Photo By Lt. John Edwards | Seaman Recruit Casey Ranson, a Tyler, Texas, native, speaks to his sponsor from the...... read more read more
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CAPE MAY, N.J. - The Coast Guard is a tight-knit community. We watch out for ours with as much tenacity as we conduct our missions. For those just joining the Coast Guard, that may seem somewhat intimidating at first, but because of the value members place on family, camaraderie and friendship, it is easy to feel welcomed.
Our “extended family” members can also feel this hospitality. The moms, dads, husbands, wives and children of our members are also highly regarded in our community. In fact, in order to impress upon family members just how much they mean to us, the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, holds a family pasta dinner the night before graduation.
With the help of our Auxiliary chefs, we cook up a pasta dinner at the Harborview Club on base and have representatives of the training center on hand to answer questions, tell sea stories and generally have a good time meeting all of the parents, family and friends of our soon-to-be graduates.
It is fun to watch as people, who may have communicated on our Facebook page or other social media sites with one another, finally get the opportunity to meet in person. Strangers will forever share a common bond through their loved ones accomplishment here and to watch it all unfold over a simple dinner is really one of the highlights of the week for us.
Thursdays are a special day for families here and we couldn’t be happier to be the first ones to say, “Welcome to the Coast Guard.”
While families are enjoying a nice dinner together, their recruits are having their own bonding experience. The night before the graduation, the senior company gets an opportunity to have a pizza dinner, and relax a little with their company commanders. They hand out awards to one another, tell stories, and put on mini sketches, typically poking a little fun at their Company Commander’s expense. They are less than 24 hours from graduation and you can begin to sense the excitement growing. It’s finally here. They’ve done it.
I will have one more blog tomorrow and that will end our Week in the Life series. I do hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the write-ups as much as I’ve enjoyed providing them.
Stand by for graduation!
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.01.2015 17:50 |
| Story ID: | 177800 |
| Location: | CAPE MAY, NJ, US |
| Web Views: | 635 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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