Welcome Home Lieutenant Starley!

On December 16th Mike graduated from the Academy of Military Science as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force. After six weeks being yelled at, taught and conditioned to be a military officer he received his commission.

Adam and I flew in late Wednesday night along with Mike's parents. Mike greeted us at the airport and took us to the on base hotel. In the morning we (Adam and I) slept in and then took a short tour of Mike's dorms and campus before eating lunch on base. After lunch was the State Commissioning Ceremony where Mike was sworn in as an Officer in the Utah Air National Guard. Lieutenant Colonel Nate Nelson, from his Guard unit, gave him the oath.


Captain Chrystal was his flight commander during training. (His flight consisted of 16 officer candidates. There were multiple flights in the "Wing") She may be small, but she apparently has a loud yelling voice. :) She was very nice and spoke great things about Mike. Here she is pinning Mike's rank on him and standing with Mike and his roommate Brian Bachman.



Lynette and I also got to pretend to pin on his rank. You might notice that Lynette and I match so well in our pink tops and black pants. This was on purpose of course. ;)


In the evening we got to attend the awards banquet. It started out with an emotional video about serving in the military as well as a few talks. One of the officer candidates in Mike's flight is the son of Four Star General Raymond Johns, so he was there as a special guest. It made me very proud to be married to a man that is a part of something so important. It was a formal event, so we got to dress up.


On Friday morning we went to the federal commissioning ceremony where Mike was sworn in as an Officer with the Air Force, which made his commissioning complete. General Johns administered the oath to all of the officer candidates at the same time.



Then they walked on stage and received their commissioning certificate.




After the commissioning ceremony came the graduation parade. It was an impressive sight seeing them all marching in their dress blues.






Here are a couple pictures of most of the officers in Mike's "Flight".



And some family pictures :)




Before attending his graduation I didn't have a full appreciation for what it meant to be an Officer in the military. I saw it as a necessary step to being an Air Force pilot, but being an officer came second. After attending the commissioning ceremonies and banquet I finally understood what it meant and the importance of what he was doing. I'm grateful that he's going to be a pilot, but more importantly I'm incredibly proud that he has the opportunity to be an Officer.

Congratulations Mike!




*I didn't want to spoil the post writing about what went wrong, so I'm including it below. I was surprised at how many things could go wrong in a 48 hour period, but it was still a wonderful trip.

1. Blow out at 50,000 feet- I was careful to pack all of mine and Adam's things in a carry-on so we wouldn't have to deal with lost luggage. Our trip had three flights, and on the 2nd flight, from Denver to Texas, the overhead bins filled up and they made me check my luggage. Half way through the flight Adam has a down the leg blow out. YAY! Thankfully I had spare diapers in my smaller carry-on I'd kept, but no extra clothes. Adam was stuck in a diaper and sweater until Alabama.

2. Where's my luggage- After getting plenty of looks at my half naked child we finally arrived in Alabama and were greeted by my amazing and handsome husband. After waiting a while for my luggage we realized they'd lost it. Adam's car seat had also been lost. The airline lent us a car seat and we decided to make a midnight run to Wal Mart for some necessities to tied us over until the following afternoon when my luggage was supposed to arrive. We drive to Wal-Mart and...IT'S CLOSED! We drove to a Walgreens as well hoping for some baby clothes, but they didn't have any.

My luggage being lost had a couple of extra consequences. We were supposed to have breakfast early and tour the base, but instead had to go to Walmart in the morning. Adam didn't get to sleep until 2 AM because the hotel didn't have any cribs, so it was probably better we didn't wake up early. Although it's vanity, I had packed a couple of cute outfits and looked forward to dressing up for my husband that I hadn't seen in six weeks. Instead I got to wear dirty clothes, pull my hair back and go w/o make-up. Not a big deal, but a slight inconvenience.

My luggage was supposed to come in on a plane that arrived around 1 PM, but the plane was delayed...of course. It finally got delivered somewhere in the 3-4PM time range. Too late for any of the Thursday day activities. (Who wouldn't want to match their mother-in-law, right?)

3. Thirty minutes to banquet- I was almost done getting ready when Adam reached up and broke my new necklace. I didn't have a backup, so I spent a decent amount of time figuring out a way to rig it so it would work.

4. Ten minutes to banquet- Right before we were supposed to leave and drop Adam off at a babysitters he grabbed my curling iron that had accidentally been left too close to the counter. Three of his fingers got pretty burned and he was a sad little guy. There was no way we could take him to a sitter, so Mike's parents and I took turns hanging out in the foyer of the hotel outside the banquet. I missed some parts, including the delicious chocolate cake above my plate, ;) but it was still a great evening.

5. Lost Luggage...again- This really wasn't a big deal, but worth mentioning. Mike's luggage got lost on the way out to Mississippi, and on the way home. Mike used to work for United, so I think they might have put him on a "permanent mess with me" list) Inconvenient, but not a big deal.