We hit the ground running in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Due to a delayed shipment of outreach materials, the crew covered down and built signs advertising our events. But for two days, posted outside each of Fort Bragg’s three major gates were yard signs painted with information about the show for every Soldier to see.

The day of the concert, we split up the crew with local allies to spread flyers out at the local VA hospital and close to base in the insanely humid, 102 degree heat of the afternoon. This was one of those times we had to tell ourselves- "well, at least we're not in Iraq."

At the end of the day, I remembered that if just one poster handed out resulted in an active duty Soldier finding the comfort of IVAW the way that I did because of the Base Tour 2007, that's worth nearly any sacrifice. So sweating until I was ready to pass out really wasn't anything.

Having secured Docks at the Capitol, an awesome venue for the show and the workshop in downtown Fayetteville, we knew we were in for a major success. Yet, a bit of nervousness struck us all, to include the bands, as the clock ticked toward go time. Would the last minute attempt at outreach have done the trick? Would Matthis' radio spot during Rush Limbaugh bring out the pro-war maniacs to try to sabotage the show? Were these bands what active duty guys wanted to hear?

Then the Fayetteville Fire Marshall shows up. It's just hours before the show, and he's telling us our 300-person venue is more like 60, and he'll shut us down in a quick second if he thinks we have just one person over his occupancy level. This venue has hundreds of people come in every Friday for jazz shows, and the management had never seen the Fire Marshall here once.

He claimed, "I saw the ad in the paper, and for a place that normally doesn't have shows, I knew I needed to do an inspection." Fire Marshall Bill began counting ceiling tiles, counting paces across the room, running around with some rolling measuring device, sweating over a calculator and a formula sheet... It quickly became obvious that measuring a room and determining its max occupancy wasn't what this chubby mustached man is used to doing.

Dock's staff dealt with him for us and eventually got our occupancy numbers up to 150. Fair enough, we figured if we got over 150 people up there and old Bill tried to shut down the show, the scores of veterans there might influence his strategic retreat.

The show kicked off with Rebel Inc, who became my new favorite band overnight. With spot-on messaging with the vocals, an insane set of guys on the strings, and Detroit born beats, these guys were easy to - ahem - "dance" to.

Ray had been swearing up and down that these guys rocked, and I can tell you now, the recordings they made for their CD and myspace do NOT give these guys justice. I'd have to say they were one of the best bands I've ever personally seen preform live, and that includes when I went to the Warped Tour in '98, back before it was infested with Emo.

We had our brand spankin' new active duty Bragg chapter getting pumped up and introduced to how the IVAW holds its functions. A few songs (and drinks) into it, everyone learned to stay away from Jay-Wash's elbows when he's in the pit, and that we'd all be sore as hell the next day. I don't think that anything builds strong and successful "unit cohesion" within IVAW like the shows I've been to with you guys.

Next up was The Greens, a West Virginia based band, who saved our show by bringing all the sound equipment that we needed. With the ability to put on a 4 to 5 hour show on their own, these guys only gave us the best and were intensely entertaining musicians. When we get the videos up, you'll see what I mean, because I can't describe it in words.

Our show in Fayetteville was successful for more reasons than I think most of us on the crew intended. Not only had we established new membership in the area, but we got enough Active Duty Troops to be able to establish a chapter. We also succeeded in something the local Peace Movement had been unsuccessful with since the Quaker house burned down in the 70's- we linked up Active Duty guys to their local anti-war support network. Thanks to the Quakers in the Fayetteville area, IVAW now has another safe house and hangout right outside an active duty post. We also planted a ton of seeds in Fayetteville for future IVAW friendly events, especially at Docks- the nicest venue/restaurant/arcade/bar in town.

The following day we returned to Docks at the Capitol early to sit down to our nightly crew meeting over dinner. When we started setting things up, Ray ran outside to get the computers from the RV. But when he got there, he noticed the RV looked a little too clean, a little less cluttered...

I got a phone call at around 6:30 p.m. from Ray, who's monotone voice makes me wonder if he's serious. He tells me, "the doors were still locked, but the passenger window to the RV is destroyed, and stuff is definitely missing." In about 30 seconds, the whole crew was outside searching for what had been taken.

Two laptops, one belonging to Jason Washburn, the other, bought about a week ago with IVAW money. Both had mobile internet capability. One GPS system, brand new and top of the line, which had kept us from the frustration of using maps through half the states in the union, which belonged to me, Goldsmith.

What they didn't steal is what made some of us suspicious. Four iPods laying in plain sight. The locked, but portable cash-box. Steve Mortillo's paycheck. Why would someone steal only what we needed for navigation and communication, and neglect all the easy to steal, pocket-sized items with a combined value of a couple thousand dollars?

Some might say that sounds like government work. But I guess we'll never know. After calling the cops and waiting nearly an hour for a unit to show up, the forensics team hastily dusted everything without finding a single fingerprint. Yeah, they dusted an entire guitar without even finding our fingerprints!

While I dealt with the cops and then pulled guard on what remained in the RV, and Steve cleaned up the glass in the vehicle, the rest of the crew ran a pretty successful Veterans Benefits Workshop with Bill Perry.

So the next day with a broken window, a generator that doesn't work (meaning no air conditioning), and the RV seeming to fall apart piece after piece, we headed to Best Buy to repair some of the damage done the night before.

I blew just about every dollar I got paid for being on staff for the State of the Union Tour and got a new TomTom (RIP TomTom #1) which I immediately programed to say "You stole this from a Disabled Veteran" on startup. We got a computer lock-box and a new laptop with cellular internet capability. With stress levels high, pockets empty and no air conditioning, we set out towards Camp Lejeune to see if Jacksonville is ready for IVAW.

-Kristofer "K-Goldy" Goldsmith
writing on behalf of the State of the Union Base Tour Crew