(Note: I'm a retired USAF Lt Col and one of the first female pilots in today's Air Force. My spouse and I have owned our own business in Tempe for the past 12 years. We are vacationing at Bellows AFS [Air Force Station] on Oahu, which is near Kailua.) 26 Dec 0821-y/o son George and I got up early this morning and drove 20 minutes over to Kaneohe MCBH [Marine Corps Base Hawaii] to work out at the gym. We had to wait outside among the 15-20 folks gathered to see Obama. When his entourage of 7 or 8 vehicles arrived, he got out of the second vehicle and walked up the steps of the gym and turned to wave cordially at the crowd. Once we were scanned with a wand and after showing our military ID cards, we were allowed to also go in and work out at the gym. Later I went over to the weightlifting area to work out on the machines and he was changing weights on a bar on a bench press. I approached him and said, "Merry Christmas, sir; I used to work for Gen Jones. (Obama selected Gen Jones to be his National Security Advisor.) When Obama saw I was saying something more than just small talk, he immediately took out his wireless earbuds and was intently interested in what I had to say. I told him I'd worked for Gen Jones and that he was a real good man. Obama asked me if we'd kept in touch over the years and I said a little bit. Obama asked if I was from Kaneohe MCBH or the local area. I said no, that I was "from Arizona - John McCain country". To which he smiled broadly and looked at my ASU T-shirt and said "Oh yeah, Go Devils!." He then asked me if I had something to give Gen Jones so he could pass it along to him on my behalf. I did. I whipped out my HouseMaster business card w/photo from my back pocket onto which I'd written 'Hi Gen Jones. JTF Provide Promise April 1994.' So, Obama was quite pleased with this and said he would definitely give it to Gen Jones. I then looked over and gestured toward son George and said that my son was a Marine largely because of Gen Jones and my favorable impression. I wished Obama a Merry Christmas three times and he wished me Merry Christmas a few times, too.Impression of Obama: Sincere. Interested in you. Friendly. Boney. Skinny. Not-too-overly-firm of a handshake. We shook each other's hand throughout the entire conversation. George said he saw it all and wondered initally who I was talking to. In other words, Obama was just one of the guys in the gym. Not too many military folks pesterd him or tried to take up his time. It was approriate. Some would go up to him individually just to shake his hand and wish him well, as did George. Only in the military can one have unfettered, natural, unadoring access to the President-elect of the United States. It sort of remined me of when my father met JFK.We happened to be outside as Obama emerged from the gym an hour later and snapped a few pictures of him from above the heads of the 30 or so people gathered. That bunch of folks was more the curiorisity-seeking, adoring, "old-lady" crowd who would shout things out to him like 'Thank you for coming home to Hawaii.' 'Happy New Year.' My take as a die-heard Republican: Obama IS our Commander-in-Chief and as such, based on his recent cabinet choices, I've recently come to have a more positive gut feel for Obama's intentions with regard to the use of our military than I EVER had in the whole 8 years I served under Clinton, who was considered an immoral and disdainful "user" of our military.
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