Big day for the Gunny

• Yesterday Andrew got promoted to Marine Corps Gunnery Sargent at the New River Marine Air Station.  It was quite the big deal.  Here is his Sargent Major reading him his rank and orders while his Colonel looks on.  You will note that apparently the barber stays fairly busy.

Then Eric, Jenna, and Barb pinned Andrew's new lapel pins on that designated new rank

following which, peers and others friends/crew chiefs/ pilots and such who had been lined up watching gave the ole well done and welcome to a new club secret hand shake and stuff.

The large number of unwashed civilians in attendance then got into the picture.  Note the large rain puddles in the background.  We had the benefit (?) of eastern NC's humidity and heat as the rain was before and after the ceremony but not during.  It was not one of those blue sky days.

Being on base and "knowing someone who was "someone", we then went into one of the large hangers where helicopters are repaired.  In the foreground are the propellers and which are seen in the photo below

the two helicopters in the background, minus propellors, are for some reason gray, matching the sky.

there were helicopters as far as you could see, coming and going, landing and taking off as New River is a major training facility for -- you guessed it - helicopter flying.

Here is a photo of Andrew with Jenna, who with Andrew did a wonderful job hosting all that crowd of civilians at their home in Wilmington for dinner after the tour of the hanger.

and here is Andrew with yours truly and you will notice that Andrew has a big grin in both photos.  In fact that grin was Andrew's companion the entire day.  It was indeed a good day for Andrew.