Winging
Tobin had his official winging ceremony on June 25th. His parents, Mike & Jacque, flew down for the weekend; and my mom and two of my sisters, Betsey & Elyse, drove down for the day. Thank you everyone who made the long trip from the Midwest! It was so great to see everyone, to have you there for the ceremony, and to hang out for the time that you could stay. We love you guys! For the actual ceremony, our life group leader’s wife – Vicki – made it out as well. She has an amazing camera, so as soon as I get those pictures from her I will try to post them. She got some of the whole clan together, which would be wonderful to see.
For more pictures (and some of the same), see my Mom’s website – she also has a pretty great camera and was able to catch some events I missed.
Here’s the start of our day, at a blessing of the wings inside the special aviation chapel on base. Behind us is one of the several glass showcases of the wings of aviators who graduated from the Naval Air Station’s Naval Flight Officer program. Tobin left behind one set of wings that will be displayed in a similar showcase to be prayed for by anyone who visits the chapel. It’s nice to know we might be in someone’s prayers at any time, and complete strangers at that!
Tobin volunteered to read the Scripture for the blessing ceremony. Unfortunately, our camera’s automatic focus picked out the tall chandelier as the obviously most important part of this picture. Thus the blurriness. I apologize.
During the prayer. Is it ok to take pictures during prayer? Hm.
The priest blessing the wings (which are on top of the altar). He also sprinkled water over them from a fancy gold thing, but I missed that part. It was interesting to be part of a Catholic ceremony! I certainly hadn’t done anything like it before. To the left of the altar is the chaplain who is a really great guy and helped us out when the going got tough during training. They call him Chaps, but I’m not sure of his real name.
Speaking the Aviator’s Creed.
Tobin’s wings are the set on the far left. He left behind one of them and I put the other set on his chest at the next ceremony!
Not sure if these are saints or what their names are, but the one on the left is a navigator. The one on the right has a plane in her hands.
At the actual ceremony inside the Naval Aviation Museum, we listened to a speech by a 3 star Admiral (yikes!). Here is Tobin (the first to get his wings!) with me pinning his wings on. I was so proud of him!
Look at those shiny wings!
Next, we went through a reception line with the CO of each training squadron Tobin has been through, plus the guest speaker & chaplain. The man shaking Tobin’s hand is the CO of VT-86, the squadron Tobin just completed training with. Tobin received a certificate stating that he had his wings, signed by a big kahuna in charge of training. I also received a humorous wive’s certificate, plus a tiny pair of gold wings that I wore today on my dress. :) They are lovely, and a very nice gesture by the squadrons to appreciate the stress of training life.
If you took pictures at this event, please send me any you don’t see here! We will put together something as a reminder of all of Tobin’s hard work. He earned it!
Birthday girl and military update
Here’s the birthday girl on her first birthday, June 10. This was during our picnic outside (in the backyard). We grilled hot dogs and yes, the dogs each got one. I know, I know. But it’s once a year, really.
Here’s a mouthful of hot dog. Mm mm!
Titus was there too. But he’s the inside kind of dog.
The various sleep positions of Rogue. Here she’s sleeping with her panda.
Sprawled in the kitchen.
The tile’s her favorite place, nice and cool!
And for the military side of things, check out the About Us section for an update. Tobin is winging on June 25th at 10 AM! It’s very exciting to be watching the culmination of all his efforts the past two years.
We don’t know how long we will be waiting before getting PCS orders (permanent change of station), but we know we will be going to Shreveport, Louisiana to report to Barksdale Air Force Base for the first 8 months at least for B-52 training. After that, we may be going to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota or we will stay at Barksdale.
We may be here in Pensacola long enough to have the baby, but there are no guarantees. I’m sure we will be finding out in the next couple of months.
Oh, and July 1st, as long as the baby cooperates, we will be finding out the gender! We’ll let everyone know ASAP after we find out.
Selection and Soft Winging!
I know, a teapot doesn’t have anything to do with anything. But this is our first teapot…isn’t it cute? Got a good deal on Memorial Day.
New haircut, new hair (it’s much straighter now that I’m pregnant, weird), and first maternity shirt!
Ok, on to the relevant stuff. Tobin selected on June 4th. Here he is after he opened his envelope. B-52 for us! (sorry it’s blurry)
Shaking the CO’s hand. Unfortunately, I had no idea (nor did Tobin) that the CO was about to replace his name tag with an official WINGED name tag! If I had known, I would have done a video instead. Apparently, the tradition is to replace the name tag and punch the new one, sometimes pretty darn hard. By the time we got out of there, Tobin’s chest was sore. :)
Freshly winged!
Both of us after the winging:
For those of you who wanted to come down for Tobin’s winging, you didn’t actually miss it. This was a surprise, and what they call a “soft winging”. His actual ceremony will be later on, and we should have some advance notice. It will probably be at the end of June, but we will let you know.
So, we have the B-52, with base options at: Minot AFB, North Dakota or Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana. Although it’s not the aircraft we were going for, the needs of the Air Force trump our little plans. We’re excited nevertheless, and Tobin doesn’t have to wait for the T-39 to come back up, which is an answer to prayer.
Hope some of you can make it down for the winging! Tobin also promotes to first lieutenant in July.