JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
Let's be honest. How many of us used to stay home "sick" from school in our younger days and watch The Price is Right? Some of us may still pull that move even now. The point is that most of us at some point in our lives would have killed to have been on television in front of a packed studio audience, on that iconic stage with a chance to win a car, trip or maybe just a new living room set.
But how many of us have actually experienced this first hand as opposed to on our couch? Well, an Airman assigned to Joint Base Andrews got that very chance recently.
Staff Sgt. Malcolm Lawson, a radio frequencies transmission system maintainer from the 89th Communications Squadron, was planning to travel out to California in January for vacation so when the opportunity came up to attend a filming of The Price is Right in Hollywood, he jumped at the chance.
"My girlfriend Amy is joining the Air Force in March so she and I went on a vacation to California before she leaves for basic training," said Sergeant Lawson. "She signed us up for free tickets to the show from the CBS website. I brought my blues all the way out to California just for the show and I guess it worked."
Staff Sergeant Lawson took his seat in the audience next to his girlfriend and began feeling a bit of optimism regarding his odds of making it on stage and shaking host Drew Carey's hand.
"I was the only military member in uniform at the taping so I had a really good feeling that I was going to be called up, but I still couldn't be completely sure," Sergeant Lawson said. "The show was half over and then my name was called. The whole experience was very surreal. One second I'm sitting in the audience next to my girlfriend and a minute later I'm standing in front of a packed audience trying to win a great prize."
Sergeant Lawson was one of nine people out of an audience of 320 to be called up to the front for a chance to make it on stage.
He won the first prize he bid on, a $1200 home gym, making it on stage his first try. He had a chance to win a new car and $10,000 but fell just short.
"I was so excited that I wasn't nervous at all going up there," Sergeant Lawson said. "Drew Carey is a really cool guy. He is a former Marine so I think he is big fan of the military."
During arguably the show's most well known segment, the "Big Wheel", Sergeant Lawson, despite all the excitement he was feeling, was thinking of his coworkers back at the Air Force's Davidsonville communication site.
"When I spun the wheel I gave a shout out to my work center saying 'what's up D-ville'," he said.
Sergeant Lawson's appearance on the show airs on CBS February 11 at 11 a.m. If you have a chance, check it out and watch this Joint Base Andrews Airman make us proud.