Assignment Night & Graduation

Here he is, 2LT Jeffrey Blaufuss! A winged Air Force Pilot.

This picture is supposed to be under the graduation section, but I accidentally deleted it!

Jeff accepting his wings and graduation certificate.

Assignment night was the beginning of a long 3 weeks! This was the first event to kick off the graduation process, but for all guard pilots it's a little less stressful! Assignment nights is more for active duty and boy are they stressed out and anxious. Each class has a drop of airplanes for the graduating class, they announce who's getting what based on your overall performance during your UPT training. Most guys come in to pilot training wanting fighters and and a handful wanting heavies. It's amazing to see those who have wanted fighters and have given their all to this training program and actually get what they want.

So here is how it starts. Usually more than 50% of the base comes to assignment night and the main attraction is really the free beer! But, everyone is really curious to see who gets what and where they'll be going.

(This is the welcoming screen after everyone is seated)

(These are the rules as each pilot comes up for their roasting)

(Here is Jeff's and most of the information you see it not true. Jeff says that the information on the screen is to just embarrass the heck out of you.)

(After the roasting and the anticipation, this screen pops up and depending on what you get the audience goes crazy. We already knew what we were getting, but it was still exciting!)

(These are the guys from Jeff's class who got fighters. From the left, 1LT Ben Kempen F15 C, 1LT Lawson Cass F22 Raptor and 2LT Jeffrey Blaufuss F16)

Graduation
4 September 2009

Finally the day had come for Jeff to pin on his wings! We started the day off with a class breakfast and then continued on to the graduation. It was like any other graduation, the guys went up and accepted their wings and filed down back to their seats. Please see first picture on post! (The one I deleted and had to add again!)

(These are all the guys lined up after receiving their wings)

(Here are the guys after breaking their first set of pilot wings.)
Breaking of Wings
Since man started flying, he has taken to the air with a certain amount of risk. To counter that risk, a tradition was established years ago when the Army Air Corps first started issuing pilot wings to their aviators. This tradition is called "Breaking of Wings." At every UPT graduation, the Air Force issues the pilots their first pair of wings. As tradition has it, that first pair of wings should never be worn by the pilot. To bring good luck, the pilot should break the wings into two parts. One half should be kept by the pilot, the other half be given to the pilot's best friend or relative. To preserve the good luck, the two halves should never be brought together while the pilot is still alive. After death, the two halves are once again united with the pilot
for good luck in the next life. Anonymous
(Here are the guys breaking their wings and raising them up to see who did it the fastest)


Jackson and I are so proud of Jeff and all of his hard work. This has been the hardest year for us as husband and wife, but as we all say, "what doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger." We have been through a lot this year and I am so glad we did it together and I am so very proud of Jeff.

Family picture! Jeff's mom and step dad on the left and my family on the right.
We had an awesome time visiting with our families. We want to thank you all for sharing Jeff's special day with us!