Airman Jordan Brinkle's Graduation Day 2

 Graduation Day 2! The event this day was the Parade. The Airmen would take on the Oath of Enlistment, recite the Airman's Creed and walk a parade in front of the audience and commanding officers. Unfortunately, because Jordan was in the band, we didn't get to see him walk. But we did get to hear him beat his base drum in perfect beat so that all the other Airmen could! I am actually very proud of him for wanting to do something "extra-curricular" while at BMT. I was glad he volunteered. The band also played the USAF's song.

All the flights except the band flight.

I think this was the Honor Flight that got to be flag bearers. Look how perfectly in step they are. I thought it was awesome.

Airman's Creed:

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN.

I AM A WARRIOR.

I HAVE ANSWERED MY NATION'S CALL.

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN.
MY MISSION IS TO FLY, FIGHT, AND WIN.
I AM FAITHFUL TO A PROUD HERITAGE,
A TRADITION OF HONOR,
AND A LEGACY OF VALOR.

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN,
GUARDIAN OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE,
MY NATION'S SWORD AND SHIELD,
ITS SENTRY AND AVENGER.
I DEFEND MY COUNTRY WITH MY LIFE.

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN:
WINGMAN, LEADER, WARRIOR.
I WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AIRMAN BEHIND,
I WILL NEVER FALTER,
AND I WILL NOT FAIL.

Oath of Enlistment:

"I, (Airman's Name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Jordan is in the 2nd row from the left, he's the 4th head in from the grassy side. You can see those ears again :)

In this shot Jordan is in the 3rd row from the right. Starting from left to right, Jordan is the first Airman to have a class or rank on his sleeve.

The U.S Air Force Song

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, Give 'er the gun! (Give 'er the gun now!)
Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,
Off with one helluva roar!
We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey!
Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force!"

"Minds of men fashioned a crate of thunder,
Sent it high into the blue;
Hands of men blasted the world asunder;
How they lived God only knew! (God only knew hey!)
Souls of men dreaming of skies to conquer
Gave us wings, ever to soar!
With scouts before And bombers galore. (Hey!)
Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force!"

"Here's a toast to the host
Of those who love the vastness of the sky,
To a friend we send a message of his brother men who fly.
We drink to those who gave their all of old,
Then down we roar to score the rainbow's pot of gold.
A toast to the host of men we boast, the U.S. Air Force!"

"Off we go into the wild sky yonder,
Keep the wings level and true;
If you'd live to be a grey-haired wonder
Keep the nose out of the blue! (Out of the blue, boy!)
Flying men, guarding the nation's border,
We'll be there, followed by more!
In echelon we carry on. Hey!
Nothing'll stop the Air Force!

Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!"

As soon as the ceremony was over, people could find their Airman. Jordan again had to go put his instruments away before he could be picked up. We made it over to where the band was and it was taking them a little bit to be dismissed. Apparently there were some instruments that had not been put away. There were some pretty angry MTI's looking for the culprits of the two horns and a drum that hadn't been put away. The two trainees that had not put their instruments away had to get immediately on the band bus. It looked like they were not going to be able to join their families. I felt awful. I bet they did too! Finally, the flight was dismissed and we were able to have Jordan join us. He later told us that not all band members were graduates and that the forgetful trainees were still trainees not graduates. We still felt bad for them but at least they didn't have family there that would've been sorely disappointed.

Jordan on this day got to wear his "Blues" or his dress uniform. Mmmm I love the AF Blues. They look good on ANY man. True statement.

On this day Jordan could show us his barracks. I think it was called a Squadron? It was just a hop skip and a jump away. The boys took the bridge while Mom, Dad and I crossed the street below.

Them is big boots.

EVERYTHING had to be in spit spot shape. If it wasn't...well, it was no bueno if it wasn't.

I think this is the neatest he's ever been.

He's fixing his hangers here - there had to be a certain amount of space between each hanger and the uniforms had to be in a certain order too.

The plaque says, "Second to none, come get some!"

One of Jordan's fellow Airman. We never learned his first name. But his last name was Henry. He is married and is about to have a baby girl born!

This was the maintenance closet. Jordan was in charge of this closet while in BMT. This was his chore, to make sure that it was clean and in order. As you can see, it looks that way but Jordan wouldn't let me near it saying it wasn't up to par. He said "its a mess." Yikes...makes me feel like my messes at home are disaster areas.

*Gasp* They know about Captain Moroni too?? J/K...but it is very similar to the Title of Liberty.

After showing us around, he had a quick safety meeting he had to attend so we had to wait for him outside. After that, he was free! He had what's called "Town Pass" which was permission to go into San Antonio. We had decided to do a Segway Tour so we headed out! We went through SegCity San Antonio. It was great! We had an AWESOME tour guide. His name was Emzy (he said his parents were hippies and that's how he got his name). But he was great. He loves San Antonio and knows a lot of it's history. I think we were the perfect group for him because we soaked up his information and kept asking for more. He liked it!

 Mom and Dad got the hang of the segways that quickest because they'd already been on them in San Francisco. Jason and Jordan got the hang of it pretty quick too. James did as well but he stayed with me - the scaredy cat. I didn't like the segway at first. Emzy was cool though and let us go at my pace, I was leader. Eventually I found my segway feet and I had a great time.

A 78 point buck! Nuts!

San Fernando Cathedral

This picture was taken by Emzy. While he was moving. While he wasn't looking forward. While he had one leg propped up on the wheel of the segway. The guy could've been a stunt driver for the thing!

The court house - made of clay!

A little story to this house. This is the millionaire of San Antonio's house. His name was Herbert Edward Butts. No joke. The main grocery chain in San Antonio is HEB Grocery. It apparently used to say Butt's Grocery on the stores but when he died that was quickly changed. Anyway, he lived here and supposedly there was a tunnel that went from this house, under the river behind it, and to the city's armory that he helped found or run, I can't remember)

This bench is cement. Not wood.

This is a little band stand along the River Walk tour that we stopped at. An interesting fact about this place? This is where the swim suit competition on Miss Congeniality was filmed! Crazy! Emzy said that he'd gotten to meet Sandra Bullock while they filmed because he'd actually been a boat driver like you see in the picture.

That's Emzy. Because he was so nice too, I didn't give him any flack for his University of Texas shirt. I was good and let it go. I might have just mumbled Boomer Sooner under my breath while remembering this fact though...

I took a lot of convincing from James for me to do this with him. I didn't want to let go of my segway!

 

At the Alamo! It was small! I didn't think it was that small. Also, Emzy said that the roof, the curvy part, (I can't remember the name) was added to building after the battle. The original roof was flat. Also, some fun facts, Phil Collins loves San Antonio and he's even got donated items for display in the Alamo! Oh and Ozzy Osborne was kicked out of the state of Texas for 10 years for relieving himself on the Alamo. Don't mess with Texas.

It was fun day :) It was a great day! We enjoyed our time as a family. Jordan had to be back to base at a certain time so we made sure he was there about 45 minutes before curfew. He was very good about not being last minute or late.

 After dropping Jordan off the rest of us came back to the hotel and we soaked in the hot tub. We had to prepare for the next day's adventures!

OH!! Forgot to mention this!! So Mom and I sent the boys out to go get us some dinner at Taco Bell on Thursday night (the night before, after being done with Jordan on base). When they came back they were so excited to tell us that KFC was doing this amazing special with Six Flags Tickets. If you bought the 16 piece dinner meal (came with 4 sides and biscuits) for $49.99 you got 2 FREE adult tickets and 2 FREE kids tickets to Six Flags Fiesta Texas!! What a great deal! We decided we were going to do that tomorrow morning, but multiply it times 3. I know. We're crazy. True. But can you beat that price for tickets?! No! We ended up buying the meals before going on the segway tour.

We got to a KFC near the segway place before the lunch hour rush. There were few people in the restaurant when we got there. We all walk up to the counter and Dad tells the woman there that we wanted to participate in the deal they were doing for the Six Flags tickets. We had seen at the other KFC (the one near the hotel the boys had gone to) that the price was going to be $49.99. She started putting the order into the register and it was coming up at $39.99. This store's registers hadn't been updated to the new price (they upped it for the special).

Well, we really threw the cashier a loop when we told her we wanted to do this deal 3 times. Her eyes got big and she'd gotten her manager to look at the price and when we told her what we were wanting he looked shocked as well and then started laughing. "Okay! Awesome!! Lets do it! Give them the $39.99 price." We were shocked then! We got an even better deal! And we'd just given the store a $120 buy :) Not bad for either party.

When the first order came out, we started eating. While we were eating, the employees came out with our other food. We took up 4 small tables with the 6 of us + food. It was awesome. We were all wondering what we were going to do with all the food though! There was so much of it! We decided we'd just have to eat it for dinner that night and Saturday night :)

Oh! Another fun story - one of the ladies that was behind the counter at KFC, she was this adorable little Asian woman, just praised Jordan for being done with BMT. She said that she had tried to get her son to do something like that but she said, "but you can't force them." She said congratulations to Jordan a couple times, with Jordan replying "Thank you Ma'am," each time. It was a fun thing to watch. This woman also praised my mother for raising such a son. She, of course, beamed with pride and said thank you as well. When we were packing up to leave, this woman brought out two huge chocolate bunt cakes, all nicely wrapped up, and handed them to my mom and said, "These are for him. I so proud. I bet you are too. These are for him." She was so nice! We were very appreciative for her kindness and all very proud of Jordan at the same time. People in San Antonio are very familiar with these Airman graduates and they treat them so nicely! It was a neat experience to see it first hand.