Blue Star Chronicles

They are calling her G. I. Jenkins and The New Forces Sweetheart. In her new book Time To Say Hello, Katherine Jenkins tells warm, funny and patriotic stories of spending her last two Christmases with the British Troops in Basra …. among other things.

Classical songstress Katherine Jenkins has recently become a Trustee of the British Forces Foundation (BFF) which is the British version of our U.S.O. She says she became a Trustee following her last visit to Basra during which the helicopter she was traveling in barely missed being shot down.

I was told that the helicopter ride to the next base was an opportunity to get forty winks, so I checked my seat belt and harness, then felt safe enough to close my eyes for an afternoon nap.

Minutes later, just as I had dozed off, all hell broke loose around us. To my horror - and everybody else’s, including the soldiers on board - we heard those urgent words: “Missile alert at rear!”

I started screaming. My arms and legs flew into the air from the G-force as the aircraft dropped like a stone to 500ft. Because the back of the helicopter was open, I saw anti-missile flares going out from each side of its fuselage.

We could do nothing but hope and pray. If the ground-to-air missile had hit its target, everyone on board would have been killed.

But, thanks to the early warning system and the pilot’s brilliant manoeuvring, we eventually landed unharmed in Shaibah, the largest British base in Southern Iraq.

And there was no time to worry about what had just happened.The entire trip was so frenetic that all I could do was think about what was next on my itinerary.

Later, when she was back home in Wales it all hit her ….

I arrived back in my home town, Neath in South Wales, at about 6pm on Christmas Eve and went to my usual pub to celebrate.

My mobile rang and it was Jim. He insisted on singing a variation of a well-known Christmas song to me: “And so this is Christmas, And what have we done? A missile just missed us, Isn’t life fun!”

As the call came to an end, everything - all my surroundings, complete with Christmas tree and lights, and the people dancing and making merry - suddenly seemed unreal. I had just come back from a war zone where I’d nearly been shot down in a helicopter. I felt curiously detached.

The next day, eating my Christmas dinner, I felt very shaky and sick. I realised I was only just beginning to absorb the shock of the whole experience. For a week afterwards, I had terrifying flashbacks and nightmares every night.

I kept thinking I was back, flying over the desert in Basra. I felt really guilty that I had gone out there for only a couple of days and the troops were there for months.

That was her first trip to Iraq. She has since been back to Iraq twice and to Afghanistan. She says the overriding feeling is that she is fortunate to be able to be a part of it.

Being Brits, they shared tea even in a war zone

At the end, some of the soldiers presented me with my own set of desert combats. I was so touched I burst into tears. I’d been admiring their combats all day because they’re such lovely colours. Jim had nicknamed me GI Jenkins, so the soldiers had even embroidered “Jenkins” on the shirt pocket.

Somehow I think the troops never thought about their desert combats as having ‘lovely colors’. HAHAHA. But hey, they look like they were really enjoying her visit and I’m betting they didn’t mind a bit that she thought their uniforms have ‘lovely colors’.

I’m just glad that celebrities are starting to realize that we have troops in harms way and doing what they can to relieve some of the doldrums for our troops who are having to put on hold for 15 months serving our countries in the deserts that comprise the arm-pit of the world. (I wrote arm-pit instead of what I was actually thinking cause my mother reads this blog! lol)

The British Forces Sweetheart, Katherine Jenkins

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Some other celebrities who have taken a moment out of their lives to do something for our troops: Scarlett Johansson and here, Rick Springfield, Denzel Washington, Gary Sinese, Charlie Daniels, Gene Simmons and I’m sure there are more …..