[dennisw]

Well, we just returned from Fort Bragg. The graduation ceremonies were fun and memorable. Let me just offer this caveat right away, one of my son’s friends graduated four weeks earlier, and his ceremonies were not exactly the same so you need to remain flexible if you attend one in the future.

As I mentioned previously, there were two ceremonies. The first was an outdoor ceremony welcoming the graduates to the regiment. The second was a more formal ceremony held at the Coliseum located in nearby Fayetteville. Both ceremonies were enjoyable in there own way.

The outdoor ceremony was held in front of the statue of Colonel “Bull” Simons which is next to the SF museum. Unfortunately, the weather did not completely cooperate as it was cold and the wind was blowing pretty hard. I thought maybe it was part of the training.

All the graduates wore their BDU’s and were in formation according to the group they were going to join. They had a bag piper who played a series of songs and did a hell of a job considering the windy conditions. After the introductions of honored guests, they had about 20 SF veterans from past and current conflicts line up facing the graduates . The graduates were asked to don their green berets which was very moving for me personally. Then glasses of wine were distributed to the SF veterans, and they toasted the graduates and drank the wine (I was hoping they would dash the goblets on the concrete when they were finished, but there’s probably a rule against that).

The chaplain who offered the prayer did a fantastic job. One of the things he mentioned was the concept of," to whom much is given much is expected." I thought that put a lot of things in perspective.

By the way, the museum is very interesting, and they have a great gift shop.

As I mentioned before, the formal ceremony was held at the Coliseum which is where the local hockey team plays. The building is fairly good size, but it did not detract from the ceremony. BG Mulholland, Jr. gave the address, but it was hard to hear exactly what he said as he’s pretty tall and was a ways from the microphone. I thought about yelling, “Can’t hear you”, but I did not feel like doing push ups.

In the beginning of the program they showed some videos of action in Afghanistan an Iraq. They were pretty graphic and I believe a few grandmas at the ceremony looked like deer caught in headlights.

They honored the distinguished graduates first and then brought each group up according to their MOS’s. Everyone was very excited and enjoyed it immensely.

A little off the subject, we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Pinehurst resort, specifically at the Carolina Hotel. I ask my sons and their friends who we invited share our dinner to wear their dress uniforms. I wanted the stuffed shirt crowd and the blue bloods to see some soldiers up close and realize the warriors they see on CNN and Fox are real people. Their response was surprising. Many a holiday garbed matron came up to these men and hugged them and thanked them for their service. In the hotel lobby, numerous older gents stopped them to shake their hands and thank them for their service. I was humbled and grateful.