Trent Graduated

This past Thursday (May 22), Trent graduated with his LLM in Military Law and a specialty in International and Operational Law from the Judge Advocate General's School of Law. That is the Army JAG School in everyday speak. He accomplished everything he wanted to. He received both his LLM and performed well enough to get his specialty as well. We are very proud of him of course.

The ceremony was somewhat low key considering, but Jon, Sami, and I elected to spend the entire ceremony in the overflow room with the Ayers and Kiel families as well as various individuals who brought their kids out of the auditorium from time to time. The entire ceremony was available on the screen in that room. If anyone reading this wonders why we opted for the overflow, they haven't met Samantha.

It was a very nice ceremony that put just enough emphasis on the accomplishment achieved by the 56th graduate course and reminded them and us what great people they are.

I should mention here that I have wanted Trent to blog about some of the events he has participated in lately for a while now, and hopefully in the next few weeks he will be able to. It will be much more interesting to read his account of things. However, even though he has graduated and is on leave for the next few weeks, he is still busy. He has to finish OER (Officer Evaluation Report) work and prepare his paper to submit it for potential publication. Let's face it. That trumps blogging. I mention this only so that you know that hopefully you will have Trent's accounts of Iron JAG and his dining in among other things to look forward to.

We learned a few things on Trent's graduation day.

First of all, the navy has uniforms I have never seen before, and some of them are kind of funny looking. No offense intended to our navy friends of course.

Seondly, Jon is a bit of a Jimmy Buffett fan. While rejecting song after song on my MP3 player on the way to graduation, Trent finally just requested I play some Jimmy Buffett (something he knew I had and knew would be simple and fun. Apparently I have too many depressing songs. I would disagree, but that is another post and a long one at that). After listening to Volcano the first time, we listened to it at least three more times in a row at Jon's request. When we left the school, the only thing Jon wanted to hear was Volcano by Jimmy Buffett. I have not yet determined if we should be concerned about Jon's future based on his early liking of Jimmy Buffett.

Finally, at least for now, we were reminded what great people serve in the military. They can be goofy and odd and all the things the rest of us are. They are from all over the United States (in this case the world as there are some international students as well). They come from many different backgrounds, have many different likes, philosophies, beliefs, and all the rest. Still, they are generally amazing people, and I am grateful to live in a country that produces these men and women and inspires them to serve.

One last picture. It is awful of Jon and I. He is being so cheesy, he almost looks fake, and I have my eyes closed, and am honestly not a particularly photogenic individual. Still, it is great of Trent and cute of Sami so why not right?