Only in the Guard...

Last weekend was the first B-course class graduation that we have been here in San Antonio for. It's always fun to get dressed up, go to a nice place downtown, and enjoy a fun night out with our squadron friends. And this night was no exception. But only in the Guard are antics like the pictures below demonstrate acceptable for a formal event like this. Here's the background: our unit here has a pretty wide range of ages, with several up there in years. We are just about the youngest ones in the squadron...and we're no spring chickens! So anyway, the "Silverbacks" - as the older, graying pilots are known - decided to have some fun and dye their hair for graduation. A pretty funny little joke, since hair color is not very well tolerated in the fighter community. So the youngsters of the squadron (the Majors here evidently have to fill the role of the Lieutenants) thought they'd one up them and all dye their hair silver! As you can see from the pictures, we're talking shimmering silver. Bryan was the first one to get the spray job down outside the hotel, and so they went a little overboard on his hair. It was all fun and games until he started realizing that he'd be meeting a WWII flying ace with spray painted hair, would be giving out the Top Graduate award during the ceremony, and then (unbeknownst to him) he would be awarded the Top Instructor Pilot award from the students. Look at that glowing hair up there!! It's a fuzzy picture, but I had to include it just to show the glowing silver hair atop his head. At least I know what to look forward to in another 20 years!

At least we got a "before" picture taken before we left!