Our First Banquet

Last night was what I have been so nervous about for the last several months, the wife banquet here at Fort Jackson. I had purchased a dress and grew out of it and had to find a new dress only a month or so before the banquet. I was so nervous I would grow out of this one too, but I didn’t. Thank God! During my last trip here I scheduled a hair appointment and planned to have my makeup done at one of the counters at Belk or JC Penny. I thought I was very well prepared. Boy was I wrong.

We arrived Tuesday and since we didn’t have room inside the car for my dress, we laid it in trunk on top of everything. I knew it would probably need pressed when we got here and it did. The hotel offered the service and I explained I had to leave at 5:00 p.m that next evening and they assured they would have it back in time. I very reluctantly handed them the dress. The next day we learned we had to leave at 4:45. My hair appointment was at 2 and I assumed it would take about an hour to do my hair and then have my makeup done. Well, about 1 ½ hours into the hair appointment Chris walked over to me and told me we wouldn’t have time to get my makeup done. I really wanted to cry but I didn’t. It ended up taking 2 hours to have my hair done. We literally had to run out of there to get back to the hotel and get ready. We got to the hotel about 4:15 and my dress was not back from the cleaners. Panic almost set in. I said a prayer and went up to the room and started getting ready and putting on my own makeup. I was in the bathroom getting ready when they knocked on the door with my dress. I finally got it about 5 minutes before we had to leave. I was so stressed out. We had to rush out of the hotel, leaving Alana crying for us. Chris was telling me how he had been almost dreading this event and I told him I would try to make it memorable and try to make jokes here and there to keep us from getting stressed.

When we arrived, my feet were already hurting from the devilish shoes I bought. I joked with Chris and told him we would make a ritual and burn something from this first formal event of ours and mine would be the shoes. We had to be there at 5:15 and rushed there. When we arrived the only thing we did was stand out front in the foyer of the place where it was steaming hot. We kept waiting to line up and shake hands with the top guys but they never would get it started. They then moved us into a different room where there was alcohol and punch and fruit. This is where we socialized with all of Chris’s buddies. At one point I felt sick and had to walk out for a few. When I walked out the line started forming to meet the top guys so we were in the back half of the line. The line had probably 300 people in it. As we were waiting I got sick and felt light headed. I told Chris I needed to go sit down and he grabbed my hand I started to walk away and he explained I wasn’t feeling well and as we were walking out I nearly fainted. I have no idea why but I know I felt like a huge loser. We sat on a bench outside while the line moved and once we saw the line was almost at the end we went back in to get in the back. When we finally got to these people, Chris did great on his introduction, which has to be done a certain way. The first guy seemed very strict and orderly, he was a West Point grad and took everything very seriously. He made a slight joke and we laughed and then he was very straight faced again, just like a switch was flipped. It was very odd. The rest of everybody else was very polite and easy to get along with. Seating was assigned so we found our table and the ladies sat down while the gentleman stood. It was so nice.

Everything began around 7:00 p.m. They had all the formal things at the beginning. They introduced the head table, had the posting of colors, and national anthem. There was also the introduction of the POW table where we would all take the time to remember those who have served and never come home or have been prisoners of war. A prayer was said before we sat and all I could do was thank God for bringing us there. I felt so honored to be there. I am just a simple country girl from Empire and there I was in a fancy evening dress with my hair professionally done and all these fancy things around me. Candles were lit and waiters and waitresses were waiting on us and refilling our glasses as needed. I just felt so special to get to be a part of this. Then as we sat we were told who was to go first at the buffet line. We finally made our way to the line and the food was very delicious. Everything was set up so nice and fancy. There were several choices of desserts available. As we ate, the different platoons sang their platoon songs. There were several different entertainment acts, of course the best one being the guys making fun of the guys in charge.

A guest speaker with a very decorated background spoke. He was a very nice speaker. He spoke to the wives and told us how important our role was in this calling. This calling is not just for the husband. The calling has to be a team effort on behalf of the entire family. He talked about how his wife made him a hero in the eyes of his children. It was a very touching story. He also spoke of how important the chaplain duty was and told these guys they had a very challenging role because of how the new generation is growing up. He did a wonderful job on the speech.

As the evening ended there were a few songs sung and the retiring of the colors. We were then dismissed and Chris and I left.

During the intermission we went to have our portraits made only to learn that the portrait people had already packed up and left so we didn’t get a professional photo made, which was very disappointing.

We had all these plans of a romantic evening and none of the plans worked out how we expected. Even though we had to rush to get there, had a few instances of getting sick, and felt extremely uncomfortable in this formal environment, we loved every minute of it because we were together. Our very first formal event for the Army is now over and we have many wonderful memories to carry with us to the next one, not to mention lots of humorous memories. I couldn’t have asked for better. My man looked so handsome in his uniform. We were so exhausted we came home and went straight to bed. It was a wonderful evening with a wonderful man.

Thank you all for your prayers.