Cherry Blossom Festival

On Saturday, Atsugi hosted a Cherry Blossom Festival - unfortunately, the blossoms were not blossoming. But luckily there were pilots and planes to keep the Japanese entertained. It is the one day each year that the base is open to the public. We had about 30,000 people on base. All of the aircraft and squadrons were set up on the flight line. Our squadron sold about $15,000 of memorabilia. It was cold and blustery day, very un-spring like. The most surprising thing was the line for pizza. The on-base pizza restaurant set up several ovens outside, and had a line 500+ people deep. For the Japanese, it's a luxury, as is Dunkin' Donuts. Japanese were walking around with boxes upon boxes of pizza and doughnuts.

Dave, as he new guy, had the first shift at the plane. He dressed in full flight gear, stood by the plane, was photographed and signed autographs. He was like a movie star It earned him a new call sign: Bollywood. Hollywood would be too cool, and since he his a foreign superstar, he's Bollywood. He's enjoying it, but believes it's an interim call sign.