well and good, but in the end, this is real; there is a fighting force here of men and women that do their duty, which is exactly why the Report was there.
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Agreed, I was really touched watching and listening to troops sing the Army song. It was one of (if not the) most powerful moments of all the Baghdad shows, hearing that song sung in one of Saddam’s old palaces. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stephen was really moved too. I hope the troops know we were listening and can’t wait for them to get home.
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You ask what’s up with your life, MsI?
Stephen has once again altered our reality. ;)
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