Will They Find Blake? -

I am very happy today to have the writings of a wonderful young lady whose statuses on Facebook has often prompted me to write a blog post or two. This story is in several parts. So make sure to tune in everyday to see how it unfolds.

When the parade was over, we walked down the street to get good seats for the Coin Ceremony. The Coin Ceremony is when the trainees can be officially called airmen, so it was a big deal. As we waited for a couple hours, we chatted along with the families around us and became good friends with them. They all reassured us that we probably didn’t recognize Blake and that they were sure that he was graduating. We all joked that if Blake wasn’t graduating, we’d go to Sea World for the rest of the day. Mom and Dad tried to remain optimistic, but I was beginning to have some doubts. Surely a sibling that is only eighteen months apart from this said trainee would recognize him, right? Yeah, wrong. Very wrong. Mom was getting rather anxious, as she was the one that was going to tap out Blake. The term “tapping out” refers to when the ceremony is over and when all of the airmen are at attention. To ease their stances, they must first be tapped by somebody. However, in our case, it’s pretty hard to tap out your airmen when you don’t even see him in the first place. So, yes, we were getting anxious for the ceremony to be over.

As we walked through the large crowd (and breaking our family up in half in the process), mom was asking airmen if they knew where my brother was. She’d go up to one and say, “I’m not going to tap you out, but can you tell me where Mayo is?” and then they’d say, “Yeah, he is to my right” or “Just ahead.” When my half of the family caught up with Mom’s half, she was speaking to the family that was sitting in front of us on the bleachers: their airmen’s last name was Murphey. Mom, still a tad hesitant, asked Airmen Murphy if he knew where Mayo was and he said, “Right in front of me” and pointed to the airman that was still at attention nearby. Mom grazed the back of the airmen’s shoulders as she walked around him. Indeed, it was my brother. Murphey’s girlfriend took pictures on her phone of Mom and Blake’s interaction, which is amazing since mom is usually the one behind the camera lenses. Mom’s eyes filled with tears immediately with pride and happiness. Dad couldn’t stop smiling.

Tune into tomorrow to see read how this story continues to unfold.

Brooke is a wonderful and intelligent young lady who is entering her junior in college. She is the oldest of 4 children and is very involved in the local community. I am very pleased that she offered to write for me while I am recovering from surgery. Hope you enjoy her writing as much as I have had.