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.
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| 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.
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| Jordan being sworn-in to 1st Lt, his instructor with two right boots! |
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| Jordan and his on-wing instructor, still with two right boots |
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| Jordan and I on promotion day, note his shiny new SILVER bars! |
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| 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!
