The Wales Family est.2011: Alex is a US Army Warrant Officer!

April 30th was the day we had been counting down for 7 weeks, and it finally came! Early morning my Dad drove Rob, Nancy and I to the airport where we met David and Aurora to fly to Panama City, Florida where we would then drive to our final destination- Fort Rucker Alabama to see Alex graduate!
We arrived late afternoon in Panama City and, since Alex wouldn't be released until the next day, we decided to enjoy the beautiful, sandy beaches that are just an hour and a half away from Fort Rucker!

We ventured out on the pier and dug our toes into the white, sandy beach! We even dipped our toes into the warm, clear-blue ocean water! It felt great after our long, sweaty flight! For dinner, we ate at Margaritaville in the city then made our trek to the base to settle for the night.

May 1 we got up and explored the base. While driving around, the family was able to enjoy the sights at Fort Rucker. We visited the equestrian center (for Aurora) the golf course (Rob) the Lake, bowling lanes, military housing, commissary and PX(it was everyone's first time visiting a military base, so it was all new and exciting) and, best of all, the many, many helicopters that are as plentiful as the birds in the sky flying around the base!

Around 2:00pm Alex was finally released and we were able to pick him up! We were all so, so happy to be reunited with the man of the hour and my very own wonderful husband! Such happy times!

In just a couple of hours was the W.O.C.S. reception for the graduating class 12-13, The Scorpions was their class name. Their class color was red! (In the pictures above, the pop of red represents his class)

At the reception I was able to meet some of Alex's class mates and their wives, amd watch a highlights video of their time at WOCS (Alex was featured twice, once teaching the candidates CPR and doing exercises in what appeared to be a hoola hoop!) awards were presented along with a few short speeches. My favorite part (besides getting to see Alex dressed up in uniform!) was the cutting of the cake where the youngest and oldest candidates cut the cake with a fancy sword, then present the first piece of cake to the guest of honor!

The next day was graduation day!!! We were all so proud of Alex's big accomplishment and it was so neat to get to see Alex officially swear in to the US ARMY. David and I were chosen to pin his Officer's bars on his uniform jacket that officially display he is an Officer!