Awesome Day!

We got word Saturday evening that on Sunday at 10am Tom Cruise would be flying in and possibly coming by the tower. We didn't know what he was coming for, just that he would be in. I went to the BX to see if they had any of his movies on DVD and of course...nothing. We have some of his movies, but none of our movies have the case for him to sign. So I got some postcards from Germany instead and had to settle for that. Colin and I got to the tower just as he got in and made it off his plane.
When his plane was coming in they called the tower for weather and Shelby gave it to them, then they replied thanks and they were about 17 minutes out and Shelby came back with "Roger, you've got the ball." (movie quote) A bit later Tom himself called up to the tower and talked to Shel on the frequency (copy of the audio from the tower tapes coming soon!).



There were a handful of Shelby's coworkers up there on the catwalk with binoculars stalking the building that Tom had gone into, watching and waiting for him to come out so they could see if he would be heading over to the tower or not. He did come out, and when he did they all started whistling and hollering and Tom looked up and gave us a wave and hopped in his DV bus and it pulled away. Poop!

Not too long after he left we got a call that four members of his flight crew wanted to come up for a tower tour. It was the pilot (and longtime personal friend of Tom's), the co pilot, Tom's personal assistant and the flight stewardess. They were excited to come up to the tower and see the stuff and brought some food and goodies from the plane up to us. We talked to them for a bit and the pilot took some stuff to be signed for us just in case Tom didn't get a chance to come back to the tower before flying out. He had to meet some wounded troops and he was also here for a special premiere screening of his new Mission Impossible movie on base.

We knew his plane was scheduled to leave out at 5pm so we were back up at the tower and hopeful by 4ish. We saw his bus pull back up and he got out and went into the building for his debrief. When it looked like he might be coming back out soon we all went back out on the catwalk to watch and whistle in case he didn't make it over. The pilot, who was in the plane, saw us and called up the tower and told us to just come on over to the plane! We all ran over there and hung out and waited for him to come to the plane. While we were waiting we got to talk to the pilot and copilot again for a while, so super nice and they totally hooked us up!


They took Colin on the plane and gave him a Pez candy dispenser and showed him the cockpit. Colin was in heaven! When Tom came out he stopped and signed a bunch of stuff for us and posed for pictures.



When his plane left he got back on the frequency again and talked to the tower and said thanks and Merry Christmas. We made sure to key up and play some of the Top Gun music for the plane as they rolled out and took off. I'm sure they get so tired of that! LOL