In April 2006, Sarandis was among a group of 50 business, civic, organizational and academic leaders that participated in a Joint Civilian Orientation Conference in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Along with briefings by military leaders, they took part in training on how to conduct road maneuvers and confront improvised explosive devices. This is the same training give to soldiers prior to deploying to Iraq. They also flew aboard and observed operations on the aircraft carrier .
