Michael Anaya signed up and got sent to Afghanistan last year.
He and his two band mates in Subrosa Union, an Austin-based reggae
band, strapped themselves and their gear into a C-130 transport plane
out of Kuwait. He remembers swinging like a side-to-side roller coaster
through the mountains near Kabul. "We called it the 'La Bamba' plane. I never experienced anything like that," Anaya said.
On the ground, they were issued flak jackets and helmets and loaded
into the heavily armored "Bang Bus" for the trip to the base.
"I always felt safe," he said, even as the bus tore through the city at
80 mph. "I was more excited about being in spaces where civilians never
get to go. I felt privileged." Drummer Paul Valenzuela said it was snowing, and children were standing on the street without shoes or coats. At the base, they performed, and then soldiers brought out their guitars.
They jammed and talked about their families and their jobs. "It let
them escape from their lives for a minute or two," Valenzuela said.
They went on to Kurdistan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and
then to a missile cruiser in the Persian Gulf, where they performed on
the flight deck with a backdrop as blue as the sky and vast as the
water. But what Anaya said he remembers most is the
appreciation he felt for those men and women. "It was a very, very
patriotic feeling to see their sacrifice." Subrosa Union
played SXSW again last week, but they came by the booth for Armed
Forces Entertainment to let Shock and his recruiters know something. "I'd go back in a heartbeat," Anaya said. "It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life."
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