Traveling with the Cummins': Farewell

As our time here at Fort Wainwright is coming to an end my least favorite part of Army life is upon us; farewells. This post has had many ups and downs but for me it had a major first; a out of the home job as a Family Readiness Support Assistant for the Air Cav unit. I won't say that this job was a piece of cake because there were times when I wanted to pull my hair out but the families and Soldiers made it all worth it. And they brought me into their families and made me one of their own. This is the first full time job I have held outside the home since the birth of my oldest over 14 years ago and it felt amazing to have an identity beyond that of mother and wife. I was appreciated by the work I did not because of associations. So back to the farewells; I was farewelled on two separate occasions. The first being done by the Soldiers where I was presented with a Cavalry Saber(not to be confused with a sword as I quickly learned), and I was given a little lesson on the proper technique to run a man through(with could come in handy later on with the manchild)

It was done on a beautiful mount with an inscription on the bottom

I was blown away, the CAV has traditions that they adhere to and to be allowed to be apart of them really meant the world to me.

The second farewell was organized by two ladies who have been special to me Ms. Monika Anderson and Ms. Laura Black. They went through the trouble of organizing a ladies night out for me and it was a great time! During the dinner there were a couple presentations; the first was an award the Patriotic Civilian Service Award, it was such an honor to be recognized in such a way!

It even came with its own medal!!!!

After this award I was given presented with my very own Stetson. I was so excited I could barely contain myself.

Traditionally the Stetsons have cords that represent your rank(officer vs enlisted) but since I don't fall into either category they created a cord just for me of red and white( the tradition CAV colors), along with that they also provided pins that represented our unit, and me in particular. I absolutely loved it and even survived the Breaking in ceremony that comes along with being presented one of these. Essentially a grog is created in the center of your new Stetson and you are then expected to drink from it.

My grog included things like Alaskan beer, brown sugar to represent sand for our deployments, gummies for my children, vodka for the tears cried, baileys for the mornings I wished I could have added it to my coffee(you get the picture).

The ladies were nice to and didn't add anything that would have made it taste terrible. Once the alcohol is added you then begin drinking.

Until someone gives you a little help

It's a another crazy CAV tradition that I was privileged to be allowed to be part of. I will miss all the families that I have gotten to know in the CAV and hope we all cross paths again in the near future!!