Tom's Mad Blog
September 13th, 2013 | Posted in General
When we do these USO cartoonist tours active war zones we fly commercial flights up to a point, but eventually we switch over to military flights.. On our way back home we planned on spending a full day there drawing prior to shipping out for the States. Saturday, Sept 7th– Our trip back was a real “red eye”. We were supposed to leave KAF on Saturday afternoon, spend the night, draw the next day and then leave for home early Monday morning. Instead, out flight was scheduled for midnight. Military flight times often get changed at the last minute, and our flight didn’t depart until… READ MORE
September 12th, 2013 | Posted in News
Mason Mastrionni (B.C.) heading into the terminal at KAF Our last stop in Afghansitan was at Kandahar Air Field near Kandahar City in the south eastern region of the country. I had visited this base in 2010 as part of a previous USO cartoonists tour, so it was very interesting to return and see how things have changed. In our last visit to Afghanistan, we went directly to KAF from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and spent our entire time billeted there while we flew helicopters to outlying FOBs each day. This time we only spend a day there, not even staying the night. Things… READ MORE
September 11th, 2013 | Posted in News
Wednesday, Sept 4th- We had a VERY early bag call at 0315 that morning to head our to our next stop, Camp Leatherneck/Camp Bastion which is west and slightly north of Kandahar, We took a very different aircraft for this short flight, a “Short Take Off and Landing” (STOL) Dash 8-100 30 passenger, two-engine prop. This was nearly a commercial-type plane so it was very comfortable compared to a C-17 or a helicopter… but still no complementary peanuts. Awaiting the unloading of our Dash 8-100 at Bastion Air Field, Camp Leatherneck Aboard our STOL bird The Afghan landscape… or maybe this is the moon? Camp… READ MORE
September 11th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Back to reality… and to the “Sketch o’the Week”. This week’s subject is musician Robin Thicke, he of “Blurred Lines” fame. That is a pretty catchy tune. Check back later today for the second part of my USO tour wrap up. READ MORE
September 10th, 2013 | Posted in News
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HITFIjOV_7k[/youtube] The above video was shot during one of our USO tour stops in Bagram, when we drew for the 101st Airbourne Division at the Task Force Lifeliner building. Here are some pics and a link to a story on that stop from the Armed Forces news DVIDS. Pictures below from same story: Photo Credits: Sgt. Sinthia Rosario, Task Force Lifeliner Public Affairs READ MORE
September 10th, 2013 | Posted in News
The National Cartoonists Society has a long history of supporting our US Military, particularly during times of strife. In fact, the NCS was first formed in the 1940″s as a result of chalk talks that cartoonists got together to do for the troops during World War II. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to go on several NCS Cartoonists/USO trips over the last five years to places like Germany, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan and others. This year I went with a terrific group of talented cartoonists on a trip back to Afghanistan with a stop in Kyrgyzstan. This week I’ll be posting… READ MORE
September 7th, 2013 | Posted in News
I’m on the last leg of our National Cartoonists Society USO tour and next week I’ll be posting details about our adventures in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but here’s a short video shot by the 102nd Mobile Public Affairs folks at one of the drawing events we did at Kandahar Air Field. Thanks to Spc. Jovi Prevot for doing this. The video is available to share through the DVIDS website: READ MORE
September 1st, 2013 | Posted in General
So I had all these grandiose plans to pre-post every day on the blog for the next ten days because I am once again off to undisclosed locations that may or not be in the middle east with a cartoonists USO tour… then I was up until 4 AM this morning finishing a MAD movie parody and am leaving for the airport in 15 minutes. So…. I’ll see you again on Sept 10th with many stories about what areas of my body I got sand into that I can’t get it back out of again. READ MORE
