And here it is, almost two weeks late…. my Fourth of July post!

Oh and it was a day to remember.

Rachel picked me up at the airport on the 3rd, we stayed up too late talking and yet somehow she got herself, me and three kids on the road by 5:30am. I was impressed. We attended the CHBOLC picnic which was everything I had hoped for. As I was talking to a few new friends I heard two chaplains yell, “MAXWELL!” I had looked forward to meeting my blogging buddies, but I hadn’t expected to see any of my former classmates. Surprise! It was great catching up with Chris and ‘The Next General Lee.’ I also got to meet CH Bong’s sister… CH Bong. Chaplain Bong was in my platoon and often spoke highly of his sister, it was an honor to get to meet her.

I had a blast getting to meet CH Kay, CH Ken,
CH Ham, LT Dave and LT Chester Olson. Unfortunately, I missed out on meeting CH Mark Olson.

I also had the somewhat odd experience of just having random guys greet me by yelling, “Hey GentleWhisper!” Somehow I think that’ll follow me around for my whole career.

I didn’t just get to meet the chaplains, I also got to meet some of their families. I talked to CH Ken’s family for a long time and loved that. I’ll have to post the photo of me and his daughter later. She totally rocks.

I briefly met Laura and Heather on the Fourth and thankfully got to spend more time with them the following day. Which of course, I’ll blog about later. Meanwhile, you can check out all the links I listed above. Most of them will lead you to that person’s account of July 4th at Jackson. Don’t misss Laura’s photos. I plan on stealing them later.

That evening, I got to hang out with a fellow AGTS student and stay the night at her parent’s house. Her dad is an Army Chaplain stationed at Jackson. They very graciously allowed me to invite myself over with only a few days of notice. Hey, we’re family. Right?

I think that’s what I loved most of all about that day. Family. No I wasn’t with my husband, and I didn’t get to watch fireworks with my children… But I did spend the whole day with family at a place I call home. I love the Chaplain Corp and I love Fort Jackson.