The Day Simon Got His Wings

We woke up early in the morning for the graduation breakfast and the ceremony! I was the proudest sister in the world watching my brother, one of my best friends, walk up in uniform to accept his United States Air Force Aviator wings. This is a achievement that a exceptionally small percentage of the population accomplish. He is one of the world’s best aviators!

It was quite the experience to see so many incredible young men and a woman. They are “the brave” that keep America “the land of the free”. Protecting our country and our freedom...flying the best aircraft on earth.

There were a bunch of speeches that I won’t dwell on too much, but they were somewhat educational and fairly patriotic, so not bad. After the ceremony each of the pilots had someone pin their newly acquired wings onto their uniforms. Simon asked Dad to pin his on.
We were all so proud!


. After that we headed out to find the A-10 guy from Simon’s Shreveport LA (???) unit who had flown in for Si’s graduation. This was my first time to see an A-10 Warthog! We walked out to the plane and got to walk around it and everything. A-10a are huge and they have teeth and a massive gun and two massive engines.




The “bottom dropped out” of the sky, as it does in the South without warning so we ran back to the car, then drove back to change into more comfy clothes for the afternoon activities. We went to the flight room where Simon had all his T-38 briefs. There were good speeches from the instructor pilots, snacks and the new pilots were presented with their orders from the USAF. Next, we went to this place where they have every flights patch since forever ago! It was so cool to see them all! Dad’s and Simon’s were both there. Dad designed his when he was in pilot training at the same base 25 years ago.
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Then we had our turn in the T-3 Simulator!! There are so many buttons and knobs and Simon was explaining things and dad was telling me “just [fill in the blank with pilot jargon]”...like “just track the nose across the horizon” “Just follow that other plane” “just land there” ....yeah freaking right! It’s so hard to just maintain altitude, air speed and not mess anything up! I did get pretty good at aileron rolls “just push the stick all the way to the side”....that was fun! Dad got in after me and tried to pull out his muscle memory from ages ago...he did really well, but Si had to tell him where a few new switches and stuff were on the updated controls.



Next, we got some more southern BBQ because we were starving! Then we al wanted to nap, but we had to get our swag on and look fly for the formal dinner part of graduation. Simon wore his “dress mess” tux-like uniform for the occasion, dad wore a tie and sports coat and mom, taylor and I wore black dresses. We were looking CLASSY!


The food was really good, but it was definitely the fanciest meal I had been to...possibly ever. There were MORE speeches. Awards were given out for lots of things serious and otherwise. I was awarded with a bottle of champagne for being the person that came the farthest distance for the graduation ceremony. I gave it to Simon and Simon shared it with the whole table.
It was quite the evening and I was so exhausted, so happy and so proud.

Taylor and I then proceeded to watch a tv show on my computer and talk until early in the morning before we had to get up early for a road trip. We had a lot to catch up on and figure out life and the world. :) The best way to end a day when Simon is being recognized for accomplishing so much is to have his fiancé tell me how much she loves him and wants nothing more than to support him in this life they have chosen. Golden words for a sister to hear, pure gold. I could not have been happier.