Once a month the CG, General Petraeus has the military camera crew set up in the middle of the Embassy ballroom where the coffee shop is and takes his picture with as many people as he can in 30 minutes. My friends Kallee and Clairissa and I went on Monday and got our picture with him. I have been in breifings with him on Fridays (well he was on the other side of the video camera) and I've seen him once at a change of command ceremony, but I've never met him in person. I don't know if I should really count this as meeting him in person, but I guess I will. It was very well choreographed. I received a 3x5 card to fill out my name and email address on and then once I got up near the stage (yes there was a stage), I handed the card to the guy and he wrote a number on the back, then I went up a couple of steps on to the stage where this Army guy said "step up to the tape" (marked on the stage floor) and then he put his hand on my shoulder and said "step forward when you hear the shutter". Then he pushed me over to the CG. The CG stuck out his hand, looked at the camera, the picture was taken, he said "keep up the good work your doing". And off I went. And that's how it happened. Amazingly my picture arrived in my inbox two days later, as did my friends! We compared our pictures and the CG looks the same in everyone. I'm thinking they could have got a cardboard man in his image, but of course then it wouldn't have counted for me to meet him in person.
