How to lose a national reporter in 5 minutes....

Panic!
Well, life wouldn’t be complete without one big media name making an appearance in a country I can’t disclose. Tom Ricks of the Washington Post arrived in country, and came to my wing, the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, today. I met him and Capt Tune at the Combined Air Operations Center, prepared to take them to meet some aircrew (pre-briefed with talking points, of course), and then planned to escort them to my wing commander, who is very media savvy and charming to the media (fighter pilot!). Then we had a base tour planned. Everything scheduled to a “T.” I told the captain and Mr. Ricks to follow me, I would get my car from the back of the parking lot, and they would drive in their SUV (the Army Captain had her own driver in the SUV – imagine that! And I was driving a beat-up Ford pickup with 50K). Anyway, I got to the front of the parking lot, and they weren’t there. I panicked! How can I explain that I lost these folks in a parking lot?! A national reporter?! YIKES. I was supposed to keep close tabs on him. So I circled the lot a few times, then just drove the road. My cell phone pre-programmed number to CAOC public affairs didn’t work. More panic! To make matters worse, my editor had her phone off. So I sat on the side of the road trying to figure out how I was going to explain to the general that I lost a reporter. About five minutes later, they came back to my location in their SUV. “Oooops…” said Capt. Tune. She explained they just go to talking, and followed a different car, and then realized it wasn’t me. I was so relieved….We made-up the lost five minutes driving to the aircrew interviews – the pilots were great – hit all the key messages, and later the commander once again proved to be an articulate, inspritational spokesman, and best of all, I still have a job (even if I still drive the beat-up truck, and the Army still has an SUV… I’m still trying to figure that one out.)