December 4, 2008 Update to this Posting: Previously, I had indicated Private Goodale's rank as "E-1." Actually... because Christopher is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, he is automatically an E-2. Normally, that rank advancement comes only after four months of active duty service. So, COOL... all that hard work earning his Eagle paid off (literally, as E-2s do actually get paid more)!!! :-)It's official now (in reference to an earlier posting): Today Christopher was sworn in to the Army National Guard. He's a member of the Idaho National Guard, and his first weekend of service is coming up in next month, when he will ride in a Blackhawk helicopter up to Payette for some training. His recruiter, Sergeant Stace (pictured below) said that it's just not fair; he had to be deployed to Iraq to get his first ride aboard a Blackhawk, and here Christopher's getting that experience his first weekend!
To the right here, Christopher is being sworn in by Captain Gray. This took place after a full day of poking and prodding, medical exams and processing. I'll have to look up the swearing in ceremony oath; there are some pretty powerful words in there, that I think it would do EVERY American good to swear to!!!
Christopher will have Guard weekends every month through June of next year, then on June 30th he reports for Basic Training in Fort Benning, Georgia. Some 38 weeks later, he will have also finished his advanced training on Apache helicopter electronics systems repair.
God bless our great military, and Private Goodale as a part of it!!!
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