Army OCS Granduation - For the Family

The graduation ceremony is the pinnacle of the long Officer Candidate School road for both the new 2nd Lieutenants and their families. It is such a special event and I was so proud and excited at the same time. We looked at this as a start to an amazing journey together. Of course I was worried about what to wear as I wanted to compliment my husband in his brand new ASU's. He and all the other 2nd Lieutenants looked dashing! I was disturbed by how many people I saw in JEANS! If you husband, wife, son, daughter, or friend has just received a commission from the President of the United States and they are dressed in their finest uniform - DRESS FOR THE OCCASION! DO NOT WEAR JEANS! In my humble fashion opinion it is disrespectful to the candidates and the commission itself. Also if you are going to be in a lot of the pictures wear a color that compliments the blues or greens. I am a big fan of www.shabbyapple.com! They have great dresses with great customer service on returns and exchanges. Shabby Apple has helped me so many times!

Back to the day- The graduation ceremony begins in the early afternoon. Get there as early as you can if you want to have good seats. We arrived at 11:45am for a 1pm ceremony and had great seats. There ended up being lots of people that had to stand for the entire ceremony. The Company Commander will speak first and then the guest speaker. The new 2nd lieutenants will then walk across the stage and finally take the oath. After the ceremony then starts the pinning. My uncle pinned one of Luke's "butter bars" and I pinned the next. If they are wearing the new ASU's there is actually not a pin so make sure to take a pair of fingernail clippers to clip off the covering of the shoulder boards.