Cross Country Adventure Recap Part 4: Class Graduation Ceremony

In between the private commissioning and the class ceremony, we got to walk around a little:

 

  

 

But then we were off to get our seats in the surprisingly hot RI sun.

 

  

  

  

 They entered and the ceremony went on for a long time, we were able to get some really good shots (by 'we' I mean Haley of course) because they awkwardly invited friends and family out onto the field in the middle of the ceremony to get closeup shots.

 The commander spoke, they marched around the field a whole lot and then it was over! Wooo!

 Class Photos

Then everyone lined up for their first salutes :)

The people that had basically made these guys lives a living hell were lined up and prepared to salute them for the first time...in exchange the newly commissioned officers gave them a silver dollar, which you can read more about here. Austin's silver dollars were from the first salutes that he had given other officers during his time there. He still has one, because he thinks that the first person actually in the fleet to salute him deserves one as much as the structured ceremony participants.

Once that was over it was time for more pictures and getting Austin back into some civvies!

 (Austin showing off his scissor war wound and  how deep the scissors actually went in...the whole part showing beyond his hand is how deep it went!...nice farmer's tan ;)...)