Commissioning 7: Class Portrait

The 2004 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps Unit The George Washington University commissioning class.

RDML(sel) Ray Spicer USN, Commissioning Officer
CAPT Peter Healey USN, Commanding Officer NROTC Unit
CAPT (Dr.) Richard Southby USNR, George Washington University Liaison

Years later, in 2008, I met Admiral Spicer in the White House Military Office in East Wing. I introduced myself and he looked at me funny and asked "Where do I know you from?". I explained that he was my strike group commander in ENTERPRISE Carrier Strike Group, and before that he was my commissioning officer. He said "That's it!" and took down this picture off the wall. This portrait of the class was framed in his office in the White House.

Commissioning 6: Purchase

My friend, pastor, and mentor, Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Jones, U.S. Navy (Retired), gets a silver dollar from me after giving me the honor of my first salute as a commissioned officer in the U.S. military. Navy tradition says the new officer may buy his first salute, but that every one thereafter must be earned through the hard work of looking after their troops.

My mother is to my right, my grandmother to my left. To Master Chief's right are my great uncles, Dwight and Ralph.

Commissioning 5: Out of Uniform

My lovely wife does me the traditional honors of changing my shoulderboards from Midshipman to Ensign. My dad is to her left, mom in front of her, and my grandma is to her right.

Commissioning 4: Attention

Attention to colors.
(Brighid to my left. CAPT Healey between us.)

Commissioning 3: Band

The U.S. Navy band.

Commissioning 2: M

Before she was a Navy wife, she was a Navy fiancee.

Commissioning 1: Friends

Two friends among the several who came to our commissioning ceremony. Both of these gentlemen were senior cadets in the Army ROTC program, commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants the week after me. In this picture I am a Midshipman First Class and they are cadets. My friend on the left left the service as a Captain, and my friend on the right is still on active duty.