Tucson Halls: Airman Jordan Brinkle's Graduation Day 1

September 11-15th brought James and I to San Antonio, Texas, more specifically, Lackland Air Force Base. Jordan was graduating his BMT (Basic Military Training). We hadn't seen Jordan for about 9 weeks so my mother was bursting at the seams to see him. We flew into San Antonio early evening so we got our car, went to the hotel to meet my parents, then went to dinner. Jason, my older brother, was also coming in but his plane didn't land until about 10pm-ish. Before we went to pick him up we had to stop at Walmart. The only reason I'm telling this story is because I thought it was hilarious. Texas highways? Awful. I hate them. Their lanes are way too skinny and people drive too crazy. Well, they also have weird on/off-ramps and frontage roads. For example, our exit was "A Road" but the exit puts you onto the frontage road for about a mile, with entrances to shops and such, until you finally get to "A Road." But, if you missed your exit, the next one was pretty far away up the road. Well, after dinner, we had to get to Walmart. We new it was on the other side of the highway so we thought, should be easy. Well, it wasn't. We got on the highway and Dad missed the right exit. He was like, Dang it! So we had to drive about another mile to get to the next one. We made a u-turn. Then, James, Mom and I were in conversation, not paying real attention when all of the sudden my dad starts to chuckle. We all stop because he obviously wasn't chuckling about what we were saying. I looked around and asked, "Did you miss the exit again?!" He started laughing out loud at that point, along with the rest of us. We finally just got off the highway at the next exit and used GPS to point us an alternate route, not using the highway, to get to Walmart. If you're thinking, um, yea, that wasn't a funny story, its one of those where you had to be there. Sorry for the tangent. Anyways, Jason landed safely and we made it to the airport with no wrong exit-taking.

The next morning was bright and early. Jordan was participating in the Airman's Run which began at 8am. However, the day's briefing began at 7. 'Scuse me, 0700. So we had to be up at a disgusting hour of the morning to make it there on time. But it was worth it. We went to the briefing, which wasn't really much. They went over the schedule and the rules for the day that we and the airman we were seeing had to adhere to. Everyone was anxious to make it out to the road where the runners would be coming by.

We lined up with the other million people that were there on the side of the road. We showed off the banner we made so that Jordan could see it when he ran by. We were hoping he'd be on our side or in a position where it would be easy to spot.

The anticipation was building. Finally we saw the runners in the distance! They were coming!!

Jordan was in the band flight, which were the only ones in yellow shirts. You can see them in the distance. All of the runners were chanting their flight's fight song/cheer/call as they were running. We were lucky, we spotted Jordan as they were coming; he was on the edge, but on the opposite side. Why were we lucky? Because they turned around and came back! So we got a clear shot of him!

The man in the blue shirt in the center of the picture is Staff Sgt. Hopper. He was over Jordan's flight. In the picture, Jordan is just to the left of him; he's kind of the bald, round-headed looking one.

Here's a better shot. Jordan is dead center, still in line with Staff Sgt. Hopper.

I couldn't help myself, I jumped up and down like a crazy person yelling his name. I felt bad if I embarrassed....wait, no, I don't. I'm his sister. I'm supposed to embarrass him. But he was good and didn't get distracted. No disobedient trainee here! Good job!

There was about an hour in between the finishing of the run till the Coin Ceremony but all the people were herded into the bleachers. The graduating trainees went back to their dorms to change and get ready for the ceremony. When they came back, they were dressed in their BDUs or fatigues. He looked good. We didn't have the best view of him, but, he wasn't really in a good spot either. Because he was in the band, he was kept on the outskirts of the ceremony. We still could see him though and that was all that mattered.

Jordan is on the end, second row from the back. I just looked for the pink ears heehee!

Jordan receiving his graduation coin. When receiving the coin, the airman places it in his pocket then returns to attention.

These groups were the other flights. This was the ending of the ceremony by the folding up of the flag.

After this ceremony, Jordan had Base Liberty, or free time but limited to the base alone. He had to go put his instruments away then could come and find us. We were so excited!

oooooooooo here he comes!!!

The first thing Jordan wanted to do with us? Eat.

It was fun to see how much he'd grown and changed in the first few minutes of seeing him. Physically, he'd gained 15 pounds but lost 2 inches of waist. The kid is solid. Talking to him also he just seemed more confident in himself and what he was doing.

We made a few stops inside some stores, so Jordan could show us around and also so he could get out of the heat. It was WARM outside. And he's dressed to the nines in his fatigues so he was warm. Then we headed over to the Basic Exchange to get some food at the food court.

Getting out of the heat again and enjoying the quiet of the base library. The boys were researching the KC-135, the refueling plane that Jordan would be working on. He is going to Sheppard AFB in the Wichita Falls, TX area for Tech School.