Just by driving through Silver Creek, you recognize from the reflective decals and assortment of bumper stickers that we have a rather well represented community of active duty and retired military families, and the proud parents of the next generation of people who serve in the greatest military the world has ever known. Today, my family entered the third generation of service to the U.S. Air Force as we attended the graduation ceremony of our daughter.
Thursday, we observed a special retreat ceremony and I found myself a bit choked up watching my daughter and her fellow airmen belt out the Air Force Song. And during today’s ceremony, the pass in review, it was a proud moment to see my daughter and her flight do the “eyes right” just as I did 25 years ago and quite probably on the same parade field that my father did 60 years ago.
Following the graduation ceremony, we accompanied our new Airman 1st Class to her dorm to see where she had spent the last six weeks and to meet her Military Training Instructor. You cannot help being impressed by the sharp and extremely professional people who take, for the most part, obnoxious teenagers (even the one’s who are already parents themselves in some cases) and turn them into respectful, eager and newly motivated warriors. I like to think that my own daughter was pretty sharp and mature for her almost 19 years, but seeing her now was nothing short of impressive.
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Silver Creek usually has a yearly ceremony to honor veterans and POW’s and I’m very pleased as a resident and a veteran myself, that the community I live in makes this a priority among the many other important activities they sponsor.
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