Larry's Award Ceremony

When soldiers leave one duty station and goes to another they have “Award Ceremonies”. Today was Larry’s ceremony along with Mike who is also going to Ft. Riley. Also there was a retirement award for another friend, Terry. The Ops group commander, COL Blain, spoke highly of all three of the guys.

When COL Blain started, I guess you could say he was presenting us. He said to me, “I only know you as Peaches, is that what you go by? Is that what most people call you?” With chuckles from the room of folks I said, “To most of the people in this room, yes, but my name is Kim.” Everyone laughed and we continued….

COL Blain talked about the positive influences that Larry has had on the team and on all the units he has trained. Larry trains units to deploy into combat and one thing that was mentioned is that Larry has a way of teaching and training in a way that others understand. To complete his job well, communication is a must. After more positive words from Blain about the job Larry has done, I was presented with flowers and given a Thank you on behalf of the Army for “Keeping the home fires burning.” COL Blain said something that was touching; he has a mentor that tells him all the time that, “GOD has a special place in haven for Army spouses. “ I don’t know that to be true but I do feel that we should have an extra jewel in our crown. HAHA! On a funny note; I have a t-shirt that say, “Army Wife, Toughest job in the Army.” Larry says that is 100% true! Ok, lets get back on track…

Then, Larry was presented with his award and a going away gift from BCTP. The gift is a 31” X35” frame with a picture of the officer corp from 1819 taken in front of the building where Larry works now, a picture of his team, a plate with his name and years in BCTP and unit patches of all the units he has trained and/or touched in some way. It is awesome! It is a special item and overwhelming to him as he looks back at all he has been a part of while in BCTP. That brings me to his travels which are called “TDY’s”. He has been in BCTP for 4 years and in years 2-4 he traveled 601 days. So there were many more days in year 1 and he actually said that at 601…he stopped counting. Sometimes he was home for a few days, sometimes a week, sometimes 3 weeks and in a ‘few rare cases’ he was home for over a month. Yep…a whole month! Sorry, I got off track…again!

I then sat down and Larry gave his going away remarks. He began by thanking me which was very humbling for me. He told the story about the first day we spoke on the phone. He also said that marrying me was the smartest thing he had ever done. He said many more nice things about me and I am thankful that he feels the way he does about me and that he is more than comfortable telling the world his thoughts and feelings. (This is not word for word what came from him but as close as I could get!) He went on to thank those on his team. He reminded everyone to never forget about what others do to prepare the team for success. He also talked about surrounding yourself with good people. Not one person can do all and know all but by surrounding yourself with good people that have the answers that you don’t makes you successful.

His remarks were great and heartfelt. Before Larry, Mike received his award and Shelly was too presented with flowers. His remarks were great as well and he thanked Shelly for all she does.

Being an Army wife has many up’s and down’s. I am honored to be the wife of my hero, my Prince, LTC Parr, and I am proud of him and love him more than I can possible find the words to express.

After the ceremony, Shelly and I went shopping in a little town named Parkville, MO. It is such a cute town! We went in a few shops and then found a place for lunch. After that we went to a VERY HIGH class neighborhood that was having a weekend yard sale. They were putting stuff out today so we made our way through all the sales. If was funny because Shelly only had some coins and I only had $7. Lot of good that would do! Ha! Well, we managed to spend what little we had but still stopped to look around. I found something I really wanted so I went to look in every pocket of my purse and wallet and I found $10! Yeah! We were excited because I could by my item and I got 2 things that Shelly wanted…and we still had a $1 left! (and some change) THEN…I found something else at another house. So, when we met up with Larry, we hit the ATM and went to get the office chair I wanted. I got an office chair that was in great condition for $15! Great deal!

Rewind…Last night, Thursday, we spent the night at Mike and Shelly’s. They live much closer to post and since the ceremony was this morning, we crashed at their house. Mike grilled steaks and of course Shelly did all that other stuff. She made a yummy strawberry cake!!!!! They were having some water drain issues and they were calling for professional help around 10 or so last night. It was fixed and all was well but still it was stressful for mommy to be. Speaking of, only 5 weeks left before we meet wee one!

That’s enough for now since I’ve written a book! I still have to finish telling about the visit from my Mom and aunt. I will do that tomorrow but I felt that today, I needed to share my husbands success and his career. (There is only a picture of the departure gift on the blog. There are no pictures in uniform because Larry does not like pictures of him in uniform anywhere online.)

Thank you again my hero, my husband!

Hooah!