O Captain, My Captain!

Friday was a big day for our family.  Brydon was promoted to Captain!

Promotions in the military are exciting events and due to Brydon's boss retiring, the promotion turned out to be an extra special day.  The Major was kind enough to include Brydon's promotion in the retirement ceremony and it was a great military event.

The Major served just over 24 years in the military and he served in both the Navy and Air Force.  The Flight presented him with this beautiful (rather large) shadow box with many of his awards and decorations from his service.  The Major has been such a great mentor to Brydon and he is an amazing man. 

As part of the retirement ceremony, the flight did a rare flag passing ceremony.  It is a beautiful ceremony celebrating the many rank advancements the Major had received during his military career.  You can get a small feel for it in the video below.

For rank advancements the Airman gets to choose 2 people to pin on his new rank.  We decided to pull Caleb out of school to be a part of this special day.  It will be years before we advance to Major and we wanted to really celebrate together as a family.  Caleb even got a uniform just like his dad's and I was able to sew on Captain's bars.  So both boys were able to be Captains.

Caleb was really nervous and didn't think he could do it by himself but he did a great job!  He was so excited and could hardly sleep the night before.  He was very focused and was great!

Immediately after pinning on the new bars, Caleb grabbed his dad and gave him a big hug! 

My two awesome Captains!

We were able to have some great friends come and support Brydon.  They were able to film the pinning on for us.  We are sure grateful for the amazing people in our lives.  We always have "family" wherever we go.

After the pinning ceremony, Brydon then retook the Oath of Office.  In a somewhat Navy tradition the Major swore Brydon in and then as Brydon's first act as Captain, he relieved the Major from duty. 

I find these Military traditions very touching and think it was a really neat moment.  There is a lot of beauty in these old military traditions.

It is hard to believe that we have officially been in the military for 2 years now.  It doesn't seem that long ago that a newly commissioned 2nd Lt. was pulled out of Medical school to commission Brydon in Philadelphia.  It was a quick, last minute ceremony in an empty classroom so that just a few days later we could send Brydon off to Alabama.  We were suddenly thrown in the military, when we thought we had months of waiting.  However last minute, it has been a wonderful journey and we are proud to serve our country and be part of the United States Air Force.