A Newbury Park woman went to Iraq on an Army mission to entertain the troops and entertained herself by swimming in one of Saddam Hussein's pools. Valerie Day, 21, was chosen from thousands of hopefuls to be a member of the USA Express Touring Band, an Army group that travels to military bases around the world on a morale-raising tour for troops.
Day comes from a musical family of five children and had plenty of experience to draw on.
"I have been performing since I was 5," Day said. "And I started composing when I was 12."
She returned to her family home in Newbury Park on Sunday night after a four-month journey throughout the Middle East and the United States.
Day, who joined the Army three years ago after graduating from Newbury Park High School, already had spent a tour of duty doing facility support in Afghanistan. She returned to Fort Polk, La., where she was in a band with some Army friends.
She heard about auditions for the USA Express Touring Band, a band made up of soldiers who have other, nonmusical, military jobs.
The band entertains other soldiers, going to places where, because of security concerns or cultural restrictions, civilian entertainers can't or won't go.
Day sent a videotape of herself singing and playing the keyboards and was selected to be in the band. She was sent to the Army Entertainment Division at Fort Belvoir, Ga., where she met the other five band members and spent a week of 14-hour days rehearsing.
They learned 20 Top 40 hits and headed off on a four-month mission to military bases and camps in Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Qatar and Iraq, performing before appreciative, rowdy crowds of up to 1,000 soldiers.
Day said the soldiers' living conditions varied greatly, from Camp As Saliyah in Qatar, where pedicures and massages were available, to miserable windblown outposts like Camp Udairi in Iraq.
"A sandstorm messed up all our equipment," Day said of her time at Camp Udairi. "We saw this huge dust cloud over the desert and about 15 seconds later it was all around us.
"We thought about canceling, but we were there for the soldiers, so we decided to perform anyway." She said the depressed soldiers who had been huddled in lawn chairs finally came alive and began dancing when the band performed "Sweet Home Alabama."
Day said that her Army experience repairing air conditioners and other equipment in Afghanistan prepared her for the rigors of the tour, but some bandmates weren't so lucky.
"They were only happy when they were on stage," she said. "The rest of the time there was a lot of complaining. A lot."
She said temperatures were often over 120 degrees, dust and sand were everywhere, showers were scarce, and the food was terrible.
"We got yellowish-brown canned eggs and sausage that tasted horrible," she said.
The band also heard frequent gunfire, sometimes just outside the gates of camps where members performed.
In lighter moments, they got to go to several of Hussein's former palaces, jamming with an Army jazz band in the music room of one and swimming in a large pool at another. A former Junior Olympic diver, Day was captured on video by a friend as she gracefully plunged into Saddam's swimming pool with fascinated Iraqis looking on.
Day, who has finished her active duty in the Army, hopes to continue her musical career now that she is back in the states. She is looking for a band to sing and play keyboards with, and for a clerical job to pay the bills.
After her Army experiences, Day said that everything else seems easy.
"It made me a lot stronger," she said. "I feel I can do anything."
