Day 2: Troop Picnic & Promotion

We stayed overnight in a hotel since Jed's troop was having their own picnic the next day, Friday. There was also one other very important occasion that we wanted to be to - Jed's promotion from rank E6 to E7. This is a big step up considering that the highest rank in the Army is an E9. The promotion was held at the troop picnic instead of the formation held earlier that morning so that me and the kids could see it.

So here we are at the picnic and Jed was nabbed up to be interviewed by one of the news stations. He tries really hard to avoid doing any interviews but obviously his luck ran out this particular day.

We got to see some of our friends from our hometown whose son was also being deployed with Jed. Small world.

Signing the promotion papers and looking over his evaluation report.

Promotion Time: from E6 to E7!

Jed chose Ronin and Connor to change the rank symbols on his uniform. The boys were also instructed that once the new rank is put on that they were to punch Jed. This is part of the tradition and initiation of the Army so the boys were excited to get to do it. Captain Pruett also told the boys that if they didn't punch hard enough that they would have to find a big, strong guy to do it, so then the boys were determined to do a good job.

Ronin trading the rank patch on the uniform.

Then he gave his dad a nice punch in the chest - he did a really good job, you could hear a solid thump when it happened.

Connor changing the rank pin on Jed's hat.

And then a nice, big wind-up for his dad.

Boom!

Here's a video of the promotion: (click the music playlist pause button to stop the music playing so you can hear the video.)

Congratulations Jed on your promotion! We are so proud of you!

After the picnic, we finally got to take Jed home with us. We now get to spend a few precious days with him before he ships off for his deployment of "Operation New Dawn" in Iraq.