On December 22nd Barry was promoted to be a Major in the Air Force. It was a big day and a really inspirational event.
For well over a month the kids sang the national anthem as our opening song for school just to get ready for this day. We even divided the parts up– Ian starting with a solo on the first line, then Logan on the next line, Jonah and Logan together on the third, Jonah solo for the 4th, Brenna alone on the next two high lines, and then the grand finally with all of them together.
I know I’m probably a bit biased, but it was the cutest thing ever. They didn’t seem a bit nervous and all sang their parts perfectly. From where I was at the piano I could see the audience full of the biggest smiles and even a few tears of joy. It was the perfect start.
The Wing Commander Colonel Crozier agreed to do the promotion, which was a big honor. He really exemplifies a leader in the way he carries himself, how personable he is, and the skill with which he engages a crowd when he speaks publicly. He pulled our family aside just before the ceremony began, introduced himself to the kids and I and to Barry’s parents, and got the scoop on how Barry and I met.
Before Barry got all the new rank pinned on his uniform and renewed his oath of office Colonel Crozier spoke for quite awhile. He didn’t hold a single note in his hand, but went assignment by assignment through Barry’s career citing all the cool things he did– test fired an oxygen-iodine laser a record number of times, ranked #1 Company Grade Officer at every assignment he’s had, pioneered really cool computational fluid dynamics stuff I don’t know how to say, won awards, got into the super elite engineer honor society, gradutated from AFIT with a 3.77 gpa, performed really essential stuff for the Defense Satellite Program– with perfect knowledge and specificity. It was impressive to hear how amazing my husband is in such a formal way. I hear about things casually from time to time, but never all at once in this context. The kids all left saying, “We knew Dad was super awesome, but we didn’t know he was THAT super awesome!”
Then we all got to help but the new rank stuff on his uniform.
When Colonel Crozier administered the Oath of Office he didn’t just say, “I, state your name” and then pause– he said the ENTIRE thing
and then Barry repeated the ENTIRE thing. It was really moving and really got the meaning of the oath across to those of us watching and listening. And that was it!
Barry spoke for a little bit and gave each of us little gifts, then we ate cake with all the people that came to watch. (There were between 50 and 60 people there I’d say. Maybe more. ) Really, the main thing he insisted on having was THE cake from Whole Foods with layers of real berries. It was good cake. Really good cake.
The end.
Oh and there are a few more photos on my flickr here.
