{"id":101951,"date":"2025-02-18T10:59:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/?p=101951"},"modified":"2025-02-20T07:02:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T07:02:33","slug":"the-pilots-retirement-ceremony-and-festivities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/everything-else\/the-pilots-retirement-ceremony-and-festivities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pilot\u2019s retirement ceremony and festivities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharing a recap of the Pilot\u2019s retirement festivities. After just under 22 years in the Air Force, he\u2019s done!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve started this post a few times and have so much to say, so I ended up splitting it into two posts: a recap of the Pilot\u2019s amazing military career and everything we did to celebrate + my thoughts and experience with the military wife life.<\/p>\n

This is a day we\u2019ve been excited about for a while, and we are so grateful that so many friends and family were able to celebrate with us.<\/p>\n

A pic of so many people we love who came to celebrate with us:<\/p>\n

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The Pilot retired a couple of weeks ago, and we had a whole weekend to celebrate this significant milestone. Family started flying in on Wednesday afternoon and evening, so we just caught up with drinks and Zinburger here at the house. Thursday, we had a family pickleball party at Corbett\u2019s with tons of apps and some friendly pickleball competition. We came back here for dinner, and Friday was the big day.<\/p>\n

He had the standard \u201cfini flight,\u201d which is your final flight in the squadron. He led a four-ship of some of his closest friends around Tucson, got to fire the gun a few more times, and we were able to head to the flightline to watch him land. Everyone cheered as they flew overhead, it was pretty emotional.<\/p>\n

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He taxied over to park the jet for the last time, and waved at everyone, Top Gun<\/em> style.<\/p>\n

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One of his closest crew chief friends came in from Vegas for the day to be his crew chief one final time.<\/p>\n

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We sprayed him down with water and champagne,<\/p>\n

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took a million pics<\/p>\n

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(love these ladies so much)<\/p>\n

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(the Pilot’s best friends since he was 7 years old)<\/p>\n

and then headed inside for the official ceremony.<\/p>\n

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I wasn\u2019t quite sure how they\u2019d consolidate his incredible career into a short ceremony, but they did an incredible job. The short version: he had 3,400 hours in the A-10, four deployments, 7 1\/2 years teaching at the A-10 schoolhouse, a Bronze Star and multiple meritorious service medals. He was an Instructor Pilot, Evaluator (can give check rides to other pilots), Combat Search and Rescue, and Forward Air Controller.<\/p>\n

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Even with all of his accomplishments on paper, I got to truly see the behind-the-scenes of everything he did as a squadron commander for the past three years. He was constantly on the phone checking in and sorting out problems, on his computer all hours of the night, and genuinely cared about everyone in the squadron. He helped other through severe illness and huge life changes, helped those transitioning find new opportunities and employment, wrote awards, helped with retirements and transitions, and provided constant support for the squadron. He did all of this while working hard to try and balance everything with family life.<\/p>\n

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It was an honor to be by his side, and I\u2019m proud of his accomplishments and his leadership.<\/p>\n

After the ceremony, it was party time! We headed to the squadron bar where we had catering by Hawaiin Bros (an ode to the roots of the 47th squadron), the most epic cake and cupcakes by Village Bakehouse<\/p>\n

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(it had all of the patches for every squadron he\u2019s been a part of)<\/p>\n

and they did some more awards inside.<\/p>\n

Everyone went home to chill and regroup, and then we did an open house at Three Canyon, a local beer garden with live music. I thought friends and family would pop in and say hi and leave when they\u2019d like (especially since we\u2019d been on base for most of the day), but our friends all showed up and closed down the restuarant with us. It was epic.<\/p>\n

The next day, I planned a few optional events for friends and family who were in town: a hike at Sabino Canyon,<\/p>\n

P\u2019s basketball game (she couldn\u2019t miss her club games since they\u2019re in a tournament),<\/p>\n

and dinner at El Charro.<\/p>\n

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For our group of 25, El Charro truly went above and beyond. I booked the reservation a couple of months in advance, and they had us in the back room with a set menu.<\/p>\n

Kids’ table:<\/p>\n

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Everyone got salads, guacamole, salsa, chips, and green chile cheese crisps, and then had the option of enchiladas, tacos, or tamales. We did pitchers of margaritas for the tables and everything was super easy, so fresh, and so good.\u00a0It was the perfect way to cap off the weekend!<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve had a few questions about what the Pilot is going to do now that he\u2019s retired from the Air Force. He\u2019s taking the next couple of months off, and then he\u2019s heading back to the commerical airline world. For now, he\u2019s enjoying some well-deserved X-box time with his friends, extra naps, and just taking it easy. After so many years of such a high stress lifestyle, I\u2019m so happy he\u2019s getting the chance to chill a little.<\/p>\n

xoxo<\/p>\n

Gina<\/p>\n

*All of the fini flight and ceremony photos are by the amazing Kristi Harris<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The Pilot’s retirement ceremony and festivities<\/a> appeared first on The Fitnessista<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharing a recap of the Pilot\u2019s retirement festivities. After just under 22 years in the Air Force, he\u2019s done!\u00a0 I\u2019ve started this post a few times and have so much to say, so I ended up splitting it into two posts: a recap of the Pilot\u2019s amazing military career and everything we did to celebrate\u2026
\nThe post The Pilot\u2019s retirement ceremony and festivities appeared first on The Fitnessista.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":""},"categories":[20,1,21,22,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101951"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101972,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101951\/revisions\/101972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}