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Starlifter brings live, energetic performance to school in Southwest Asia

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Angelique N. Smythe
  • U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Approximately 600 students in an American secondary school at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia gathered in their cafeteria for a live performance by the U.S. Air Forces Central rock band, "Starlifter," Jan. 19.

The band appropriately livened up the school in the only location where there was light within the building, as inclement weather and a power outage had both inside and outside looking quite dark and gloomy.

This gave the children a bit of hope school would be cancelled.

"Do you want me to tell you that school's cancelled?" the announcer asked.

"Yeah!" they all shouted.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you that," the announcer said. The students gave off sighs of disappointment.

He continued, "We're waiting to hear if the power will return within an hour. If it is not on by then, we may have to make some decisions about school." And they became excited again.

Due to the lack of electricity inside the school's theater where they were originally scheduled to perform, the band members showed great flexibility and quickly set up their 3,600 pounds of equipment inside the well lit, spacious school cafeteria.

As they set up their equipment, students and teachers snuck in or poked their heads through the second floor balcony doors to look down into the cafeteria to see what was going on.

Even their brief testing of instruments and sound equipment sounded so good they were applauded by the gaggles of people who came to watch.

Seats filled quickly as students piled in to forget about schoolwork, at least for an hour, and simply have fun.

Starting off with "My Country 'tis of Thee," the band performed a collective broad base of musical hits to include "Days Go By" by Keith Urban, "Cowboy Casanova" by Carrie Underwood, "Mercy" by Duffy, and even an 80's medley which greatly entertained faculty members as well.

"The children were very energetic and responsive to both the new school and old school tunes we played," said Senior Airman Brian Plank.

One student, Amelia, said she knew the words to some of the old school songs and was able to sing along because her dad would play them quite often.

Everyone seemed to appreciate the energy and passion behind Starlifter's performance. Each song was performed with an energetic beat that even had members of the audience dancing in front of the crowd.

The team showed off their instrumental prowess, and the audience loudly cheered as pianist, Senior Airman Adam Braatz, flawlessly played a keytar behind his head. A keytar is a lightweight keyboard built similar to a guitar.

Instrumental solos by bass player, Airman Plank, drummer, Tech. Sgt. Christi McGowan, and guitar player, Master Sgt. Jerry Kelley, had them going as well.

Multi-instrumentalist, Tech. Sgt. Dwight West, showed off his skills on the keyboard, saxophone and flute.

Vocalists Airman 1st Class Carmen Emborski and Tech. Sgt. Jamie Gilley engaged the crowd with their strong, professional voices, continuously captivating the audience.

And thanks to audio engineer, Master Sgt. Dan Kenemore, the team rocked the building.

After this exciting and successful performance, Starlifter received a standing ovation.

Although power still had not returned to all other areas of the building, the children were disappointed to learn school was still in session.

As most returned to class, several students and instructors remained in the cafeteria to chat with and express their appreciation for the band's performance.

"Being able to engage as members of the Air Force with such a diverse student body lets us as servicemen make a new face for the U.S. and the military," said Airman Emborski.

Nearly 2,000 students of approximately 50 different nationalities, including those from the United States and Canada, attend this school.

"I found it interesting and rewarding to play for children from all over the world," Sergeant Gilley said.