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Fairchild Deployed: Tops in Blue performs at TCM

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Matt Benedetti
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan --  Tops in Blue performed for deployed service members at the Transit Center at Manas, July 12, 2012.

Tops in Blue is an expeditionary entertainment unit comprised of approximately 40 vocalists, musicians, dancers, audio and visual technicians from across the Air Force and is one of the most widely travelled groups of its kind. The unit members are on permissive temporary duty orders during the span of their tour.

The mission of Tops in Blue is to provide musical entertainment to service members worldwide and they perform approximately 130 shows during a ten-month period. Each year, personnel from across the Air Force compete on a multilevel competition for the right to be selected.

Senior Airman Briana Hofreiter, a vocalist with the unit, was pleased to perform at the Transit Center. "I enjoyed it. The team came together and the crowd was awesome. It is nice to be able to give back to everyone that is serving away from home," said the Levittown, Pa., native. Hofreiter is a financial management and controller apprentice with the 15th Comptroller Squadron from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

The performance featured music from the 1950s through today and was the first stop on their tour of Southwest Asia.

"It was really good to say thanks to everyone serving here and the crowd was great," said Staff Sgt. Katie McGuire, a keyboardist. "We give deployed members an opportunity to get away from work for a few hours to relax and enjoy themselves," said McGuire, a native of Colman, S.D. She serves as a readiness and emergency management journeyman with the 114th Civil Engineer Squadron based at Joe Foss Field Air National Guard Station, S.D.

The show was a hit with personnel at the Transit Center.

"The Tops in Blue show was just amazing," said Tech. Sgt. Arlene Gentry, Equal Opportunity director at the Transit Center. They really put on an energetic show; I couldn't stop smiling throughout each performance," said Gentry, Equal Opportunity director at the Transit Center.

"I am grateful to the team we have here who work hard to provide us with such great entertainment," said Gentry, a native of Yuma, Ariz., and is deployed from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.

It was the first visit for Tops in Blue to the Transit Center in 2012 with another date scheduled during the holiday season.