Here he is!

Today was the long awaited Family Day! We got to the base about 8:30 and settled into the bleachers. The program started at 9:00 with a chaplain opening with prayer. They welcomed everyone and asked who had come the farthest. The person who came the furthest was from American Samoa. There were also people there from Germany, Hawaii and Alaska! They recognized veterans who were present and gave a short informational talk. They then did a demonstration on military maneuvers. Then they said it was time to do what we were there for and that was to see our soldiers. Smoke bombs went off in the distance, and the platoons marched out through the smoke. Here they all are marching out. We then had to go on the field and find our soldier, which didn't take as long as I thought it would.

This is Andy's barrack. In the foreground is a rubberized area that they did their workouts on. Andy's room was on the top floor.

This is Victory Tower. We saw a group working on it today. They were scaling the wall, doing ropes, rappelling...

Here is Andy! We were so happy to see him. He looks great. I noticed that his walk is even different - his posture is straight and he walks with confidence. We met several of his "battle buddies" and their families. We had the whole day and were actually kind of bored because there wasn't much to do, but it was so nice to spend time with him and hear more in depth what his time there has been like. We were able to observe something that we thought was really impressive. On an army base they are very respectful of the flag. At 4:50 we were sitting outside and a bugle sounded over the intercom. Within 5 minutes we saw several soldiers begin to stand, including Andy. At 5 pm they played the bugle retreat over the intercom, and all the soldiers saluted. This is the time they take down the flag and Andy says that all over the base anyone who is outside, stops what they are doing to salute. Even people driving, stop, get out, and salute. They do this in the morning when it is raised also.

Tomorrow morning we will have graduation at 9:00. He will be released to us after that and at some point we will begin the drive to Virginia. I'll try to post some graduation pictures tomorrow.