By the Dawn's Early Light

The official base flag raising was yesterday morning at 07:30. I hurriedly got up and got Olivia up and we hurried to the command building to make the flag raising ceremony. As stated in the previous post, this is an important day for all of us in Spain as we really miss seeing the American flag flying and cherish the few moments in the year when we can. The entire base of active duty Navy, Marines and Air Force were required to muster and stand at attention for the ceremony. There was also a small brigade of Army on their way to Afghanistan in attendance as well. Civilians were invited to attend but due to the early morning ceremony time (I can only assume), there was only a small faction of us in attendance.
The ceremony did not disappoint. The commanding officer of the base gave a moving speech and eluded to the ongoing noise coming from the air terminal as evidence of our continuing operations around the world (Multiple planes took off while the ceremony was going on). The actual flag raising was so emotional as the flag pole, that stands empty throughout the year, had a huge American flag raised and hung on it to the loudspeaker blaring The Star Spangled Banner. I will admit, I was barely holding it together when I saw the flag being slowly raised and listened to our national anthem. A PERFECT start to our day in my opinion.
I have a confession. Most of these pictures I took from the base Facebook page. They had a better vantage point than I did and a better camera. Enjoy!


Presentation of the flag.

The flag has been raised! This picture shows the entire Rota command and the small group of civilians standing in the way back.

Daddy and O in front of the flag.

Okay. I threw on ANYTHING to get to the ceremony in time. I know. Frumpville.

The men of the Region Legal Service Office. Chief Mike Stevens, Lt. Commander Todd Kline and Lt. Justin Boyd.