First you have to know that my dad has been in the army for 30 years. He's been in the Kansas National Guard for, I believe 25 of those years (sorry, Dad if I get the details wrong in this). But, as most of you know, my parents moved from Kansas to Colorado 10 and a half years ago. This means that he's been communting 500 miles one way every month (and sometimes up to 3 times a month) for the last 10 years. This last weekend he got promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and we went out to Kansas to be part of the promotion ceremony. My dad's parents were able to be there as was my brother and sister-in-law and a number of old friends. I'm putting a bunch of pictures on this post as well as two videos of the ceremony.
This video is of the actual swearing in. The oath he took was the same as the oath for the Vice President's office which was pretty cool I thought.
After the oath Dad gave a speech. We didn't know it was coming so we missed the first part. The speech we should have gotten on video was the speech that General Bunting gave before dad got his new rank. He talked about Dad very highly. He announced that Dad would be in charge of the Great Plains Training Center (I hope I got the name right) and expressed that this was his dearest project and that giving it to Dad showed how much trust and faith he had in him. It was pretty special. My other favorite part of the ceremony you actually CAN see in this video. Dad introduced all of the family and the room all applauded when he announced that his dad was a WWII veteran. It was all SO special.
Dad drove from Colorado to South Dakota to pick up his parents, brought them down to Kansas, brought them back up to South Dakota, and then drove all the way back to Colorado... all between Thursday and Monday. It meant so much for him to have them there.
After the ceremony
My good friend from high school, Krystal, drove in from Kansas City with her three kids: Naomi (8), Miriam (7), and Lydia (10 months).
Before the ceremony, we HAD to give Seth in the little bar sink in the hotel room-- he loved that the water fell in right where he could splash at it.
We stayed Saturday night with some more old family friends. Marie and Jim Steichen are the parents of one of my good childhood friends. Dave and Debbie Frey were also there and it was neat to get to see them all again.
I should add some thoughts about this. When I was a kid I hated when we would go to the military displays at the fair or the carnivals. I thought everything having to do with the military was boring and meant that Dad would be far away. I sure was proud of him on Saturday though. I never would have imagined that my dad would become a general. I guess all of those promotions were somewhat of a blur in my mind. I am looking forward now to the day when someone really hacks me off and I can say "Listen, my dad is a general in charge of a 35,000 acre bombing facility. Don't mess with me!!!" (Just kidding!)
As far as the ceremony, the best thing was watching how happy Dad was. I don't think I've seen him that happy about anything before in my life. He was just beaming and as serious as he was he'd break out in big laughter every other minute. And he was proud of himself which I think says a lot. I think all of us are generally too hard on ourselves and don't let ourselves just be proud of an accomplishment. Well this one was hard to ignore and Dad really seemed to be enjoying it. I know he's already thinking about the work ahead but it was a special moment in time.
