SGT DOW

After almost 2 months, Jordan was finally pinned this week! For those who don't know, that's fancy army speak for a promotion. He was technically promoted to E5 (Sergeant) on November 1st, but the pinning ceremony didn't take place until this week, which was frustrating on all sorts of levels.

Jordan called me about 15 minutes before the ceremony started, telling me to hurry up and get there because it was happening "right now." So I rushed to the his troop building on base and when I got there, all the men in his troop were in formation WAITING FOR US so they could start. That was a bit intimidating to walk into, let me tell you. The Captain asked me if I'd like to personally pin him in the ceremony (in front of everyone) and nervously, I said yes. I had no idea what I was doing, but I ripped his old rank off and slapped the new one on like a champ.. except that I managed to slap the new rank on upside down (woops!). After the ceremony, his platoon lined up to congratulate him. In true Army tradition, anyone with the same rank or higher got to punch him in the chest. The lower enlisted men shook his hand like gentlemen.

Here are a few photos from the ceremony...

 CONGRATULATIONS, SGT DOWLER! 

I LOVE YOU!