"He took down the family pictures and put her on the wall," said Tammy, Judge's wife. "So now when you go over there, she's like, staring at you," his daughter added.
Don't tell Judge's dad, but he's getting a personalized, signed copy of Palin's book for Christmas -- one of countless copies of "Going Rogue" the former governor autographed Sunday at Elmendorf Air Force Base in what was supposed to be the final day of her national book tour.
The event was closed to the general public, meaning only people with a military ID or friends with access to the base could attend.
Judge, a 37-year-old technical sergeant in the Air Force, waited three-and-a-half hours for Palin's signature. "She thanked me for my service," he said.
Roughly 2,000 people appeared at the signing, based on security estimates, said Air Force Capt. Ashley Conner. The security team itself ballooned to more than 100 people, she said, triple the size of a normal Sunday on base.
Palin planned to follow the Anchorage signing with a stop at Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks later in the day. She had described the events on her Facebook page as the finale to her month-long book tour. But during a surprise appearance on the Eddie Burke radio show Friday, Palin vowed to hold another Alaska signing that everyone could visit.
"Yeah, military called that shot, decided that there on the Air Force bases they're only going to have military personnel, or I guess if you're a friend of military personnel, you're invited on," Palin said on the radio show.
"We will have a public book signing. Some guys are trying to organize that now as we speak, and I promise we'll do that," she said.
Events on military bases are restricted to the general public as a matter of course.
"Being that we were told so late, we don't have time to prepare the base to be open to the general public," Senior Airman David Carbajal of Elmendorf 3rd Wing public affairs said last week.
On Sunday Palin -- hair up, scarf, daughter Piper at her side -- spent hours behind a table at the entryway to the base shopping complex, autographing book after book in red ink.
Palin has signed as many as 5,100 books in a day during the tour, said Chuck Heath, her father.
"At night my wife or her aunt would giver her a massage on her wrist," he said.
Sasha Trevino arrived at the signing around noon with her mother and daughters. She lives on Fort Richardson where her husband, a staff sergeant in the Army, won't return from Afghanistan for another three months.
Trevino likes it that Palin is anti-abortion and that she kept her son when she learned he would be born with Down syndrome.
"That means a lot to me," she said. "And then the fact that she stood by her daughter when she was pregnant."
Bristol Palin's pregnancy -- she was 17 at the time -- made national news in the presidential race shortly after Sen. John McCain chose Palin as his running mate.
"I had a baby at a young age too," Trevino said. "And without my parents' help, I wouldn't have been able to do a very good job."
Palin fans clogged the lobby of the shopping complex -- a kind of mall for soldiers, airmen and their families. An employee at a Chinese restaurant walked through the crowd handing out chicken and broccoli samples while Alaska Mint vendor Kelly Reierson sold Palin coins for $24.99 to $89.99 each.
Palin's face is on the front of the medallions; a scene of Alaska resembling the state seal is on the back. Reierson sold 50, she said.
Tiana Fountain, whose husband is retired military, was shopping for groceries at the base shopping complex. Palin's book signing didn't interest her, she said.
"I guess people are here to get her autograph. I have no clue why they would be in line. I guess they are a little bit too celebrity star-struck," Fountain told The Associated Press.
The event ended shortly after 3 p.m. with about 50 people still in line, Carbajal said.
"I lucked out. I was one of the last ones," said Linda Jo Klapperich, a special education teacher in Palmer who carried a crocheted hat for Palin's son Trig.
Palin resigned from office in July with 18 months left in her first term as governor. Released in November, "Going Rogue" has sold more than 1 million copies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or e-mail khopkins@adn.com.
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