Pre-Graduation Activities

Daniel graduated from flight school at the end of June and the week leading up to graduation was full of activities.  We were fortunate to have Daniel's mom, dad and aunt in town for the celebration.  Along with graduating, Daniel also got promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant.  There was a small promotion ceremony for him on the Thursday morning before graduation.  His mom and dad did the pinning of his new rank.  

That same day, Daniel's flight school class hosted family day.  We were able to sit through a night vision class and got to look through night vision goggles to get an idea of how hard it is to adjust your sight picture while flying at night.  Then we got to go out to the flight line to see the aircraft up close.  I also took the opportunity to take some pictures of Daniel with his parents and the kiddos.

That evening, we had a social gathering to attend in celebration of graduation.  Daniel's dad was able to go with us and we were lucky to have Daniel's mom and aunt watch the kids for us.  At the social, we had food and drinks and got to see a slide show of pictures from the last year of flight school.  They also had a little ceremony for the spouses of the students and each student gave their spouse a necklace with aviation wings and a certificate for their support.

To end the evening, the guys dawned their "party shirts."  A tradition in the army is when the senior ranking person at a social function takes off their jacket, everyone else can too.  To make things more exciting, the guys have party shirts made.  Basically it's business in the front and party in the back.  They have their sleeves and backs replaced with fabric of their choosing.  In Daniel's case, he chose black sequins for the sleeves and guitar print for the back.  I think his was the best!