The Coin Ceremony was at 11am. They all marched in and lined up. We knew which group was Peter's, but we still couldn't spot him. There was a ceremony, people talked, the coins were handed out. I was on the ground (with my camera) waiting for them to let everyone find their Airmen. After recognition was made of the Airmen people would applaud and applaud and applaud. I could barely stand still and kept thinking "people quite clapping. The sooner you stop the sooner we can get to our men/women." They FINALLY let everybody go and I made a beeline to where his flight was lined up. They had to stand at attention until their families found them. I looked at the row of men lined up, trying to pick Peter out of it. I was focusing on the two front rows and couldn't find him. And then I saw him, on the back row. I knew it was him the instant I saw him. And darted towards him. I went between the 2-3 rows in front of him. I might have shoved someone...but I didn't notice. I got to him and we locked each other into a big hug. I didn't really want to ever have to let him go. Remember when I said that pretty much all of BMT sucked? Well it did, the first moment that it stopped sucking was in his arms at the coin ceremony.
The next morning was the actual graduation ceremony. It was awesome. I had never been to a military ceremony before and found it to be fascinating. They finally let us go find our Airman. We knew where they were, and as we weaved through the people I saw him. But people were between me and him and I had to duck under and around people to get to him. By that point I was standing in a sea of Airmen (all of which were a foot taller then me) and I had lost track of him. I was looking around when I saw him mom standing by him pointing at him, basically right in front of me. I hung my head in shame as I walked up to him to give him a hug. At which point he could actual break military stance and move...since we had both failed to actually touch him when we found him.
After the rest of his family found us I started to pull him toward the edge of the crowd. He stopped me, told me to wait a minutes, and pulled me back to where we had been standing. He turned to me and said something along the lines of, "I have learned a lot in the last 8 1/2 weeks. I have learned how to roll socks, make beds, and do push-ups. I have also learned that I do not want to live without you..." and then he dropped to his knee (in his blues) and held out a beautiful ring and said, "Will you marry me?" :D:D:D:D I was completely surprised about his timing...and I think I nodded. I don't think I stopped smiling for several hours. I totally was not expecting him to ask me at his graduation. A few months previous I had made fun of someone who had gotten engaged the weekend of BMT graduation. And even though later I changed my mind and thought that it would actually be pretty cool...I never told him that.
It was a wonderful weekend. But I think we were all glad when it was over. It was sad having to say goodbye again. But saying goodbye meant that he would be leaving Lackland the next day to go to Tech School. It also meant he got his phone back :)The end of the weekend meant the end of BMT and the end of the communication ban.
My Airman :)
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