Wednesday, July 1, 2009

He's In The ARMY Now!

The final march. It is the last time we saw him! Yes, I'm crying now!

How can they do this to my BABY????
He's trying so hard to keep a stern look on his face. We all know how much effort that must take!
It was so strange to see him go for so long without smiling. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't allowed to smile.
The oath! He's official at this moment!
The salute!!
Then we played "Where's Waldo", except it was "Where's Devon?" I saw him first! Can you see him? Find the guy in the near left corner with the glasses. Devon is the fifth one in that row.
Here come the Cadets!!
5:40 PM: While Randy and I ate some lunch and toured the base, Devon was learning how to march. The parade started at 5:40. Here is the band that led the Cadets.
9:20 AM. They took a group of Cadet into the auditorium and left us parents standing outside. For a minute or two we thought we weren't going to be able to say goodbye but then they allowed us to go into the auditorium and sit behind our Cadet. They gave us 90 seconds to say goodbye and then we couldn't see Devon the rest of the day, and it was the last time we were able to talk to him.
The Eastern Baseball shirt guy just abandoned his girlfriend to chill with Devon while waiting in line.
Of course Devon made a few contacts while waiting in line. As luck would have it, the guy standing next to him will be playing baseball. They really seemed to hit it off.
It was "hurry up and wait". The line was quite long.
Devon hooked up with the basketball coach who was kind enough to take this picture of us. I can't believe we didn't get a picture of him...Coach Jim Platt.

WARNING!! Some of the above pictures are NOT for the faint of heart!!! This is a picture of Devon walking from the parking lot to the check in point on R-day. Randy and I could not keep up with him--he was so anxious to get there and get checked in!

2 comments:

Joshers said...

I don't know about this whole "no smiles" business. I mean, SERIOUSLY. Are they for reals not allowed to smile???

One would think a "happy" soldier is a better soldier....

But that's just me....

Elizabeth Moon said...

AW! What an emotional roller coaster day, I'm sure! We will miss him sooo much.