The Cleveland Cavalier Girls

We got back from Ramadi yesterday afternoon. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to spend the night and sleep in the transient barracks there. It’s not that I don’t mind staying there. Last time we spent the night there was just about the best time I’ve ever had in Iraq. I don’t know what it was but I had so much fun playing board games with a bunch of strangers from Louisiana.

I was tired because I couldn’t sleep at all the night before for some reason. I was tossing and turning until 0300 hours before I fell asleep. I had to get up at 0600 so I only had 3 hours of sleep. When I heard that we weren’t going to spend the night there I started making my plans. I had heard that the Cleveland Cavaliers cheerleaders were going to be in Baghdad and I didn’t want to miss it. That’s the biggest reason I didn’t want to stay in Ramadi. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see the girls.

The show didn’t start until 2000 hours. It was at the newly constructed gym that was just finished about 2 months ago. It’s a very nice gym and I was very impressed. It had wood flooring, side bleachers, and an electronic scoreboard on each end of the court. The Big Man and me grabbed a seat from some guys from second platoon. They were good seats because they were right at center court but unfortunately they weren’t at the front. We waited until 2030 before the cheerleaders came out. We were starting to wonder how long we’d have to wait.

The guys began drooling when they came out with their shiny cut off red tops and short black tights. All of the girls had huge smiles and they looked happy to perform for us. They did about 5 dance routines and in-between dances they did a little solo introduction. They would tell us a little about themselves while the rest of the cheerleaders went back to the dressing room to get dressed in another outfit. The girls had all kinds of outfits and my favorite was probably the one that plays homage to the Army. It was the classical Army WWII outfits with the pile cap, brown shirt, but they wore short shorts and tall boots. They looked very sexy.

Most of the girls were young and some were going to college. Others had interests in fields such as modeling and dance. After the performance they sat at tables to get pictures with the Joes and sign autographs. The audience was mostly filled with guys. We were all seemed happy to see them. And the line to get autographs was long.