The Towal Rack: Shiny New Silver Wings

Well Graduation has come and gone!! Erik now has shiny new silver Pilot's Wings on his chest!

My parents arrived last Tuesday and his parents and his sister arrived on Thursday night and we all were there for Erik's big moment. Friday started out with a Squadron breakfast for all the guys, there were six in his class, and their families. After breakfast we had a Night Vision Goggles Demonstration so the parents could see what it is like for the guys to fly with NVG's at night and how much is actually visible. We then went outside and were able to look at the static displays. There was a T-6 which is the fixed wing airplane that the guys started off Pilot Training with and there was also the UH-1H and the TH-1H, both of which were flown throughout helicopter training. Once that was all over we went home for lunch and then to the Aviation Museum for Graduation. Once Erik's name was called I escorted him up to the stage and pinned on his wings. For the last year and a half he has looked forward to this momentous occasion and I couldn't have been more proud of him. It is tradition that these wings must be punched into his chest so I gave him a big Texas punch and then later the wings were broken. These two pieces of wings can never be brought together again. His class did an awesome job and all five awards that are possible were handed out. It is a team effort to get every man his wings, as they study together, plan routes together, fly together, watch each others backs, and it was great seeing these newest Air Force Pilots achieve such great things. Now I have to do a little showing off...because I am just so proud of Erik, he received the top Academic Award, the Distinguished Graduate award, and the Daedalians Commanders Award for being top of his class. But enough of that, now that we have our wings, we have our next assignment (well kind of, we know the aircraft but not our first assignment location), we are now playing the waiting game. The waiting game for our orders. We cannot move or go on a vacation or anything without orders which will contain our dates for Erik's Osprey training. Until then, we have started organizing and putting some things in boxes since we will be moving ourselves again (we could choose the military to pack us all up and to move us but we don't want to) and just hanging out.

Here are a few pictures from our Graduation Weekend. We were so excited to have all of the family here!