The commanding general of MCI West, Major General Lehnert came last Monday to the Air Station to give me an award. I knew it was going to be that morning, so Yogurl came along with me. Well, in true air station fashion, they had no idea what was going on when we got there. So we were told to just go sit up front and wait for a minute, and they would tell us what to do when they had it all figured out. So Yogurl and I went and sat up front near the CO of my sqaudron, which made me uncomfortable enough. Then a few minutes later they call attention on deck and in walks the General. Fortunately, I had no idea what was going to happen. He spoke to the whole air station about the state of affairs in Iraq for a few minutes and then got on to the important part. Considering I had no idea what was going on, I think I handled the ceremony pretty well. A few things about the whole thing were pretty funny. To begin with, after I was in front of the general, Sergeant Major Titus called everybody to attention to read off the award. Then as she is reading it, General Lehnert kept asking me questions about where I was from and if I had any kids. I thought it was pretty funny. A little awkward though. I mean he is a General, he can speak whenever he feels like it, but I felt weird speaking while the Sergeant Major was talking. 
Then after he gives me some awards, he gets the sword out to give to me. So I switch my other awards over to my right hand so I can take it under my left arm. That is just how it is normally done. He sees me switch hands and goes, "Oh here let me have all that stuff, you can get it later." So he takes my stuff and just puts it on a stand off to the side. Then he hands me the sword in a way I wasn't expecting and looks at me like, "Well, here ya go, take it." So I took it and held it incorrectly for a minute. Once he had finished speaking, I quickly adjusted it so that I was holding it properly.All this might not seem too awkward to you who are not in the military. This next part was the most awkward, though. Yogurl came over and kissed me afterwards, because the General had told her she had to after it was over. Then he says, "Oh no, you have to kiss him again so somebody can take a picture." So the air station CO gets up and takes the camera from Yogurl to take a picture of us. I thought he was ready, so I leaned over and kissed her, and just sat there waiting for the flash. I guess our camera was going slower than normal, because I swear we were kissing for at least 5 or 6 seconds waiting for him to take the picture. So there I am in uniform in front of the whole air station liplocked with my wife while the Commanding General is making my CO take a picture. Then after the picture is taken and we stop kissing, everybody starts clapping. I felt like I was in a teeny-bopper chick flick and not in the Marines.
Afterwards, the CO apologized to Yogurl for everything not being planned out better. He said the General just showed up and didn't want to waste any more time. It was really cool, though, and the General was a really nice guy. The sword I got from them is beautiful. It is only 30 inches long, though. So now I have a 30", a 32", and a 34". Yogurl wants me to sell one of them, and I think that is a reasonable demand.
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