Reporter's Notebook

“I just hugged Buck Rogers!”

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Inside the theater, model/sports reporter/USO Tour participant Leeann Tweeden thanked the crowd for showing up and for their service. She got some real military cred for talking about her dad’s memories of seeing his first USO Tour while serving as a young airman at Phan Rang Air Base, Vietnam, and for mentioning her boyfried, a C-130 pilot.

Col. Terry Ross, vice commander of the 11th Wing, then thanked the film festival for coming to Bolling. He then greeted Tweeden and Gil Gerrard, turned, and with a schoolboy grin, shouted, “I just hugged Buck Rogers!”

Here’s Buck himself with Tweeden:

The first movie on is “The Marine,” starring WWE wrestler John Cena. (The Young Marines were visibly disappointed when Tweeden announced that Cena was in New York and couldn’t make it to the screening.) If you haven’t seen “The Marine,” here’s a basic intro: Within the first 30 seconds, Cena has saved three hostage Marines by killing nine insurgents with a combination of an enormous rifle, grenades, a flaming stick and his bare hands. Upon return to base, he is promptly discharged for disobeying an order to wait for backup.