David's Promotion

On the 16th of September, David was officially promoted to Chief Petty Officer! He went through a 6 week induction period and at the end there was a ceremony in which he wore his new uniform for the first time and his anchors (the insignia of a chief) were pinned on his collar.

Here is a picture of David and Ian before the ceremony. David was kept awake the entire night before the pinning ceremony as part of the induction. You may notice that he doesn't have any insignia on his collar and he is also not wearing a cover (hat) on his head. That is part of the ceremony. All 31 of the selectees marched into the ceremony in formation, singing Anchor's Aweigh.

MCPON Herdt was the special speaker at the ceremony.

After the speaker was finished, the selectees were brought up on stage to be pinned and have their covers placed on them.
I got the privilege of pinning David. On the other side was Steve Jolly, a good friend of his from the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Then his sponsor, Jamie Ydrovo, placed his hat on his head.
After we were finished with our part, we sat back down and David got to walk through the side boys and be saluted. (This is not a normal occurrence for enlisted personnel, but is part of the transition and the ceremony in this case.)


Now, he was officially a Chief!
At the end of the ceremony all of the chief's at the command came through to congratulate each of the selectees.
Because David (and Steve) had been up all night, we were doing everything we could to keep him busy and keep him awake. We knew that as soon as we let him go to sleep, we wouldn't see him again. So, it was Steve's idea for David to do a fashion show. Here is his dress white uniform...pretty snazzy, huh?
We got an early dinner at Chili's that night to celebrate!
(This is Steve, David, and his brother, Dan who came in from Chicago for the ceremony!)
The whole crew (including my mom and sister, Jilienne)
It was a fun day for all of us! Thank you everyone for being here to share in this special experience with us!