CONTINGENCY OPERATING LOCATION Q-WEST, Iraq - Detroit native and Pop singer Keri Noble sang at the Morale Welfare and Recreation center here Jan. 16 as part of her two-week Iraq tour entertaining troops.
Noble and the rest of her Minneapolis-based band performed music from her latest self-titled album, a blend of pop, rhythm and blues, and gospel.
She even sang an unreleased song written specifically for deployed service members and their families entitled "You're Home" written from the point of view of the wife of a Soldier who recently returned.
"I got asked and it didn't even seem like a question," she said about her decision to entertain the troops in Iraq.
"Because of what [Soldiers] do, we get the luxury of freedom."
Noble said that all Americans should be required to come to Iraq once to see what service members do for them every day.
"The Middle East feels like another planet," she said.
"[The tour] is a little peek into some world ... it's an adventure," Noble said smiling.
Noble was able to experience a Chinhook helicopter ride and the Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer which simulates a Humvee rollover at other U.S. bases in Iraq before coming to Q-West, she said.
"That was super cool," she said.
That was not what she thought was the best part of the trip though, Noble said.
"It's one thing to see stuff on the news, it's another to see faces," she said.
"You see these people who defend us and they're so young - it makes it so real ... I know I'm going to watch the news differently because [of those] faces."
Noble's tour encountered delays and cancellations due to bad weather.
"Everything has sort of been backed up ... it happens every time [we] go on tour," Laurie Ziegler, Noble's manager said.
Maj. John Herd, a Florence, Miss., native and the MWR officer in charge, invited Noble back for Q-West's upcoming Super Bowl party.
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