Fort Benning, Georgia.
This is the place where my brother has spent the past 20+ weeks becoming a soldier (4 of those weeks were spent back at home, due to medical complications). Not only did he become a soldier, he became a part of the infantry. Perhaps the hardest of all jobs in the Army
Most definitely the hardest on this sister's fragile heart.
This is also the place we just got back home from (7+ hour drive each way) to go see this boy-turned-soldier of ours graduate.
And a soldier he surely was. Though we'd seen him a few weeks earlier so it wasn't as though it was a huge shock to see him in his transformed state, but he did look rather dapper in his uniform.
We watched his turning blue ceremony Wednesday where the blue ribbon you see around his shoulder was pinned onto him, officially proclaiming him an infantryman.
Friday morning, we went here:
The National Infantry Museum.
Of course, since it was only a thousand degrees in south Georgia, they held the official graduation ceremony outside. Where they set off colored smoke bombs.
And they came at us with guns.
It was your typical graduation (sans the guns, probably, I've never seen that before at any of the graduations I've been to). There was speech from someone official that contained an inspiring quote I desperately tried to retain (but failed - and so has google, they couldn't find it from the broken bits and pieces I typed in to search), there were awards given, the band played, and I held back the tears as I considered just how proud I am of my baby brother.
For now, this boy... er, solider, is home with us for a couple days before he gets stationed in Washington.
Come September, he'll be headed due east (or due west, I suppose, depending on which way he travels from Washington. I don't know the standard route) for Iraq.
And while I know he's trained for this type of thing and they made him "army strong" he's still my baby brother, my b-wonder* and I will be a mess when that day comes.
*B-wonder: Short for Boy Wonder. The nickname I honored my brother with many, many years ago. I don't know where it comes from, but it stuck. Remember, a nickname is the best gift you can give someone and that is the nickname I gifted my brother with. His real name is Michael. I prefer B-wonder.
He may be a trained solider, taught to fight during a time of war, but he will always be my little brother and I will always believe I'm stronger and bigger than him and can take him any day.
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