"Navy Weekend Recap"

Greetings all! I'm back from Illinois. My youngest sister, Lydia, graduated from Navy boot camp this past weekend, and I went down for that. I also went down to hang out with her for a few days before she shipped off to her advanced training in California -- Monterey, California to be exact.

It was a great weekend, though! My parents drove down from Minneapolis, picked me up on their way through Milwaukee, we drove down to North Chicago, checked into our hotel, and headed off to Lydia's graduation at Naval Station Great Lakes.

The indoor graduation ceremony there was quite a thing to behold; Pomp and Circumstance to the extreme! There was the standard military band, the traditional Navy Hymn, a drum corps, distinguished Navy officers, a presentation of the flags from all fifty states, a rifle gun salute, lots of marching, and twelve divisions of 952 graduating sailors. Originally, Lydia was supposed to graduate the weekend before, however, it took her a little longer to pass one of the endurance tests, so she carried over to this weekend instead.

In the U.S. Navy, there is only one recruit training base (the one we were at), and each weekend there's a graduating class of roughly 1000 Navy personnel. By the end of the year, 60,000 new sailors have graduated into Navy service.

Becca, my sister (an officer in the Air Force) also came up for the weekend. She was driving from San Antonio, Texas, all the way up to Washington, DC so she could catch her military flight over to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. She'll be transferred there for the next 2-3 years as the Air Force equivalent of an FBI officer. Lydia's graduation was a stop along her trip.

It was fun hanging out with my two military sisters, though. Becca didn't actually make it to Lydia's base in time for the graduation, but she was there waiting when we emerged from the massive drill hall. And, although she was dressed in civilian clothing, it was quite enjoyable to see all the Navy personnel snap to attention whenever she had to show her ID. I got a real kick out of that! Apparently the Navy is very rank-conscious, regardless of military branch.

Hanging out with Lydia was a lot of fun too. Eight weeks of rigorous and restrictive training can really get to you. She had saved up some of her Navy pay, and the moment she graduated, insisted that we had to go find a grocery store so she could buy some "crap food" as she put it -- candy, chips, and sweets. She (along with Becca) treated us to dinner at a moderately expensive seafood restaurant (which I thought was certainly appropriate to the weekend, even if it was just one of Lydia's favorite restaurants), as well as TGI Friday's on Saturday evening.

All food and meals aside, the four of us also hung out at our nice hotel, went swimming, enjoyed a rare stewing in the jacuzzi, and talked (usually while enjoying Lydia's "crap food"!). But by Saturday, Becca had to resume her drive east through Ohio, and Lydia had to be back on base so she could ship out for California Sunday morning. Neither of them will be able to make it home for Christmas this year.

After Becca and Lydia left, my parents and I enjoyed our last night at the hotel, and then drove back up to Milwaukee. They stayed at my apartment Sunday night, and then continued their drive back up to Minneapolis. By now (Tuesday), they're home, Lydia is preparing to study languages at the Defense Language Institute on the Presidio of Monterey, and Becca is finding a house in Germany. Quite a busy weekend if you ask me!

God has blessed my family greatly over the years. And right now, I couldn't be prouder to be the older brother of three active service military siblings. That's just down right cool -- and extraordinarily humbling at the same time.

-Jon
posted by Jon at 2:32 AM  I   I  0 comments