RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany - First lady Michelle Obama surprised a group of U.S. servicemen and women based in Germany on Thursday, jumping in to serve them steaks at a special Veterans Day meal.
"Oh, my God! Where's my camera," gasped Lavondee Stallings, a preschool teacher whose husband serves in the military, as Mrs. Obama entered the banquet room at the Ramstein Air Base's Officers Club.
Stallings was one of some 200 people with whom the first lady spent time during a refueling stopover on the way home from her tour of Asia with President Obama.
"I am missing Sasha and Malia desperately," Mrs. Obama said of her daughters as she spoke to the group gathered for the donated steak dinner, grilled by volunteers from the California-based Cooks of the Valley.
"But it is a thrill to be here with you guys, because we are so grateful to all of you," she said. "Not just our servicemen and women, but their kids, wives, husbands and parents."
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After serving, Mrs. Obama went through the room doling out hugs, handshakes and thanks.
Ahead of the stop at Ramstein, she met with wounded troops recovering at the nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center - the largest U.S. military hospital outside the United States, which regularly receives casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Elsewhere in Germany, U.S. troops based at the Grafenwoehr training range were taking part in a Veterans Day competition to be carried live on ESPN television.
Meanwhile in Dayton, Ohio, former President George W. Bush said Thursday that he's enjoying being away from politics and won't get involved in debates about his successor or Washington.
"I will not be criticizing President Obama," Bush told a Veterans Day tribute audience. "As a matter of fact, we wish him well. We're all Americans, and we want to succeed."
He said he didn't miss Washington, "all the politics, all the name calling … the spitballs."
But he told some 1,500 people, many of them veterans, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in southwest Ohio that he does miss serving as commander in chief.
With interviews and speeches, Bush has been vigorously promoting his newly released memoir "Decision Points." He focused his speech Thursday on parts of the book dealing with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the support and inspiration he drew from wounded warriors, families of those killed during his presidency, and the military.
"America is a magnificent country that produces patriots," he said.
He offered thanks to those who have served in the military, "on behalf of a grateful nation," and smiled as he insisted: "I've really come to praise the veterans, not to sell my book. But if I sell a couple of copies, that's OK, too."
