ODS graduation

Grant and I debated for awhile in deciding whether or not I would go up to attend his graduation. It was not a cheap flight, but we decided that it would be worth it since it would be the only vacation we'd have together this summer. We changed his flight home from Friday to Sunday and I left Thursday afternoon so I could get there for a dinner that night at the Officer's Club. I will spare you the details, but let's just say my flights that day were less than ideal and I ended up in Detroit for over 6 extra hours and therefore missed the dinner I had already paid for, and didn't get to see Grant that night :(

I love that we have so many friends in different areas of the country right now! Scott and Stefanie were the resident managers at Raintree when I was the manager there, so we got to know each other very well during that time. They are now living south of Providence (only about 25 minutes from where Grant was in Newport) where Scott is getting his PhD, and they were kind enough to let us stay there for 2 nights! It was so great to see them again and made it financially possible for me to go up there for graduation.

I didn't get to their house until almost midnight on Thursday night and then had to be on base by 5:15 the next morning! Grant's class had their last morning of PT (run and workout) and families were told they could join (lucky me :) So, I got there and went on a run with them (in formation listening to them all yell out their cadence chants) and then was told to get "on your face" and we then did some pushups, "Our backs are...STRAIGHT!"

After that, we cleaned up and got ready for graduation. This is Grant with his chief, who had done a lot of yelling at them the last 5 weeks, but he still had a good relationship with him.
Grant was in the color guard for graduation, which I really liked because it was really easy to see him during the entire ceremony :) I can't even imagine how hot they were in their uniforms, having to stand for the almost hour long ceremony. It is reported that people pass out almost every time at graduation, and there was only one person during their graduation, so that was a pretty good feat :) Something should obviously be changed if they are constantly having people pass out!The speaker at graduation was Admiral Wagner, chief of the Dental Corp, so here are all the dentists/dental students from Class 11080 with her (Grant's relative lack of height proved advantageous in all pictures, as he is almost always front and center).After the ceremony, they do a "first salute" with their chief. They walk up, salute, shake hands, and then give the chief a dollar coin. Grant gave him a Ulysses S. Grant coin (for obvious reasons :) although he had to tell him that his name was Grant, because they all only know each other's lasts names!

Larsen and Grant...I was glad that they were be able to become good friends early on. I was relieved the first weekend that I was allowed to talk to Grant, as I heard that he had made friends and was enjoying his time there for the most part. Larsen is a clinical psychology student in Hawaii and is also married, so him and Grant would hang out together on weekends when people went out and spent crazy amounts of money, trying to be more economical :) Thanks!And finally...me and my sailor!

Loving my "man in uniform!"

Grant's company name was "Oscar" and here are all of them together at the end of their accomplishment of graduating from ODS. Most of them had also just graduated from med/dental school and were going to their assignments. Grant was disappointed that he had to go back to school, but it's only a year!

And as we left the base... (here we come weekend vacation!)So happy to have my husband back!