The Regimental Ball, part 1

Michael and I went to the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Regimental Dining-Out last night. Before I talk about that, I want to mention what our guys had to go through in order to get ready for the big night.

All active-duty chaplains had to buy dress blues for the formal affair. That was the easy part. The hard part was putting together those dress blues. All of the chaplains had buttons to add, their name tag, U.S., and a cross (or other symbol to signify their faith). Others who had previous service had ribbons to add to that. Everything had to be in its proper place. Just how important is all of this? I have pictures. :O)



The guys gathered in Loren's room and worked together. Here, Michael is measuring everything within millimeters to make sure it is perfect.

Loren and Jeff refer to the guidelines online to make sure they are putting everything in the proper place. 

Mark and Michael work fervently on their uniforms as Jeff and Bill look on.

Michael has a little ruler he is using to make sure his name tag is in the right place.

How many chaplains does it take to put together a dress blues uniform? LOTS! Loren stands at attention so Michael and Jeff can make sure he is ready to go.

Loren looked a little off, so Michael pulled out his trusty ruler. HA!

When all of the men were together (or so they thought), they called in the big gun. Brandon served as an honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in D.C. He knows uniforms. He took a look at everyone's dress blues and adjusted where needed.  

What the pictures don't tell is that this took hours. We finally got the guys to stop so we could get some dinner, came back and they went back to work. It was really so funny seeing how intent they were to get this right. Way to go guys.

My next post will be about the ball (excuse me...dining-out) itself...with pictures!

By the way, if you know others who would like to keep up with us through this blog, please feel free to pass on the link to others. There are so many (at Menokin especially) who I don't have e-mail addresses for, and they may be interested. 

Many blessings! We miss everyone!!

~ Laura