Superior!

Friday night was T's JROTC awards dinner---finally! It was scheduled for last month but had to be cancelled. Then it was rescheduled for a couple of weeks later and that ended up being a snow day, so again it was cancelled. So I was praying extra hard that it would be a gorgeous day yesterday so it could go on as planned. And it did and it was good.

This year, the dinner was held at the Air Force Academy at the Flacon Club. Snaaaaaaaazy! It was a very nice dinner of tossed green salad, London Broil, roasted potaotes, chef vegetables, butter rolls and chocolate mousse for dessert. Yummy! We were seated at a table with 2 other cadets and their parents and one lone cadet. It was great because the 2 cadets are the ones that T is closest with. Actually, let me put it this way----these 3 (one being a girl) are always the ones in contention for things in their grade level. They always push each other and try to outdo each other, so it is a good rivelry. They are good for each other and support each other, so it is fun to see them together. It was great to meet the girl's parents, as we already knew the other guys's parents. We had a great time with them all, laughing and talking the whole night.

The awards portion of the night is always lengthy and most of the awards are for 3rd and 4th year cadets, so T was not up for many again this year. But again, just like last year, he came home with 2 certificates. He was recoginized for "Superior Performance" meaning top 10% of his class, good attitude and leadership skills, and so on. The other one he got was a certificate of membership into the "Kitty Hawk Air Society". This is an Honor Society for the ROTC and very prestigious--there is a pin that is part of the uniform. And boy, what he had to do to get into this group. Some of the things he had to do was to participate in several school functions and do so many hours of community service, as well as have good grades.

The hardest part was the memorizing of many different things, including definitions. The funniest one to me was the definition of "Saying you don't know something" It goes like this---"Sir, I hesitate to articulate for fear I may deviate from the true course of rectitude, or in other words, I do not know, Sir." The definition of a salute is quite comical as well since part of it says that a salute is a "delicious affection for someone". One of the things he had to memorize was a quotation that was a paragraph long. That was a hard one and I am very impressed that he actually did it.

T was are so proud of you. I love the fact that we have to keep getting larger ribbon racks for your uniform. Keep up the good work! You are going to rake in the awards next year---watch out classmates!