So as of yesterday, April14th, I am officailly Lt. Stillman, USAF. Hoo ya. I had my commissioning ceremony up at Patrick AFB, in Melbourne Florida. It was pretty cool. A fast, simple cermony with a tremendous amount of meaning. I was feeling pretty darn special when it was over. After the commissioning, myself and the acessions Sgt. went into another office to finish up the signing of the necessay paperwork and once that was finished, he shook my hand and congratulated me. Then, much to my surprise, he saluted me. Pretty cool considering I was not even in uniform. MY FIRST SALUTE! So I saluted him back. And there we stood. Saluting each other. We stood there for about 3 or 4 seconds or so, and then he says to me, "Uh...Lt. Stillman, you have to drop your salute before I can drop mine." I started to crack up. The rat! I said to him, "you live for that, don't you? You just wait for new officers to forget they are supposed to drop the salute first just so you can say that to them, don't you?" "Yes, ma'am", he says. Amazing. My very first duty as an officer and I fail miserably. I can garun-darn-tee you that it was a mistake I will only make once. HOO YA!
