Musicians on a mission — to Iraq and Kuwait

Vernon — Dwayne Sumal is a road manager and sound engineer for the rap group Naughty By Nature. While he’s accustomed to working with the group in clubs and venues in the U.S., a recent tour took him to quite a different stage. Sumal, Naughty by Nature and DJ Skribble just returned from a USO tour to military bases in Iraq and Kuwait. Now, they have a newfound sense of the meaning of Veterans Day. Sumal and the rest of the Naughty by Nature crew embarked on their mission Nov. 3, returning 10 days later, just one day before Veterans Day. The trip, he said, added a new meaning to the holiday for him. He sums up the entire experience in a word: “incredible.” “You could kind of feel the love for artists coming over,” Sumal said. The USO flew the musicians and their entourage around the Persian Gulf in fully armed Black Hawk helicopters. Sumal said he never feared that his life was in any danger during this trip and he describes the constant security detail as top notch. The schedule kept by the musicians and their crews was hectic, with each action-packed day containing anything from tours of bases to training exercises to, of course, performances. Sumal said he averaged about four hours of sleep each night. Keeping records In blogs of the trip kept by DJ Skribble and other artists, they mention how much they take for granted the comforts of home. The trip gave Skribble a new appreciation for things like private showers and television. Sumal said alcohol in Kuwait and Iraq was nowhere to be found, but “the food was unbelievable.” He feasted on steak and lobster tails at one military base and he did manage to catch the final game of the World Series using a television streaming device called Slingbox. Another highlight of the trip — the one Sumal called the most memorable — came during a tour of a special forces compound in Tikrit, Iraq. When the sergeant major found out that one of DJ Skribble’s crew members, DJ Barry Carew, was from Austin, Texas, and had actually trained at Fort Hood, he removed a flag that had been flying at half-staff memorializing the recent shooting rampage and asked Carew to present it to that base. On stage The soldiers who attended their shows were treated to a mix of new and old music including songs from Naughty by Nature’s newest album “Anthem, Inc.,” which doesn’t come out until March. The group gave one performance in Kuwait and four in Iraq. A concert set in a former Olympic soccer stadium in Tikrit was attended by between 600 and 700 soldiers, Sumal said. The show lasted an hour and a half but the musicians gave a lot of their time to the troops, staying another two to three hours to sign autographs and pose for pictures. A smaller concert on the Syrian border drew about 200 soldiers, he estimated, In his blog of the tour, DJ Skribble called that performance one of the smallest, but also most important performances of the trip because no one had come to visit these soldiers for at least two years. “They were so happy to see us and we were ecstatic to be there,” Sumal said. “Artists don’t come over there enough and sometimes they [the troops] feel forgotten.” He added that they felt it was the least the band could do to perform for these men “who are fighting for our way of life and putting their lives on the line. Even if you don’t believe in the politics, we’re still over there to support our men fighting for us.”

What’s next
It was the experience of a lifetime for Sumal and one that he may repeat in the near future. The USO has recommended Naughty By Nature for a joint chiefs tour. That means they would fly over on Airforce 2 along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff for performances in Iraq and Afghanistan. The date still has yet to be set for that visit.

Since before the United States entered World War II, the USO (United Service Organizations) has been the bridge between the American public and the U.S. military. In times of peace and war, the USO has consistently delivered its special brand of comfort, morale and recreational services to the military.” Source: USO.org