1 Lieutenant

Last Friday, while he was still in Germany, Philip had his first promotion ceremony. He really wanted to slip through the cracks without any pomp and circumstance and thought he had a good shot of doing that since he would be in Germany. . . but alas, this was not the case.

The group commander (one of the big bosses) got wind that Philip promoted on Friday, so at the ceremony marking the close of the course Philip had been taking the group commander insisted on spotlighting Philip. I really wish I could have been there. He talked Philip up for awhile and then administered the oath. Apparently when it came time to cut off (literally) the 2nd lieutenant rank he had to ask one of his classmates to come up for this- this is traditionally the role of the wife. Philip said "who wants to stand in as my wife?" one of the guys came up and said "as long as you don't kiss me." The group commander pointed out to Philip than in a successful 20 year military career there are only 4 promotion ceremonies, so this was worth celebrating.

Philip reported for duty back at the home office on Monday with his newly acquired rank. Unsurprisingly, one of the first things he found out when he got home was that he would be deploying in February for six months. He will likely have training before he leaves in December or January so we're crossing our fingers that he doesn't have to miss out on the trip we have planned to see family back in the US in December.