In the summer of 1990, I traveled with the Air National Guard Band to Norway for two weeks of “field training”.  The trip had been in the works for over a year and was financed and sponsored by a group called the “Sons of Norway” who wanted to use us to promote a student exchange program with the U.S.  We started out staying at a Norwegian Military base in Kvinesdal, later making stops in Trondheim and Bodo, playing "Concert in the Park "type events.  After Trondheim, we flew up north of the Arctic Circle to Tromso for Norway’s largest Midnight Sun Festival.  People from all over the country would journey north to be a part of it.  For the first time on the trip we actually stayed in a hotel.  Because at this time of the year, this far north, the sun never went down.  Each of the windows in our room had double sets of blackout shades.  Believe me, it was extremely difficultly to tell your body to go to sleep with the sun blazing right outside your window at night.  Tromso is renowned for whale watching and we saw several just looking out our windows.  We ended the trip with 3 days in Oslo highlighted by a July 4th celebration at the U.S. embassy and the ambassadors residence.   Shown above is a young, 39 year old me sporting my summer "Class A's" 

    

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