More of the Retirement Ceremony

After Bob gave his speech there was a standing ovation. Such attention makes him uncomfortable so here he is trying to get everyone to stop. It didn't really work though. He just had to wait it out!

Enough already!

Next was the Flag Ceremony. Bob really tried to not have this included but he was overruled by all the lower ranking staff. So much for that Admiral gig! I'm really glad they ignored this request of his. This is just the neatest ceremony ever.

LT to LCDR

LCDR to CDR

CDR to CAPT

CAPT to RDML

There is a poem about the American flag that is read and the flag is very solemnly passed from person to person until all the ranks of the retiring member are covered.

The final pass is from someone with equal rank to the retiring service member. It is a very touching and special thing to watch.

And finally Bob receives the flag. This flag was a gift from troops in Afghanistan. It was flown there. It was then sent to Guam and to Portsmouth, VA to be flown over the two commands Bob had while on active duty.

RDML to RDML

A final salute

A reflective moment

Gift to Capt Fran Robbins

Fran is overwhelmed by the moment

Fran is Bob's sister and she is a nurse in the USAF. She's a Capt which is the same as a LT in the USN. Their dad was in the US Army so this was extra special to all of us. Way to make us all cry Bob!

Fran salutes

 

Next on the agenda is to 'take down the Admiral's flag'. Wherever an Admiral (or General) is working or visiting their flag is flown signifying their presence. The Navy traditions are new to most of the non-Navy service members at METC but Chief did a great job of sounding like a pirate when he gave the order. Thanks, Chief!!

Take down the Admiral's flag!

Admiral's flag has been taken down, sir!

Admiral's flag presented to Bob

Next the final heart-wrenching bit.....the retiring service member is piped ashore.

Piping ashore

Almost finished

Next the family is piped ashore and that is the end of the ceremony.

Ellen and Karyn join Bob and me to be piped ashore.

Fair winds and following seas shipmate.

And of course there is food at the end!

Proud papa

Proud mama too

Jon Cole, Ellen Kiser, Bob, me, David Dahl-Hansson, Karyn Kiser

Kids wanted to include Katie who was still in Pakistan at the time.

Many, many thanks to everyone who came to share in the moment, sent good wishes, wrote letters, called and just generally gave us a lot of support. Lasting memories were created and will be cherished by all of us. After this ceremony Bob was still not officially retired on paper. He had just a few more duties to perform and then went on terminal leave August 6th. Terminal leave is not as bad as it sounds. We just used up all the days of leave that Bob never got around to taking while he was working!

Actual official retirement was on September 1st. So far retired life is pretty busy. I'm hoping for calm to settle soon. 8^) And Bob has a pretty good beard going these days even though it is a totally different color than back in the day! LOVE IT!!

Bearded Bob

Blessings,

gk

Retirement Ceremony

Bob started work this week at University of the Incarnate Word. Maybe I should finally show his retirement ceremony back on June 15th since he finally became honest-to-goodness retired on September 1st!

On June 15th at 0900 (9 AM for us civilians!) we all gathered at Anderson Hall for the formal ceremony finalizing a career of 38 years of reserve and active duty service.

Front row seats

Here we all are right in the front row. Jon and Ellen, me, Karyn and David and then my sister-in-law Judy and my brother Clifford. That last person is RDML Valentin who will appear again later.

Friends were there too

Here also are Erika Pearce, Robin Lewis and Captain Lori Frank. We met Erika and Robin while on Guam and Lori works here in San Antonio. And there were many more in the audience. It was so special to see everyone there.

Color Guard

All ceremonies begin with the Color Guard marching in with our flags. We all stand at attention (Civilian folk are supposed to put their hand over their heart. I'm always amazed at the number of people who either don't know this or refuse to do it!) for the Star Spangled Banner. This time we had our very own Ellen playing on her trumpet. She didn't miss a note and her daddy's buttons about popped from his chest swelling with pride.

Ellen Played the Star Spangled Banner

 

Colors are retired

I know it sounds odd to say the Colors are retired but it just means they are formally marched out. Sometimes they are posted rather than retired. In that case they would be placed in holders to stay for the entire ceremony and then they are usually retired at the end or they can be left posted. Love this stuff!!

You can see Captain Fran Robbins on the left there. She is Bob's sister and is in the Air Force.

CMSgt Kevin Lambing

Chief Master Sergeant Kevin Lambing was Bob's speaker of choice. Kevin was the number one enlisted member at METC (Medical Education and Training Campus) and is now serving as the Chief of the Medical Enlisted Force for the Air Force. That means he is the number one medical enlisted member of the entire USAF! We are so proud of him and all he has accomplished and are honored to call him friend.

 Then there were awards......

VADM Nathan and RDML Kiser

 

Bob received a Legion of Merit from Vice Admiral Matt Nathan, Surgeon General of the Navy. Matt is an internal medicine doctor and a long time acquaintance of Bob.

Gdine-Yellow Rose of Texas

I was commissioned a 'Yellow Rose of Texas' ( http://www.yellowrosedist.com/Award.htm ). Woo Hoo!! Our girls were given awards the night before at the Retirement Dinner.

Shadowbox Presented

Dewite Wehrman, a retired Navy guy working at METC as a civilian, and Colonel Geno Montagno, Deputy Commandant at METC, present Bob with his shadowbox. This is a tradition upon retirement. The shadowbox can be any shape, hang on the wall or stand as a table. It is filled with memorabilia from the retiring member's career. In this case Dewite made the shadowbox and did it in the shape of a star which is the identifying collar device of an Admiral. It has all Bob's ranks, his duty stations and a flag flown at Naval Hospital Guam and Navy Medical Center Portsmouth. It is also the flag that was presented to Bob's mom at his Dad's funeral. It is a VERY special and personal tribute and it is proudly hung in our home for all to see.

And then Bob gave his speech.....

RDML William Robert Kiser

If I had any oomph at all I would figure out how to remove those light reflections from Bob's glasses but you are getting the unabridged version here. To be honest I was so overwhelmed by everything that I cannot give you any particulars about the speech but I do know that Bob tried to talk more about the future than the past. And it was absolutely the thing because the work he has done in Family Medicine, as a Medical Officer and especially at Medical Education and Training Campus will affect our Navy's vision and direction for many years to come!

And there is more to come but I think this post is getting pretty long with lots of photos to boot....so....to be continued!

Blessings,
gk

O Happy Day!!!

Well....I wrote this on my birthday but apparently I never clicked on the publish button. DUH!! Pretend it's August 23rd still. At the rate time is rushing along it was just yesterday anyway!! 8^)

Today I am officially 58 years old. Thanks to Facebook I can now have good wishes from tons of people all around the world. In fact, as I have gone through all the entries on my FB page it has been kind of like going through a condensation of quite a few years. How wonderful to be able to connect with so many people who have touched my life in some way!

And since this _is_ Pic of the Day...okay Pic of the Occasional Day....here is a photo sent especially for my birthday from my son-in-law David and his dad Tommy. They are in Tommy's back yard in Partille, Sweden. That's the very spot where Karyn and David married a little over a year ago!

Tommy and David

Also, what would a birthday be without flowers? My wonderful husband, who could have gone down to Wal-mart or a local nursery, instead did what he loves most.....Internet shopping! This box came today.....






I guess I knew you could ship live plants but truthfully I have never given it much thought. The box is very well designed to safely hold the plant in place.















The pot fits inside that inner little box that is held in place by the little folded in pieces of cardboard. This also makes holes to allow air to circulate in the box. Clever!

And ta da.....the plant itself!

Phalaenopsis

I will forever be connected to purple orchids due to a certain incident which happened just before the change of command when Bob was made Commanding Officer of US Naval Hospital Guam in February 2001. The outgoing spouse declared that she would be the ONLY one wearing purple orchids. My gut reaction was along the lines of "Watch me" but cooler thoughts prevailed and really, who cares anyway?! I wore white orchids with just a touch of purple in the center. It went great with my light purple dress. HER purple orchids didn't even show on her vivid pink dress. So there! 

Folks showed support by gifting me with several purple orchid plants at the time and several in the years following. And when Bob was selected for promotion to Admiral he received this gorgeous arrangement with a note saying "Nice guys do finish first!"

Nice Guys DO Finish First!

And there you have it....purple orchids and me.

Blessings today,

gk

Where To Begin Today???

Clearly I have been a miserable blogger lately. I worked dead out for so long, then the retirement stuff and then more travel and then I was just totally zonkoed and unmotivated to do ANYTHING at all!! Now I am in a quandary as to where to go now. I guess I'll just do the chronological thing and go back to the retirement stuff since that was next after our move. Yes....I've made a decision! Whew!

On June 14th we had practice for the next day's ceremony and then that night we had our retirement dinner which was held at Randolph Air Force Base Officer's Club. Pretty appropriate since we have been in a joint assignment so we involved all the services around.

Hmmm....what's he thinking?!

Karyn

 Bob was clearly pensive about the coming ceremony and then I looked over at Karyn. She had burst into tears as soon as she looked around at the whole proceeding and this was just the practice. Oh my! That's Ellen giving me the stink eye for taking photos of  Karyn's tears.

Jennifer and Bob

Lots of folks had a hand in making this all happen. Here is Bob with his Aide, ENS Jennifer Nestor. Now when does an Ensign ever get to tell an Admiral what to do? Well, it turns out she gets to do that a lot when she is the Admiral's Aide. It's a tricky position to be in but is really essential for the Admiral in getting their job done. Thank you Jennifer!!

Jennifer standing in for Bob

Participation in these ceremonies is voluntary and look at the mix of uniforms involved. How nice to have so many METC folks step up to make it a great day. With the ceremony worked out pretty well we moved on to welcome more folks from out of town and get ready for the dinner. We had to go in two cars and one had to swing by the airport to pick up our SIL, David, who arrived just in the nick of time to get to the dinner! So, who came to join us?

Patti, Jaime, Ken, Don

Erika, Lori, Robin

Patti and Jaime (friends from church) are from San Antonio, Ken (Our minister in FL) is from Jacksonville, FL  and Don (A colleague at A&M College of Medicine) from College Station, TX. Erika (A nurse with us in Guam) lives in Dallas, Lori (A nurse with the Navy component at METC) in San Antonio and Robin (A psychologist we met in Guam) in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Genaro, Bob

Geraldine, Gail, Bob

Genaro (A civilian at COMPACFLT in Hawaii) came all the way from Hawaii and Gail just moved from Hawaii to San Antonio. She's now living in 'our' house on Fort Sam Houston! Genaro brought the leis from Hawaii at Gail's request.

Gino, Geraldine

Karen

Karen (Bob's boss at BUMED) came from Philly (I think!) and Gino (Bob's deputy at METC) lives in San Antonio.

Kelly, Lori

Clifford, Judy

Kelly (Bob's first Aide after he became an Admiral in Portsmouth, VA) came from North Carolina, Lori (works at METC) lives in San Antonio. Clifford and Judy (My brother and SIL) live in Bullard, TX near Tyler.

Keith, Fran

 Keith and Fran (Bob's BIL and sister) just moved to Colorado Springs with the Air Force. There were lots more folks but these were some of the best pics. We were certainly overwhelmed at the efforts of so many to come so far just for Bob's retirement. It was also lots of fun to see people we have known from so many different places and times to all come together and meet each other as well. Wow!

Grand entrance

Jennifer (Remember, the Aide gets to order us all around!) arranged for us to make a grand entrance by walking in on a red carpet. It was a fun way to start things off. During the night folks got a chance to tell stories, offer good wishes, extend gifts and generally have a good time. Mitch Seal, a good Navy friend we first met on Guam, brought his local band along to provide live music. A big highlight for us was having Katie Skype from Lahore, Pakistan! Katie, Ellen, and Karyn each chose one of the Navy core values (Honor, Courage, Commitment) and told how their dad exemplified that core value. Here's Katie giving her thoughts on her dad and Honor....

Katie on Skype

Steve was Emcee

Steve worked with Bob at COMPACFLT in Hawaii and has since been promoted to Captain. Way to go Steve! One of his gifts was a letter from Popeye's corporate office to Bob in honor of Bob's years of service. He also managed to wrangle a Popeye's box with a real Popeye's employee uniform! Certainly Bob has eaten enough Popeye's to earn those things!!

Bob, Karyn, Ellen

Bob, Geraldine

The girls got certificates and so did I. And flowers! Woo hoo!

Chief Berry and Gino

One really special gift was this METC logo in stained glass. It was made by one of the METC people as well as the frame which is a piece of an old banister from the Army hospital. More wow!!

More fun photos of folks at our celebration:

 And no military-related event is complete without a cake!

KODB's cake (Kindly Old Doctor Bob)

And flowers sent by someone who could not make it to the dinner.....

Cyndi asked for something tropical!

Many, many thanks to everyone who came, sent cards and letters, worked tirelessly to get this all arranged and who have remained wonderful friends over the years. We love you all. Please stay in touch!!

Many blessings,

gk

An American 4th

Happy 4th of July

Okay....I confess I started celebrating a couple of days ago. Karyn took one look at our bathroom and the huge tub and wanted a bubble bath. We went shopping and got some handy dandy bubble stuff and just for fun grabbed several little packets of face mask. Mine was hot clay. It got hot for about 10 seconds and then slid around on my face like honey. I grabbed the only headband I could find which was the one Karyn found to wear when greeting Katie at the airport after her year in Pakistan. Voila!! A blog photo for the 4th!

Karyn is back home now and Bob is about to head to Wales for another silent retreat. He likes that stuff a lot. I get to enjoy a few more days with Katie before she heads off to DC and her new assignment, which is much less worrisome than her year in Pakistan. Hallelujah! There are always worries but some places are just inherently MORE worrisome.

Just for the record I highly recommend bubble baths. It was great fun and we should all relax this way much more often. The world might be much more peaceful!

Blessings,
gk

BUSY Time For Me!

I know that I have been a really terrible blogger lately. All I can say is that I was so into getting stuff arranged in the house, retirement stuff, friends and family coming and going, more travels, worries about my sick sister, etc. that my energy for ANY thing was totally sapped. Now it's really hard to get back into the swing of things! So....here goes....

Karyn came!

First of all, right after we moved it was Bob's birthday. Karyn surprised him by arriving in San Antonio and spending a few days with us. It was so nice to have her here in the new place! She got to suffer through the finishing of the floors.....

Dining room and entry before

New wood floors

Almost all of the carpet and tile were removed on the first floor and replaced with new wood floors or tile. Here's what the wood looks like now.

Kitchen with tile removed

Dining area

New kitchen tile

The kitchen had the pink tile seen in the above entry photo. We chose a larger 16" tile with black grout. The sales lady did all she could to talk me out of the black grout. I'm so glad I didn't listen because I think it is just the right color for the space. 8^) Later we plan to redo the whole kitchen with new appliances, counter tops, and back splash but that's a project for another day!

New master bath tile

  The bathroom had the same beige carpet as the dining room above. Carpet in a bathroom just does not make sense to me. It also does not go well with kitties' litter boxes so out it came. Yes, it's a giant bath and we love it. The huge closet is through the barely visible door in the center rear of the room. We have managed to have ALL our clothes in that closet so no more dresser in the bedroom! It has really worked out great and we love getting dressed all in the bath and closet area, and we can both get dressed at the same time unlike our former 1880s house. Yea!!!

While the wood floors were being finished and the tile was being installed I was working dead out the get EVERY thing into place and all the art work hung on the walls. We moved in May 11th and retirement was on June 15 with a party the night before on June 14th. I had one month to reach my goal before people started arriving from out of town. That is why the blog has been silent! Meanwhile, in the midst of all this madness Mother's Day came along and this arrived from my daughter, Ellen.

Lilies and Roses for Mother's Day

Many blessings till the next post,
gk

We're Still Alive.....

I promise! I've just been working dead out to get things done before everyone showed up for the retirement gig. We have a new roof and new floors downstairs too.

The retirement party was last Thursday and was just fantastic. We were able to skype Katie from Pakistan and folks came from all over the US even Hawaii! Then on the way home we were in a pile-up on the highway. We were #2 in a line of 5 cars and a sixth car left the scene. None of us was badly hurt and no one there got a ticket. I got to bed at 1:30 AM and then we had the ceremony on Friday at 9 AM. The rest of the day was spent visiting with friends and family. Saturday we went to the zoo and then had the Hospital Corps Ball that night. Sunday it was up at 4 AM to get all the kids to the airport for 6:30 flights. Monday we left Bob's little car at the shop for repairs and spent much of the day catching up on stuff. Then today we are off to Muleshoe to take care of some pressing business with my sister who is still in the nursing home there.

So.....I promise there will be photos and such soon. I know I have been a dismal failure at blogging lately but I do have tons of stuff to share if I can just get the uninterrupted time to do it! We'll be back in a few days and home for a week then we go to Jacksonville, FL for 3 days. Bob's a featured speaker there. Retirement is not so retiring so far!!! 8^)

Thanks so much for all your concern!

Blessings,
gk