Chris graduated today!

Hooray! Chris graduated from Armor Basic Officer Leaders Course (ABOLC). He did well enough to be on the Commandant's List (top 20% of his class) and got a shiny coin as an award. He also put his order in for his Stetson. Perhaps you are not aware that in the Army the formal headgear is a beret. I think it's hard for anyone these days to pull off a beret without looking weird, but I think it's especially hard for soldiers to do it because you'd think they'd be the most likely group to beat up anyone else for wearing a beret. Anyway, Chris is in Armor which is descended from the Calvary so he gets to wear a black Stetson which is waaaaaaay cooler than a beret.

They had a tank and a stryker that we could climb around in so we got some pictures. First of all, I thought the two fountains out front were going to be the highlight of the girl's day; however, I was mistaken.


This was Sophie's favorite part. The tank. She cried when we left it. Later at home she told me she missed her tank.


Here's a good picture of Jojo picking her nose by the Calvary statue.



I wasn't going to include this funky family photo, but we don't have a lot of them. So here are the Lewises in front of the Angel of Death.



As you can see, it's really called the Angel of Death.




Here is Soapy inside a Stryker, which is the vehicle that Chris will be in. Soapy is sitting right where Chris will be sitting. The screen above her is a thermal imager. It's really cool because the picture is made from heat that objects give off. It was really clear; I could see the fountains gushing water (note: I don't like the word "gushing.") It's really cool.


The rest of these pictures are from the stryker



We are super proud of Chris today!