Our Second Birthday Ball

(The first part of this blog is a bit belated, but I have a good excuse- we are in the middle of another move!)

I can hardly believe it has already been a year since our very first Marine Corps Birthday Ball that we spent in Florida. Our first ball was such a great experience, from sharing it with our great friends the Reeds, to dancing under a symphony of antique war planes in the National Museum of Aviation, and of course, having the Commandant of the Marine Corps as our guest speaker of the night. I knew that this initial experience was quite spectacular and we were greatly spoiled by this first, of what would be many, annual Birthday Balls. However, although the ceremonies of the Ball follow the same format and traditions each year, somehow this second year at the Marine Corps Ball was a completely different experience than last year's, and we loved every moment of it!

The 237th Marine Corps Ball for the Marines stationed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was held at the Omni Bayfront Hotel in downtown Corpus Christi. The hotel is located in the Marina district of downtown, and overlooks Corpus Christi Bay. Just the previous weekend, courtesy of a generous gift from my parents for Jordan's selection celebration, we were treated to the most amazing dinner at the restaurant that is located on the top floor of the hotel, the Republic of Texas. It features amazing, multi-level, panoramic views of the the bay, including the boats in the Marina, the USS Lexington and the beautifully lit harbor bridge. We were even treated to a full moon the evening we had dinner there, and it's reflection on the dark night ocean was breathtaking. After our dinner there last weekend, we were excited to return for the Marine Corps Ball the following weekend.

View from of the Harbor Bridge-the lights look even more beautiful once the sun sets

Republic of Texas-wouldn't be complete without a giant cowhide on the wall!

The views were breathtaking!

 As I said previously, for the most part, the same traditions and schedule of ceremonies is followed at every Marine Corps Ball; however, unlike last years, this year's ceremony was celebrated over a sit down dinner at the venue itself.  Well in typical Jordan fashion, my husband forgot to sign us up for a specific table, so that we could choose who we would sit with at dinner. Well, wouldn't you know it, but we ended up being placed with only one other student aviator and his date, and the rest were Captain instructors, including Jordan's on-wing instructor-yes the one from the tie-cutting and promotion ceremony stories. Well if you hadn't already guessed from these past stories shared, Jordan and and his on-wing instructor definitely have a love-hate relationship. So upon realizing the seating arrangement, they both just rolled their eyes and accused one another of purposely setting up this situation. However, despite being sat at a table with mostly superior officers and their wives, I have to argue that we had the best table in the whole ballroom!

I may have to give a little bit more background on these instructing officers that we were placed with, because not only were these instructors the students' superior officers during primary flight school, this specific collection at our table was also the most notoriously hated group of instructors amongst the students. They are known as the MIF-monsters, MIF being the baseline score that students have to score above in order to do well and increase their overall NSS score (Navy Standard Score-which determines your rank and eligibility for certain platforms). If one scores below MIF, one's score will drop. It may be best relayed in academic terms, in which MIF would equated to a D, it's not quite failing, but it's not passing either. So sitting with these infamous MIF-monster instructors, we did not know what to expect from their personalities that night. And as we found our way to our seats, and stood behind our chairs around the outside of our round table waiting for the announcement that we could be seated, we all eyed each other cautiously, not sure how the rest of the evening would play out.

Months back, upon completion of Jordan's first solo flight, Jordan's on-wing instructor gifted him with a coin. On one side of the coin was the emblem of the VT-27 Boomers Squadron, on the other side were the words "Work Hard, Play Harder." Perhaps we should have taken the saying engraved on this momento coin as an indication of what this group would be like outside of the normal work setting. This group of instructors and their wives were a RIOT! In every, single, sense of the word! Our whole dinner was just pure comedy, unfortunately it was mostly at the expense of one Captain who forgot to put his wings on his dress uniform because he couldn't find them as he scrambled last minute to get ready for the Ball. At the table, I was seated next to Jordan's on-wing instructor's wife, who I had met previously when they invited us over for dinner. It was so great talking to her, and hearing all about her previous experiences at the ball.  After talking with Mrs. Donahue, I realized just how lucky we were to have these front row seats to the presentation area and speakers of the evening. After 8 Marine Corps balls, and her husband earning rank as Captain/Major-select, she said this was the closest they had ever been to seeing the ceremony! I am not quite sure what we did to deserve these amazing seats for only our second ball, but we were not going to complain! So after whispering to her, and her then relaying the message to her husband, I got approval that it would be appropriate to take pictures of the ceremony. And I had to take pictures, considering "Skinny," one of our swordsmen at our wedding, and now training at the nearby base NAS Kingsville, was the narrator for the evenings ceremony.

 

Look who it is! It's SKINNY!

So fun to see a familiar face from home! Skinny was a swordsman at our wedding!

The night progressed with the traditional presentation of the cake, and the passing of the oldest to the youngest Marine present (as I documented about in our Our First Birthday Ball ). We had the annual video presentation as prepared by the Commadant of the Marine Corps, a speech by the Colonel, the commanding officer of the Marines at MATSG-22 (Marine Aviation Training Support Group), and a guest speaker. Our guest speaker this year was a wounded warrior, Gunnery Sgt. William “Spanky” Gibson. He lost his leg in Iraq, but soon after returning home was training for triathlons, and was one of the first amputees to go back to serve in Iraq as an amputee. For more on this inspiring Marine, see: Marine Returns to Iraq .

Front row seats for the ceremony

Our
Our "VIP" seats allowed me to take great shots of the ceremony- I love the white glove and sword on the far left

Action Shot! Birthday cake being escorted out of the room at the end of the ceremony

First piece of cake to the oldest Marine present...

Second piece of cake passed from the oldest to the youngest Marine present

 After the speeches and ceremonies, we enjoyed dancing to the live music of the band. The highlight of the night was when all the Marines in their dress blues started dancing to the popular song : Gangnam Style. For those of you who don't know Gangnam Style is a song by a South Korean artist who inspired a unique dance craze based on his silly music video. While all of us enjoyed the festivities inside, a crazy storm was brewing outside over Corpus Christi Bay. We could see the flashes of pink lights out the windows as the lightning put on a show of 50-60 strikes per minute, winds gusted up to 70 mph, and downed powerlines around the city. And as quickly as the storm blew in, it suddenly stopped, allowing us to venture out downtown after the band finished playing.

Wanted to get a red dress this year to complement Jordan's uniform, and his National Defense Service Medal!

Jordan and I at our second Marine Corps Ball

Audrey is an Interior Designer at Ethan Allen- we have greatly enjoyed working together these past 7 months!

Some of the Marines, posing with the cake

Jordan feeding Chris, Audrey's boyfriend, the cake!

Corpus Christi is a very small downtown, and it was such a neat sight to see all these sharply dressed Marines in their dress uniforms and  their glamorous ladies in their beautiful ball gowns, filling the streets of downtown Corpus Christi. We all made our way to a place named Aria, where we continued to all dance together at a rooftop lounge, under the beautiful stars of a now clear night sky. And as amazing as the entire night was, our absolute favorite part of the weekend, was waking up to the beautiful views of the Corpus Christi Bay from our hotel room, with the USS Lexington and the Harbor Bridge in the distance, and enjoying a morning cup of coffee together as we took in this beautiful view of Texas and reflected on our time here in the Lonestar state, as this part of our journey is now coming to a close.

View of the bay and the USS Lexington from our Balcony

While we were not the fondest of Corpus Christi, Texas initially, as always, we have made the best of our time here and will leave with great memories and have gained lifelong friendships.  Wherever we end up, we are so thankful for the people that come in to our lives and the friends that turn into our extended military family, especially around the holidays, when we all come together to celebrate although we are far from home.

Jordan and I on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner table is set!

I think this picture says it all, mission accomplished! Thanksgiving was a success!

The Tie Cutting Ceremony

A few days after selection, Jordan and I attended his tie-cutting ceremony. The tie-cutting ceremony is an event that commemorates the pilot's first successful solo flight in the primary portion of flight school. Although Jordan completed his solo months ago in August, the event is only held once a month, and for the past two ceremonies, either Jordan or his instructor were not able to attend. So finally, on the heals of completing primary and selecting his platform, Jordan finally attended his tie-cutting ceremony.

The history behind the ceremony goes back to when aviators wore scarfs,and the instructor in the backseat of the plane would reach forward and yank on the scarf in order to get the student's attention. So by "cutting the tie" the instructor pilot no longer has anything to grab on to in order to get the student's attention to yell at...well at least he has to try a lot harder now. Theoretically the closer to the knot that the tie is cut, the better the pilot in the eyes of his instructor.

Well since this tradition originated, each training squadron has grown and personalized the ceremony of the tie-cutting. For Jordan's squadron, the VT-27 Boomers, the event is held each month for the students who successfully completed their solo flights that month. Each student is brought up in front of the group, and is then put in the hot steat. The student's main, on-wing instructor then tells an embarassing story of  his student, usually involving one of the early mishaps that may have occurred while learning to fly the new aircraft. In return, the student then roasts his instructor and embarasses him for something silly he similarly may have done during the course of his instruction. Additionally throughout the night, there are a number of running games that are played, many of which result in dollar fines, or having your guest/date auctioned off!!! It is really quite a fun night, and although it is not intended to be, it was a fun culminating event of Jordan's primary flight school experience.

Jordan's tie cutting was held about an hour away, in the little beach town of Port Aransas. The squadron rented out a building at the Beach Lodge, which is nestled amonst the sand dunes of this gulf coast beach. You literally have to drive on the sand and down the beach itself to reach the location. Needless to say, we got lost, and also probably should not have driven my very low-to-the-ground sports car that day! We finally arrived at the Beach Lodge an hour late, and found ourselves walking in to a very dilapidated, once blue-but now very weathered and gray, beach shack! Perhaps, if we were straight out of California, it's appearance may have shocked us, but we have lost our standards become accostumed to this funky, laid-back Texas-style of coastal living ;) . I was so nervous about arriving so late because I had heard rumors from previous tie-cuttings, that if you arrive late, your date (which would have been me!) gets auctioned off! Anybody who knows me, knows I am not one who enjoys being the center of attention, so the thought of being auctioned off was absolutely terrifying! Luckily, everyone was still socializing during cocktail hour, although referring to it as cocktail hour makes it sound a bit more formal than it really was. I guess I should just say everyone was still standing around drinking beer! Anyway, I sighed a huge sigh of relief, and  was so grateful this auctioning off thing only turned out to be rumors!

Once the actual festivities formally began, we were informed of our first running game of the evening. Every student and instructor was to introduce his date, and no two people could use the same descriptive words in their introduction. Repeating a word would result in your date being auctioned off to the highest bidder for the rest of the night. Ahhh, I let my guard down too soon!  And well, wouldn't you know it, Jordan and I were standing on the complete opposite end of where they started with the introductions, so Jordan would be the very last one, and therefore have to be the most creative, with his introduction! The terror that I thought I had escaped earlier in the evening surfaced again, and panic mode set in. I couldn't even listen to the introductions, as I kept trying to come up with words other than wife for Jordan to use: partner-in-crime, dang-just used! sweetheart? nope-used again! and so on, and so on.

The introductions and the auctioning game actually turned out to be pretty entertaining.  Especially so when one student introduced his guest as his "fabulous grandmother." Well he may have been the only one to use "grandmother" but someone had just used "fabulous"! So poor grandma was up for auction to the highest bidder! Well she was such a good sport, and the whole idea is to keep increasing the bid, so that the student buys back his original date at a high price, raising money for the squadron. Grandma was eventually bought back by her grandson, and luckily for me, Jordan was creative enough to protect me from such embarassment. Although one other student did get his guest auctioned off, who happened to just be a fellow student who came along to enjoy the festivities, when he introduced him as his "awesome" peer.  Well with the word "awesome" came the bidding...and wouldn't you know it, Grandma bought herself a brand new date! As payback for her previous experience, she was insistent on being the highest bidder, and all in good fun, the original student chose not to buy back his date, and let Grandma keep his friend for the night! The whole thing was quite entertaining!

Throughout the night there were additional dollar fines, which were created by the instructors to specifically target their students. They went a little something like this....

      "If you have a high-and-tight haircut...pay a dollar!"

      "If you have ever been to TBS...pay a dollar."

These fines were interjected throughout the entertaining presentation of instructor/student speeches and tie-cuttings that would last the rest of the night. Many students spoke about  their instructors quirky and entertaining teaching techniques during their roasts. There were many who told about how their instructors would not stop yelling in the plane, so much so the students could not hear the radio communications from the towers, and then the students were graded down by their instructors for missing radio communications!  The instructors stories consisted of funny mishaps that the students encountered when first learning to fly the planes. Well wouldn't you know it, but Jordan's instructor, who happened to be in charge of the event, purposely once again set Jordan up to go very last...

Well, in my opinion he saved the best for last on purpose (although I don't think the instructor knew what was about to hit him) as Jordan had the crowd rolling with laughter as he told the story of his promotion to 1st Lieutenant, when his instructor, who was the one promoting him, wore 2 right footed boots to the ceremoney! He also mentioned, that never having met the Captain previously, I thought his instructor had a war injury or a disability (see-No More Butter Bars for the whole story), and was looking on during the entire ceremoney with pity for the poor guy. Jordan had the picture from his promotion zoomed in on these ill-fitting boots and framed, and presented it to his instructor as a joke commemorating the promotion, which the Captain said he'd proudly hang in his office! Instead of having to pay a dollar fine at the end of his speech, for a bad or unfunny story as some had to, they actually paid Jordan back the dollars he had to put in previously for other fines, because his story was so entertaining.

Jordan's instructor's speech talked about how his previous student had been a ditzy blonde girl, and then after discovering his next student was from Southern California, he thought he'd be in for some hippie surfer dude equally as ditzy as his previous blonde student. Furthermore, Jordan's on-wing instructor was actually switched on him before starting primary late Sunday night, so instead of calling him at 10:00 at night on Sunday to ask and confirm that he was in-fact his on-wing, Jordan decided to text his instructor instead, in what he thought would be a more respectful means of communication because of the late hour. Well at the time he received the text, his instructor was reading his daughter a bed-time story "Are You My Mommy?" when Jordan texted him "Are you my On-Wing?" And while the irony of it was amusing at first, he didn't see it as a necessarily respectful  move, as Jordan had intended it to be, and instead thought, who is this punk Cali kid who thinks he can text his superior officer?!  This initial communication only furthered his instructor's initial image of this stereotypical casual surfer kid from California!

The whole night was entertaining, and full of old Naval Flight tradition as well as fun new traditions created by and unique to the VT-27 Boomer Squadron. Here are a few pictures from the tie-cutting ceremoney, as well as more pictures that we just received from Jordan's formation flight:

Jordan and other students who completed their solo flights

Jordan and a fellow Marine who also completed his solo-notice Jordan's CLIP ON tie :)

Jordan roasting his instructor

The tie cutting

Jordan and I at the Beach lodge at the tie cutting, it was WINDY!!!

More pictures from the chaser plane during Jordan's formation solo flight

Look at the precision!!!!!! That is what perfection looks like ;)

Jordan and his forms partner, post solo flight

Primary, Complete!

Jordan completed Primary this week, and in only 4.5 months, to the normal 6-8! No wonder it feels like time has flown by, it has! His last tasks in Primary were completing his remaining forms flights with his partner, which culminated in a forms solo. After hours spent chair-flying in our living room, the boys completed their last flights and solo on Tuesday. And we have the pictures to prove that it was much cooler than the chair-flying practice photos:

These pictures were taken by the chaser plane with the instructors grading them. Jordan's partner has a few more photos, that I will update this with when we get them.

Jordan greatly enjoyed flying forms, well actually that is probably an understatement, as his exact words when he walked in the front door after each flight were more along the lines of Forms are  %$^&*^& Awesome! So it was a bittersweet moment to come in for their final landing. Flying the T-34, despite the never-ending studying, the sweat drenched flight suits, and toll his body took pulling G's, was one of the best experiences of Jordan's life. He LOVED every moment of pulling G's, flying in formation, and performing aerobatic procedures in the air. And so on his final flight, he took a few moments to look around and take everything in, trying to capture and internalize his whole experience; however, he was also more than motivated to come over the radio communications on final descent, " BOOMER Base, BOOMER 756 and wingman BOOMER 733, formation 4005 complete, Primary complete...CAN I GET A YUTTTTTT!" To which the guys over the radio in the tower, responded with YUT YUT! If you haven't already figured out, "yut" is another one of the Marine Corps intelliglble grunts, much like 'rah, that is motivating amongst themselves.

Another bittersweet moment was when Jordan turned in his helmet. Some of the guys had their helmets customized by a local guy on base, who applies the designs with subtle reflective tape. Some chose Alma Mater logos, but Jordan chose a motivational message, knowing his instructors would be staring at the back of his helmet every flight: Keep Calm & Yut On!

Well the moment you have all been waiting for, selection time! Jordan graduated with not only Jet grades, but also the top score in his graduating class!!! It is such an amazing accomplishment, and I could not be more proud of him! However, by the luck of the draw, there were no jet slots available the week he graduated. So he received his second choice of helicopters. And while it was a bit of a disappointment for a guy who worked so hard and earned superb grades in Primary, and has dreamed of flying jets since he was a little kid, he will always have the knowledge that he had the talent to fly any of the Marine Corps platforms, the Marine Corps needed his talents in helicopters. And at the end of the day, no matter what platform a Marine Corps Aviator flies, their job is to support those men and women who are fighting on the ground. And as a helicopter pilot, the Marine Corps will use his talents to save and support these lives.

The helicopter community is a very die-hard community, and we will be moving back to Milton, FL for his advanced training with a few other guys here from Texas that are extremely motivated helicopter pilots. One of which also graduated top of his class a few weeks back, and chose to put helicopters as his first choice.While out to dinner with this guy celebrating his selection on Thursday, we ran in to two other guys, one of which grabbed Jordan's head between his hands and planted a giant kiss on his cheek after telling him, he was going "helos." It was almost as if he was so grateful and motivated to be building up a strong and talented team to storm the helicopter training with. It was such a fun moment to see these big tough marines, so passionate and emotional about something. Jordan's friends that are ground Marines, also could not be more ecstatic for him. According to them, there is no sound like the sound of rotors when they are in the middle of a fire fight and they hear it. All the Marines love it because they can rest assured that they are going to win this battle, and it gives them that extra rush of adrenaline and motivation knowing they are having these Cobras and Hueys come in  at low level to support them in the fight. One friend told Jordan, you can't really describe the fear it instills in our enemies, or the rush it gives us on the ground.

Jordan, who has wanted to fly jets for so many years, can not stop getting excited about all the positive aspects that flying helicopters entails.  Not only do they have "cooler" mission, they fly on day to day basis, versus Marine Corps jets, which only average about 1-2 flights per month for training. Also since Vietnam, the jet air-strikes are conducted differently than the air-to-ground attacks that his dad flew in. With today's technology, jets fire precision guided missiles 20,000 feet off the ground and GPS takes it in. So while the adrenaline of going fast in a jet is probably unmatched, the missions of the helicopters in today's wars, and their down-low, with-the-Marines fights, may in fact be the best match for his personality. His Primary instructor told him before the selection news, that from the beginning he thought Jordan would make an awesome Cobra pilot. So I guess it is all meant to be!

Marine Corps Super Cobra: One of the two Marine Corps attack helicopters, which no other service has.

Well after taking some time to take in this big life moment, one which will direct the rest of his career as well as our life as a family, we are happy to share with all of you this accomplishment and milestone in Jordan's career. So we are back off to Milton, FL and get to be reunited with some of my family, and some of our best friends. After 6 months here in advanced, Jordan will earn his wings, and be selected for his specific type of helicopter. Once advanced is complete, we will move to the RAG,where Jordan will train on his specific helo, and where we will have our duty station for 3 years. And we are hoping that will either be Camp Pendleton, CA or Hawaii!

 

One More (quick) Stop Before Selection Day

Well I am sure this post is a bit of a teaser, seeing as I made it sound like my very next post would be the exciting announcement of Jordan's flight platform. However, I wanted to document this final training phase of primary: forms, or formation flying.

I've spent this past weekend making myself scarce, tiptoeing around the house like a little mouse, and providing delicious sustenance, while Jordan and his formation flying partner studied non-stop in our living room. Most of their studying consisted of reciting radio communications, and practicing briefs (which sound like completely different languages to me) and chair flying. Chair flying is basically what it sounds like. Jordan and his partner took chairs from our dining room, and were pretending to fly as they moved the chairs around in their simulated formation flights, all while practicing reciting their radio communication, and imagining and acting out all their hand signals and flight procedures for their upcoming 8 flights together.

Jordan's formation partner has, unbelievably, had an even crazier fight to get to this point in flight school than even Jordan has. After finishing TBS in Virginia, he was sent to Infantry Officer Course (IOC), an EXTREMELY vigorous 3 month course, and then subsequently deployed to Afghanistan as an Infantry Officer for 9 months. During that time, he witnessed the many atrocities that this war entails and furthermore, was away from his wife during the entire term of her pregnancy with their first born child. Thankfully the baby was late, and he returned home 12 days before the birth of their son! However, his deployment left an everlasting impression on him and his future career decisions. While always being a die-hard jet guy, his priorities have shifted because of his experiences while overseas, and his first choice is now C-130s.  And when asked over a beautiful dinner, if I do say so myself, of balsamic dijon glazed salmon, grilled lemon asparagus and zucchini, and a strawberry honey balsamic salad,  if he would do that Infantry Officer deployment experience again, even after everything he witnessed and the experiences that he missed out on with his wife's pregnancy, he said yes, I would do it again. I am just personally thankful Jordan didn't have to do a ground deployment, although he said he would have wanted to as well!

Jordan and I often have the conversation about how funny it is, for as much as I experience and know about during his ongoing training and flight schedules, I only see the preparation that goes into his flights while on the ground, and can't even begin to imagine what his experiences must be like while actually flying in the skies above Corpus. So again, while I have been quietly giggling to myself while watching these two grown 27-year-old men, chair flying around our living room, it is hard to imagine them formation flying in the sky during the day while I am at work. I have seen the formation flights in the skies above base as I drive around on a daily basis, and have been in awe of their precision and accuracy, and have always dreaded the day when it was Jordan's turn to begin forms. Obviously the guys are not flying within 12" wing to wing like the blue angels, but they are flying in very close proximity-only 4 feet from wing tip to wing tip, and at this stage of flight school, with the limited number of hours and months of experience these pilots have accumulated, it is both awesome, and a testament to their ability and hard-core training!

Jordan, who is lead pilot for their first formation flights, and his wingman, personally would like to put a disclaimer in for the following pictures, that this formation flying will definitely look so much "cooler" once they are in the air...so I will have to update this post with more pictures once they get actual photos of their formation flights. Until then, you can giggle with me as these big-bad-marines chair-fly in our living room!

Notice the serious concentration and acting skills here: hands on the stick, other hand on the radio controls,  foot on the rudder pedals!

Marine Wife Lesson #4: If you Live on a Military Base...Always Keep a Clean Home!

Jordan and I have greatly enjoyed our decision to live on the base here in Corpus Christi, TX. As I have mentioned previously, Jordan enjoys his short commute and being able to come home for lunch or go back to "sims" (flight simulators) anytime he wants for more practice. We also love the security that comes with living on base, so much so that we have let our guard down, probably a bit too much, and often find ourselves not locking our doors at all. Which brings me to Marine Wife Lesson #4: If you live on a military base, always keep a clean home... because you never know when you will have your husbands co-workers coming over for lunch, dinner, to play with your dog, use your shower, cram in a quick study session, or take a quick nap between classes. We do greatly enjoy all of Jordan's friends, and they are all so grateful and respectful, but we have also had a few funny stories....

Story 1:

I was running late for work (as I often do most days) and was scurring around haphazardly somewhere between my 3rd and 4th outfit change of the morning, and attempting to quickly iron my next attempt at an outfit, using one of the barstools in our kitchen as a quick substitute for the ironing board, when I thought to myself...I should probably just lock the front door right now. Well, 2 minutes later I hear someone trying to open the door. Flustered and half dressed, I looked through the peephole to see Jordan. Luckily I happened to ask if he was alone...and thank goodness I did, because he had brought home another one of his buddies for lunch. I quickly locked the door back in place and yelled for him to hold on 2 minutes, as I scurried around as fast as I could to finish getting dressed, before letting them both in. Phew, that was close!

Story 2:

On those mornings when I am not scrambling around the house in a frantic rush to get ready for work, I greatly enjoy the luxury of being able to sleep in on my days off, Thursday being one of those days. The other day I must have been in such a deep sleep that I did not hear the knocking at our front door (keep in mind we have a small townhome, and our Master Bedroom is on the bottom floor). A few phone calls later, Jordan wakes me up from my slumber to inform me that one of his friends is at the front door, and he had been knocking for 20 minutes, because Jordan had previously arranged for him to use our shower that day, since his water was turned off that morning because of construction on his  apartment building. So much for a nice relaxing slumber!

Story 3:

Sometimes though, I am the surprise intruder in my own house, and catch whatever occupants are relaxing on our couch off guard. One of Jordan's good friends here in Texas, loves our dog. He was so kind to watch Gunnar while we were in California last month, and often asks if he can just hang out and play with Gunnar between his Sims. Well, one day I came home from grocery shopping to find him fast asleep taking a nap on our couch, with his boots propped up on our ottoman, and Law and Order : SVU playing on the TV. To complete the picture, Gunnar was also fast asleep, laying across his lap! I have to admit, it melted my heart a little bit.

Reminiscing about these stories makes me smile fondly and laugh, because I just love the camaraderie and family we have found in the military. I love that we have this military family here in whatever state we find ourselves in, and that despite only knowing these current group of Marines for 5 months, we are all comfortable enough with each other to act like family.

Well Jordan is currently on the final leg here of Primary, and will be completing his last bit of training over these next few weeks. Somewhere between the end of September to the beginning of October, he will be selecting his flight platform! This is going to be an extremely anxious day for the two of us, but of course even more so for him! We are both already currently losing sleep over upcoming decision even now! Since signing up for Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps with his flight contract back in 2005, Jordan has fought for and waited for this day to come, and it is finally nearly upon us. Sometime in the next month, Jordan will be selected to fly one of the following types of aircrafts for the Marine Corps: C-130's, Jets, Helicopters, or Osprey's. After selecting his platform, he will then move on to Advanced, where he will train specifically in one of these platforms, and then select the specific aircraft within that platform. Each one of these options has it's own exciting aspects, as well as its drawbacks. So in order to prepare you all for the announcement that will no doubt be attached to my next post, let me explain each one of these platforms, which Jordan may have the opportunity to fly:

C-130's: C-130's are the main transport aircraft of the Marine Corps, they transport cargo and troops from the U.S. to the operating airstations overseas. C-130 pilots are said to have the best family life, because their deployments are relatively short, but also more frequent, a few weeks deployed, a few weeks home. However, when they are in fact deployed, they are traveling in safe zones, say for example, from here to Germany, so the wives at home can rest easy .C-130's are also an easy transition to commercial airliner planes in the civilian world. However, these things are like giant buses in the air, and are less tactical then the rest of the platform options. And although they sound so appealing to most of us and are of course most wives' number 1 choice, for someone like Jordan, who you all know has a need for speed, it's probably not one of his top choices.

Jets: Jets are high performance aircrafts, and well, go pretty darn fast, as in faster than the speed of sound. However, with that power comes a lot of precaution. It's not all the glory that you see in movies like Top Gun, but more so learning how to perfect extremely dangerous techniques, such as short landings and takeoffs from aircraft carriers (see the documentary "Angels and Demons" if you are interested in to what goes in to this training). Jets also have long hours, because they require long pre-flight briefs in order to discuss all of the technicalities of flying such an advanced, high-powered airplane. However, conversely these pilots get very little actual flight time, approximately only 10-20 hours a month. The training for Jets in advanced is also approximately 6-8 months longer than other platforms training because of the deep airsupport role of supporting ground marines at high speeds and high altitudes, and also comes with a longer commitment, an additional 2 years longer than that of helicopters ( 8 years versus 6).

Helicopters: Aka "helos", are low-flying, aircrafts which work closely with ground Marines regularly, and are deployed forwardly with the ground Marines in hostile bases. They are "down and dirty" and in the fight, which is a pro for many Marine Aviators (although definitely a con for their wives). They have a few varying role options from transport toattack, but they are all forward, short-range, operating aircraft, which means they are usually all operating in hostile environments, regardless of their role. Helos make up the majority of the Marine Corps fleet. Although they seem very scary and the most dangerous of all, the positive of getting helos would be the pilots get the most flying hours out of all platforms, and we could possibly be stationed in Hawaii or Camp Pendelton, CA!

Ospreys: Ospreys are the newest of the flight platforms for the Marine Corps. They are a combination of helicopters and high-speed troop transport plane. Their main role is to deliver special operation Marines (the Marine Corps version of Navy Seals, called Recon Marines) in to combat zones, because of their ability for vertical take off and landing. It has the speed of a plane, but the forward deployment capabilites of a helicopter, in other words, they can land on makeshift airfields in the middle of hostile zones. This is the newest "bird" in the department of defense which is soley for the use of the Marine Corps. Each Osprey costs about 3x as much as a tactical jet, about 70 million dollars.

Jordan will put his own preference list in on selection day; however, one's preferences are not the only determining factor in to what platform you receive. The needs of the Marine Corps are the number one determining factor of your flight platform, and this varies by the week you graduate. So the week Jordan graduates, there may, for example be a draft for a certain platform, where the Marine Corps needs a certain amount of pilots for a specific flight platform (C130s, Jets, Helos, or Ospreys), and regardless of what your grades were, or what your preferences were, every person graduating that week  might receive that type of aircraft. So at the end of Primary, Jordan will just have to keep faith and be confident that he has put in his maximum effort and time devoted to studying, and just know whatever he is selected for, is what is meant to be for him and his career. Unfortunately for you all, I am not going to divulge Jordan's preference list to you, but we would appreciate all of your prayers these next coming weeks for Jordan. That he performs to his utmost ability and that he may have comfort and confidence in his abilities and the plan that God has laid out for him for his future.

No More Butter Bars

I can hardly believe it's been 2 1/2 months since my last post, especially with all that has gone on!
Most noteably is Jordan was promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to 1st Lieutenant. On July 12th, Jordan celebrated his 2 year anniversary in the Marine Corps and turned in his golden (butter) bars in for a set of shiny new silver ones.

Promotion ceremonies are unique to what stage you are in your training or in the fleet, as well as your rank, location and base, so they tend to range in formality and size. Jordan's promotion was much more informal than most because of where he currently is in his flight training. Right now, Jordan is assigned to a small squadron, which is furthermore a mix of Marines and Sailors (Navy flight students). His training is conducted, for the most part, on a one-on-one basis with an assigned instructor, and not in a group setting. So therefore, his promotion was not amongst a group of people. He asked his instructor, a Marine Captain, if he would do the honor of swearing him in under oath for his promotion, as well as pinning on one of his bars while I pinned the second one on his other lapel. However, while up flying a day last month in July, his instructor suggested conducting the swearing-in process up in the air, mid-flight. Jordan while excited, was also a bit hesistant, responding, "Sir I appreciate the idea, but I can't do it without my wife present."  His instructor replied by promising him they would still have an official swearing-in ceremony while back on solid ground, but they could still do it unofficially while up flying. Jordan had barely uttered an agreement, when his instructor interrupted with, "G's coming on in 3, 2, 1..." as he proceeded to violently yank back on the stick, pulling them upwards into the air into an inverted flying position. Once upside, his instructor began reciting the oath to Jordan. And there, flying inverted 9,000 ft over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Jordan swore in to his new position of 1st Lt.

Inverted view of Corpus Christi, TX

That moment in and of itself, would have been enough of a memorable experience for Jordan; however, as promised we still had an offical promotion ceremony back on solid ground, which I was able to attend back in the Commanding Officers (COs) quarters of the VT-27 Boomers Squadron.

A few days later, I found myself rushing home from work to meet Jordan and his instructor for the second ceremony at the squadron headquaters on the flight deck. I hurriedly passed through the key coded turnstile gate and onto the flight deck, rushing past the "Beware of Propellers" signs emblazzoned on the side of the hangers, and stepped out into the fading sunglight, with the setting sun a backdrop against the hundreds of orange and white training T-34 aircrafts that span along the flightline, almost as far as the eye can see. This is the secret world which my husband dissapears to everyday, that only a few have access too. It seems so secure, so mysterious and intimidating to the outside, civilan eye, yet so accessible now in ours. I always find myself stopping in these moments, trying to capture these experiences and cement them to memory; to see them from this outside perspective. With time these new moments become more and more routine, and I gradually lose the outside, 3rd person perspective I initially bring to every new military experience; however, realizing I am still late, I break my reflective trance and keep on half jogging-half speed walking (so as not to look like a fool OR a terrorist) through the giant hangers, which are adorned with giant VT-27 BOOMERS, and the brother squadron, VT-28 RANGERS ensignias.

 

As a Marine, it's tradition to swear-in wearing your camis (camoflouge uniform), although Jordan's daily uniform currently is his flight suit. However, wearing the camis is a symbol of unity with the fellow Marines and comrades serving on the ground. So despite flying earlier that day in their flight suits, Jordan and his flight instructor brought their camis to change in to after their flight for the ceremony.  Apparently Jordan's instructor also found himself in a rush earlier that morning, running late when he left the house for the day. He grabbed his camis in such a hurry that he didn't realize he had grabbed two right footed boots. Not only did he grab two right-footed boots, but he grabbed one trail boot, and one flat boot without tread. Upon meeting Jordan and I in the ready-room (the student lounge in the VT-27 Boomers Hanger), he tried to disguise his lopsided foot and distract us with overly energized, rambling chatter and by walking at a quicker than normal pace as he lead us up the stairs into the Commanding Officer's office. Along the way, he stop to gather a few "accessories," as he referred to the other pilots and flight students that were hanging around the hanger and available in the squadron to witness the promotion ceremony. Once we arrived in the CO's Office, Jordan and the Captain stood in front of the American and Marine Corps Flags, across the room from me and the rest of the accessories. Upon standing at this distance in front of all of us, I noticed his foot looked a bit funny. A few things were running through my head: 1. Perhaps his boot accidently got smooshed and run over in the driveway? Or 2. Maybe he had a disability, like a club foot. However, it's not as if he is a ground Marine, and as a pilot, all he needed to do was push rudder pedals, which he'd still be capable of with a club foot, right? I thought to myself. Gosh I should hope so considering he has Jordan's life in his hands!

A few of the other people in the room noticed the boot situation as well, and knowing him personally. as opposed to me meeting him for the first time, they knew he did not have a club foot after all, and razzed him as soon as the ceremony ended for his wrong fitting shoes. However, as a good Marine Officer, he was intent on carrying on and not making a big deal of his situation, he did have two boots on afterall. If this Captain did not already have a call sign, he might have earned one that day of "righty," for the two right boots he wore on Jordan's promotion day. So in the end, Jordan had two unique memories of being promoted to 1st Lt, as well as the pictures which captured the second ceremony, which we will always look back on with laughter and fondness, as we recount the story of the club foot.

Jordan being sworn-in to 1st Lt, his instructor with two right boots!

Jordan and his on-wing instructor, still with two right boots

Jordan and I on promotion day, note his shiny new SILVER bars!

The T-34C that Jordan flies in Primary 

In addition to promoting to 1st Lieutenant, Jordan has completed approximatley 60 percent of Primary flight school. In the beginning he had to memorize a million and a half emergency procedures (EPs), and was wandering around our house mumbling, muttering, and reciting his EPs for weeks on end, at all hours of the day and night. Every car ride for those first few weeks, consisted of me quizzing him with a T-34 Primary App (we have upgraded from the old-fashioned flash cards that we used in Florida). He successfully mastered these by completing training and tests in the simulators and then moved on to the T-34 itself, which is where he matched up with Captain "Righty," his flight instructor (from above).

I work with an older lady, who's husband is a former Navy fighter pilot. She talks with me and another co-worker (who is a girlfriend of another Marine Student Aviator) about the military life and about flight school. She had told us to let her know if our boys got matched up with "screamers." In the moment, we were confused, but wrote it off as her just being her zany, entertaining self. Well, as soon as Jordan got matched up with his instructor, and came home the first day to tell the tale, I knew exactly what she meant. Jordan had been matched up with a "screamer."  During this next phase of training, Jordan was taking all that he had learned in the textbook, up in to the air for practical application, and he had to do so all while being cussed at, screamed at (aka "marine-d at"), all while trying to learn to fly this new plane. Jordan and his fellow Marine friend, who also has this same instructor, would often congregate at our home on base after each flight, and recount their stories of their flights with their "screamer" of an instructor. They would commiserate and laugh at how they would both attempt to mute out, or tune down the volume on the Captain in the back cockpit, but how he would always seem to know and quickly respond by hitting the volume override button, only to come on screaming and cussing even louder over the interrcom again!

Despite the verbal abuse, Jordan successfully passed through this phase and completed his first solo in the T-34. After this initial fundamental flight portion of primary, Jordan moved on to the aerobatic phase, where he learned and successfully solo'ed in loops, rolls, wing-overs, barrell rolls, immelmans, and much more. Pretty much, they went up in the air and tossed the plane up, down, all around, and upside down. This is in addition to the spins, stalls and spin and stall recoveries they did during the fundamental portion of primary. These aerobatics required pulling up to 4.5 Gs (the weight against the graviational pull), which required the aviators to adminster the hick manuever, where they squeeze their lower extrementies and abs in order to keep the blood pumping up to their heads so as not to pass out. While this was extremely taxing on the body, wouldn't you know it, Jordan loved every single moment of it. He could hardly wait for his aerobatic solos, where he was able to go back up in the air to complete these aerobatics, and pull G's, all on his own.

Jordan is now in ground school right school, where he is learning advanced instrument navigation, and completing more simulation training. He should also be having his tie-cutting ceremony in these next few weeks where, by tradition, their instructors cut the students ties with a knife to congradulate them on their accomplishments thus far. I myself don't really see the correlation; however, hopefully I will be able to report back and tell you all about the history and the tradition of this ceremony in my next blog.

Well in addition to Jordan's accomplishments in flight school these past months, we were also able to celebrate my 27th birtrhday with a trip home to see friends and family, and share in some very special events. I was so grateful for these few days that we were able to spend with our amazing loved ones. It is so easy to get caught up in our day-to-day life here in Texas, or wherever state we find ourselves, and forget just how far away we are as we go through the motions of our daily routine. However, time at home always refreshes that realization of just how far away we really are. And while we do miss out on a lot of family gatherings, and many more events throughout the year, it just is not healthy to dwell on all that we miss out on. We wish more than anything that we were closer, that we were able to share more milestones, events and everyday moments together, and hopefully in a few more moves we just may be, but we cannot change our circumstances. So for the time being we will focus on being so very grateful for what we have, and pray the lord watches over all of our friends and family so we may share many more memories together in the future. I truly treasure all the time I had to visit with my friends and family this past month, and only wish it these visits didn't have to be so few and far between. Love you all, and can't wait to share many more visits home with you all soon!