Army Family Covenant

This week we had a very interesting and wonderful opportunity to participate in our local signing of the Army Family Covenant.

We got to be one of five witness families since they were pulling from a lot of demographics (one was a single parent household, one was a dual military household where both parents were Soldiers, I forget the other one, and we were one of two traditional families) and we also happened to be the lowest ranking family there. Everyone else was senior enlisted or higher.

I've never seen so many Colonels in one room before. Basically, the only person who wasn't there from our Regional Command was the General himself. We met every commanding Colonel from our post, garrison, and battalion. The Command Sergeant Major of the West Region was in attendance and incidentally is either a very nice man or a very competent schmoozer. We met the guy who is the regional head for MWR which means that while he's a civilian, he deals with commanding generals. And he really liked Tag's tie and shirt combo and chatted with him about reading. Poor Man was just overwhelmed by all of the birds and oak leaves and rockers in the room (rank insignia stuff) and it was interesting just to see these people are who command us. They were all, without fail, interested in our kids, talked to them directly, made a point of knowing which company we were in, and freely exchanged information on their own families, places they've served all over the nation and world, and were generally very kind. The Mayor was there as well.

Now, a brief background on how we ended up being there that night. You all know about the volunteer work I've been doing and loving. Well, I know the lady at ACS well enough that when they told her to find families of these demographics it was easy for her to just email people who fit the bill. I happened to be free the night she said the event would take place. She said it was no big deal, just a photo op with cake afterwards, she had no idea who was actually going to be there, etc. I said, ok, happy to help out in any way we can.

So we get there and of course the first person we encounter is the Battalion Commander and his wife. The men exchanged appropriate outdoor, in-uniform greetings and the wives got down to chatting like women do. After meeting everyone else, we sat, then were the first family to go up on the little stage to pose for the cameras while the Garrison Commander, the Garrison Command Sergeant Major, two people from Regional Command, and that civilian MWR bigwig all signed the covenant.

We (or, the people who knew it) sang the Army Song then we all started the process of stepping off the stage. Each soldier shook the MWR guy's hand and he palmed them a West Region Commander's Coin. The local MWR director also gave each family an AAFES gift cert as a thank you for participation. Then the Garrison Commander turned around and gave Princess the pen she signed the covenant with. It's a nice pen with a coat of arms on the end and everything. I'm going to swap her a fun pen for the nice one and keep it in the fire box until she's older.

We stayed around and ate cake and drank punch and chatted some more, and it was just like the end of church, when the kids and husband are hungry and ready to go but I'm not done talking yet.

I realized afterward that, in my little heels (yes, they were the only remotely cute shoes in my size and they have a 1" heel) I was as tall as or taller than everyone on that stage. I was standing next to the Command Sergeant Major and towered. But I bet he could still take me down before I could blink.

Then we went home, got everyone into pajamas while I whipped up some dinner, and Man and I discussed with cheesy grins how cool it was to meet this or that person, what we thought of the Covenant itself, and recalled in amazement how coincidental and insignificant it had felt to be asked to attend in the first place. And to think I was thinking of calling in sick! We've all been hacking up lungs and going through massive quantities of tissues for days now.

Update from dr's appt: all is well. I'm still measuring big (3-4 weeks big) but Freida is head down with as beautiful a heartbeat as we could wish for.