Letter to the Editor

Thank you Neal McCoy, VA

Friday, February 14, 2020

Dear Editor Farley:

I am Lt. Cmdr. Robert Burgett, USN, Retired. I served in the United States Navy for 30 years active duty.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) I was on a 430 day mission assigned to Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq (MNSTC-I) Baghdad Iraq as a part of the 2007 United States military surge to develop, train and equip the Ministry of Interior (MOI) Ministry of Defense (MOD) and the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) /Iraqi Police to be capable of sustaining security in their country.

During my tour in Iraq Neal McCoy flew into Forward Operations Base (FOB) Shield located in Baghdad with the Iron Horse’s helicopter squadron.

I would like to share with all the veterans that will be attending the VAlentines for Veterans Concert how much coalition forces appreciated Neal and his band members for making such a dangerous trip out to our FOB to put on a show for us. The Iraqi Police and Iraqi National Police that were in the area got to attend and were enjoying hearing Neal perform his top hits.

When you are deployed, family and home are put on pause and you’re working 18 hours a day. Sometimes your nights run into your days trying to solve problems despite the constraints of the situation.

When Neal and his band members arrived to our FOB and hearing American Country Music for the first time in a long time does help take you away from the mission for a couple hours.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Neal and his crew first and foremost, for their great service to our country, and their decision to go in harm’s way to make coalition forces day a little brighter for a couple hours. As a veteran, I am particularly grateful to John J. Pershing VA Medical Center, and the United Service Organizations (USO) that continues to provide the leadership that allows projects like this concert to flourish all over the United States and overseas

Very respectfully,

ROBERT BURGETT

LCDR, USN, RETIRED