You also work incredible hours, seven days a week in places you'd never heard of before. Bosnia? Kosovo? Until Slobodan Milosevic started his ethnic cleansing, who ever heard of these places? So, here you are, spending at least six months of your year, peacekeeping in the Balkans' mud and snow. Some of you are frequent, repeat visitors to the dry, hot, desert sands of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and to southern Turkey. Others man posts far from home in Europe and the Asian Pacific.

Does anybody care? Does anybody even know what it's like to be in the military today? Some don't I guess, others certainly do.

I recently spent a few exhilirating days with a group of folks who do care. After meeting you, seeing what you do, how you live and what you're up against, they said they had gained a new perspective. After seeing you in Bosnia, 1,000 strong, standing shoulder to shoulder with M-16s slung over your shoulders, they came to care.

From December 20 to December 23, you - American GI's - charmed a group of world-class entertainers and celebrities with your "Hooahs" and "Ooh-rahs." The entertainers stepped into the past, a place infused with the spirit of Bob Hope. The actor-comedian did his first show in 1941. He entertained servicemembers around the globe from World War II to the Gulf War and beyond.

This year, more than a dozen celebrities joined with the USO to become part of Defense Secretary William S. Cohen's annual holiday tour. They carried on Hope's more than fifty-year tradition of bringing a touch of home to forward-deployed troops. For the past three years, I've been privileged to travel with the secretarys holiday tour, and let me tell you, it's been a remarkable journey.

The first year, 1997, Cohen and his wife, Janet Langhart Cohen (who happens to be a television journalist), invited along a friend who just happens to have won five Grammy awards for her country music. So, Mary Chapin Carpenter tagged along, accompanied by USO rep Jeff Harvey.

Now if you know country, you know Carpenter's hits "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kiss" are daily fare on country music stations. But rumor had it the singer songwriter from Washington, DC didn't feel well that December day. But guess what? Like all good troops, she did what had to be done. She sang her songs aboard a ship docked in Bahrain - another of those places that most folks have never heard of. Accompanied only by her acoustic guitar, Chapin Carpenter launched a tradition when she sang for more than 500 sailors and Marines deployed in the Persian Gulf. She would go on to perform on the tour the next two years includng a banner year, 1999

That year, 1999, there was a heap of hullabaloo. In the spirit of Bob Hope, ad maintaining the tradition of entertainers for the past 50 years, the Secretary of Defense Holiday Tour and USO show had a bunch of pizazz.

As mistress of ceremonies, MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown bantered and flirted with one and all. She shed outer layers of clothing until she was wearing only black leather pants and a tight black leather vest. As the tour moved from base to base, this 90's personality diva even charmed the services senior enlisted - the Army and Marine Corps sergeants major, chief master sergeant of the Air Force and the master petty chief officers of the Navy and Coast Guard - NCO's who have seen it all. Brown's racy wit quickly tuned into the military world as she told NCO's in the audience, " I hear you sergeants take good care of your privates."

Al Fraken of Saturday Night Live fame and Sean Kaman of General Hospital and Karate Kid III, were the show's stand up comedians. Football Hall of Famer, Terry Bradshaw, former Chicago Bear linebacker Mike Singletary and DC United soccer star Marco Etcheverry appeared on stage followed by supermodel, Christie Brinkley.

At each show, however, it was Bradshaw and his simple, down-home remarks, that seemed to steal the show. Noting that the tour was his first exposure to the military, the Super Bowl hero remarked, " This has been the most uplifting, eye-opening experience of my life."

"Mike and I have played in the National Fotball League," he said. "We're tough guys. But this out here… this is tough… you being out here in the middle of a wheatfield… God knows where we are… defending our country and giving us the chance to sit back there with our color televisions. No one realizes, until you get over here, the awesome, awesome responsibility you folks have and how you provide for us," he said. "This freedom that we have is because of you."

Many others participated in the tour, and somehow, most all of them seemed to come away a better person for it. Ruth Pointer of the Pointer Sisiters, blues singer Mary Ann Redmond, musical talents Jon Carroll and John Jennings, up and coming country singer Shane Minor, as well as six of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Asked if they would come back again, many of the celebrities gave the same reply… "In a heartbeat"

Linda D. Kozaryn is a writer for the American Forces Press Services. We are truly delighted to feature some of her work in our publication.