Getting all dressed up can be fun, as long as it’s not required everyday.
This past week was an opportunity, and requirement for Dan, to get gussied up.
We headed up to Norfolk, Virginia for a military conference where Dan acted as com
mander for one of the ladies in his office (Amy). She was up for an annual award as top civilian for 9th AF.
In order to understand the awards selection, I related them to some sort of Air Force version of the NCAA playoff bracket. In my imagination, first you are in the “Sweet 16” (for Amy it was the top civilian at Shaw AFB), if you win that, you move on to play against the 8 winners (the entire 9th AF) until it’s down to the final four and then the championship where I pictured she would be up against all the winners in the entire Air Force.
The days in Norfolk were filled with required meetings for Dan where he was responsible for updating everyone on the goings-on for his office and the nights were group activities. The last night was the awards ceremony for everyone (civilians, enlisted and officers) and the formal attire requirement.
It was really neat and unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries 20 minutes in. Grr!
Every nominee was presented with a cool eagle statue by the 3-star general. The mayor and other city dignitaries were also present. They had the honor guard ceremony, the fallen soldier table observance, a fellow 9th AF soloist sang a breathtaking rendition of the anthem, the AF band played, and of course the video montage with thrilling pictures and videos from the past year. Admittedly, I had to look away
for a few of the fighter in-seat videos, RALPH!
To make the scene a bit more diverse and, um, interesting, Phish was having their reunion tour that weekend. During the last day, we started seeing the stereotypical concert goers for that group. I’m sure you can picture them, so I digress. The front desk attendant even divulged that she had already received many phone calls regarding “Why can’t we have beer delivered to our room for breakfast??” Good stuff.
Even though Amy didn’t win the round at the conference in Norfolk (I’m still asking for a recount!), we all had a fun time and the Shaw AFB level award is a huge recognition.
So congrats Amy! We’re all very proud of you!
This past week was an opportunity, and requirement for Dan, to get gussied up.
We headed up to Norfolk, Virginia for a military conference where Dan acted as com
mander for one of the ladies in his office (Amy). She was up for an annual award as top civilian for 9th AF.In order to understand the awards selection, I related them to some sort of Air Force version of the NCAA playoff bracket. In my imagination, first you are in the “Sweet 16” (for Amy it was the top civilian at Shaw AFB), if you win that, you move on to play against the 8 winners (the entire 9th AF) until it’s down to the final four and then the championship where I pictured she would be up against all the winners in the entire Air Force.
The days in Norfolk were filled with required meetings for Dan where he was responsible for updating everyone on the goings-on for his office and the nights were group activities. The last night was the awards ceremony for everyone (civilians, enlisted and officers) and the formal attire requirement.
It was really neat and unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries 20 minutes in. Grr!
Every nominee was presented with a cool eagle statue by the 3-star general. The mayor and other city dignitaries were also present. They had the honor guard ceremony, the fallen soldier table observance, a fellow 9th AF soloist sang a breathtaking rendition of the anthem, the AF band played, and of course the video montage with thrilling pictures and videos from the past year. Admittedly, I had to look away
for a few of the fighter in-seat videos, RALPH!To make the scene a bit more diverse and, um, interesting, Phish was having their reunion tour that weekend. During the last day, we started seeing the stereotypical concert goers for that group. I’m sure you can picture them, so I digress. The front desk attendant even divulged that she had already received many phone calls regarding “Why can’t we have beer delivered to our room for breakfast??” Good stuff.
Even though Amy didn’t win the round at the conference in Norfolk (I’m still asking for a recount!), we all had a fun time and the Shaw AFB level award is a huge recognition.
So congrats Amy! We’re all very proud of you!
cool decorations. May I make a suggestion to help with the decor? :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dropkickmurphys.com/news/
They do have a song entitled: Kiss me I'm Irish. You may have heard it. If not, perhaps you can find it on youtube.
Norfolk...is'mt that a Navy base!?
Fun stuff though. I have heard a bit about Phish lately, possibly coming from San Francisco. None the less, the news was much the same as I gleaned from this post; "different" type of party shall we say.