Not quite Nathan's

Day two of the 4th of July celebration was today. The base is having events all weekend to try and make it fun. I watched Saving Private Ryan last night. That's just a good movie. The D-Day invasion at the beginning is just amazing. As a soldier I just cannot fathom what it was like for those guys to walk into the blankets of gunfire.

Back to today...there was a BBQ-Burger cookout type dinner in the recreation building. We all went over becuase it something different to do. The event (dinner) was to start at 1730. Well 15 minutes past time they still had not started (all good cookouts take some time to get going is what I say). They finally did some intros and some bad jokes, then the emcee asks who likes hot dogs? we all kind of cheer, then she asks "no who really likes hot dogs - stand up." I standup hoping it will help me to get food faster. She asks a third and fourth time...who like dogs - stand up. Then my Spidey Sense goes off - something is not right here - I sense a chance to get caught in public buffonery is about to happen. I sit down. Then she calls ok all of you standing come up here. (yeah good choice to sit down). Well 3 of our group had followed my lead to stand-up but were not so quick to sit down. They all went up and were "volunteered" for a hot-dog eating contest. They eventually get 10 people up to the table and say whoever eats the most in 2 minutes is the winnder. Well my buddy Brandon is a contestant. As he's up there I can see in his eyes he will take this seriously. And when they finally get all set-up, Brandon has his game face on. When the starting gun goes off - Brandon grabs 4 dogs and shoves them down all at once. The rest of the reluctant group is in awe. Brandon chews and chews. Some of the others are gingerly eating one at a time. Brandon now has dog number 5 down. The local photographer has taken notice and is waiting for Brandon to get his next handful of dogs and tries to get a great action shot. Brandon wolfs down another 3 before time runs out and is clearly the winner. Afterwards he says to me - I just can't back down from a challenge. It's always fun with Brandon around. He won a pair of computer speakers (incidentally they are exactly like the ones he had a Bucca and sold to someone else). I told him to trade them in for something else at the PX. It was a little less competition than they have in NY every year at Nathan's Dog eating contest, but Brandon can lay claim to Hot Dog Champion of Kuwait.