Robosoldier

My life has been such a whirl for a while now that I'm just catching up on the whole story of Soldier Son's graduation from Army bootcamp/advanced individual training.

He's second from the left in the picture (which, for reasons I don't know, appears to be the best I got of him. I'd have sworn I shot about four more in his direction, but apparently not.)

SS was on what they called the "hoo-ah" squad, because before the actual graduation started, a helicopter flew over, we heard an explosion and saw smoke off to the left of the drill field, and these guys (two groups of nine each, I think) set off a bunch of purple smoke bombs and then ran out through the smoke and up to the stands, yelling "hoo-ah!" when they stopped and knelt (in this picture) and again when they re-formed closer to us.

The announcer explained to us about the equipment they were carrying (SS said his weapon weighs something like 17 pounds, and nobody would ever carry it out in front of themselves like he did for most of the "ceremony"), and as each particular weapon was described, the guy carrying it stepped forward, displayed the weapon, and yelled "hoo-ah!" again. (SS's weapon is different from any of the others in this picture, although it's all Greek to me.)

They yelled again when the announcer said they were all wearing whatever the coolest current body armor is (which is a whole lot nicer than when he trooped off to Iraq with armor that was inadequate because that was what the Army had then), and they all thumped their chests to make the armor pop, and again when they showed off their protective eyewear, camel packs, and whatever else. SS said their most important talent had to be the ability to yell "hoo-ah!" without cracking up because practice had been so goofy.

After the announcer finished with the equipment display, SS's bunch ran off the field and had the rest of the day pretty much "off." The rest of the graduates did the traditional march onto the field, recited the Soldier's Creed (or whatever) and a couple of other things, a few got awards for top performance, and then they marched by the reviewing stand.

SS thought it was a lot more fun to be in the hoo-ah group, and he was probably right!