Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

wild blue yonder

I was weirded out when my little brother turned 21, and this weekend, I’m even more weirded out — though very proud, too. On Friday, he graduated from the University of Arizona, and last night, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force, bound for pilot training.

My little brother. Flying multi-million dollar airplanes.

Friday’s graduation ceremony was very … non-traditional. Ryan graduated from the business college, and instead of caps and gowns, the graduates wore business suits. (There was some confusion about this, though; Ryan had bought a cap and gown, but didn’t end up needing it at all since he didn’t go to the university-wide graduation.) There also was no procession into the arena, just an awkward “welcome” from the business school equivalent of student body president to signal the beginning of the ceremony. This being a business school graduation, there was a lot of PowerPoint and speakers who sounded like uber-enthused dotcom sales guys. One nice, touch: As each graduate walked across the stage, a PowerPoint slide with a special message from the graduate — usually a note of thanks to parents and friends, or a trite quote — displayed on one of the two large screens behind the stage.

The Air Force ceremony yesterday had much greater significance. Ryan had been heavily involved in ROTC during college — and he planned the whole ceremony. Plus, he’s now the third generation in my family to join the Air Force: both of my grandfathers, my father and now my brother have served.

The colonel in charge of the detachment began the ceremony with a curt reminder that the cadets — “You didn’t get here by yourselves.” — to thank their loved ones whose support helped them get to this point. A general with distractingly shiny stars on his shoulders spoke later on, urging the cadets to serve with honor and integrity, citing recent military scandals that have met with worldwide scrutiny.

Then the sixteen graduating cadets came up on stage one-by-one and received their commissions — a process that took a lot of time, but didn’t seem quite so long because it was evident just how important this moment was for each cadet and his / her family. First, the cadet would be administered an oath by someone in the military — a friend, a relative, a colleague. Then, family members came onstage to pin second lieutenant “butter bars” (so named because of their gold color) on the cadet’s hat and epaulets. That done, the family members would step offstage, and another member of the military would come up to give the new lieutenant his / her first salute. Finally, the detachment colonel would announce the new officer’s name to the audience, eliciting applause and cheers.

The ceremony ended with a round of “Wild Blue Yonder” and photo slideshows of of the graduates. (Ryan chose John Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good” (iTMS) as the soundtrack to his slideshow.)