Basic Training Graduation

On Friday, Fort Benning had its graduation ceremony (pic of PFC Goodale and Dad here at the left) for Company D's 2-47th Infantry Division Basic Training graduates, and it was really cool!!! It was held on the parade grounds (a huge grass field) in front of a large grand stand there that was full to overflowing with visiting family members. The parade grounds are part of National Infantry Museum that was just opened this year (it's a really cool museum that is extremely well-done; the website is cool, too).

One of Fort Benning's bands played there, too, marching on the field. We even got some video of them for Justin's benefit.

One of the coolest parts of the ceremony was a battle simulation that they did on the parade grounds. Complete with lots of smoke, really loud explosions, and gunfire, it was really cool!!! Christopher was part of that demo squad (which is why he is dressed in full combat gear as you see here in his photo with Michelle on the right). Christopher was the automatic gunner in the demo squad, carrying his 17-pound M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). In the video you see embedded (or linked) below, as the soldiers run forward they stop in front of the grand stands. Christopher is in the group directly in front of our side of the grand stands, the third one in from the left. I like the announcer's comments, too, talking about America's greatest secret weapon in warfare: the foot soldier. Check it out below.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqDhrnpHq2M

After graduation, we got to spend the rest of the day with Christopher. We spent a lot of time checking out the museum and doing lunch there. Then we went and to our hotel to hang out. We watched a movie and ate junk food (woo hoo!!!), and Christopher also got to video Skype call Brianna, Andrew, and Mark at home. Check out a photo of that on the left. They had fun videoconferencing, and we can tell that Skype is going to be fun while Christopher is away at AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He is already there (arrived there last last night), and after a couple of weeks, he should have pretty regular internet access.

Michelle and I had a REALLY great time with Christopher. We had him from 10am and 11am on Wednesday and Thursday, and he didn't have to be back to barracks until 20:45 each night. We also got to spend some time with him on Friday. That was unexpected, so it was a nice surprise. He was dropped off at the airport in Atlanta around 10am on Friday, but his flight to Richmond, Virginia wasn't until more than eight hours later! Our return flight to Boise (via SLC) wasn't until late afternoon, and as Christopher didn't have any specific orders during his free time, Michelle and I picked him up and took him to lunch.

I have uploaded 23 photos and 7 videos from our time with Christopher at Fort Benning on to our Flickr site. To view all of them, please click here.