Sorry about the picture, it is a picture of a picture. But I wanted to put one up of my husband all dressed up in his dress blues.
Many of you already know about what has happened to Camarron the last couple of months, but I wanted to blog about it anyway because I think it is kind of a big deal.
While we were up in Alaska in June, my husband got a call from his squadron, needing some information about him so they could put him up for an award. That was basically all they said so we didn't really know what that meant or what to expect. Because we were on vacation, we forgot about the whole thing quite honestly. When we returned home and Cam went back to work, he was pleasantly surprised to find out that he had won the award he was put up for. They had to explain what the award was for, because, again, we had no idea what was really going on since we had been out of town. So this is the award that he won...Airman of the Quarter for the 388th fighter squadron. He was the airman picked out of about 100 or so. Pretty cool huh!? Well it gets better...
So because he won at his squadron level, he got to go up against all the airman in the 388th Maintenance Group. This time it was against about 300-400 airman and yes, he won again. We just so happened to be out of town for our own little vacation at the time, so when Camarron got back to work we were again surprised to find out he had won at the next level. This time he not only came home with a trophy, but a cool blanket and some gift cards too. Hooray! But it gets even better...
The next award level was for the entire fighter wing of Hill Air Force Base. This was probably close to 1000 airman that could have been eligible for this award. And Camarron was chosen again. By this time we were in a little bit of shock to tell you the truth. We were both super excited about the whole ordeal, but found it very humorous that he just kept moving up the awards ladder when we didn't even know what it was all about to begin with. So yes, he came home with another trophy. And it continues...
We knew that there was only one more level after the entire fighter wing and that was the entire base itself. By this time, Camarron was going up against around 11,000 airman. This award is a pretty big award and they have a huge ceremony for it. Of course the ceremony had to be on the day I was leaving to go to Montana for a seminar that I had been planning and saving for for almost 6 months. We tried everything we could think of to rearrange things so I could be to this awards ceremony, but it just didn't work out. So, yes, I felt like the worst wife ever because I was missing this once in a lifetime moment for my husband, but I planned a little surprise for him anyway.
I had been on the road for almost 5 hours when I got the phone call from my husband. At first he tried to tease me and he told me that he didn't win (which he tends to do quite often with stuff like this) but then he told me the truth and explained that he had won Airman of the Quarter for the entire base. I was SOOOOOOOOOO excited and proud of my hard working husband!!!!! As soon as we were done celebrating on the phone, I immediately called my friend Harmony who I had already plotted with, to let her know that Camarron had won the award. So she went and bought 50 balloons, confetti, streamers, a big sign, and a bunch of goodies for Cam and decorated our apartment. That way, when Camarron came home, it wasn't to just our dog. So he was very surprised and ended up having a fun day of celebration even though I wasn't there.
Even though this was the biggest award, I think they gave him the lamest trophy for it. However, we have been told that there is supposed to be a cash prize with this one, so we will see if that ever comes about. :.)
Now that my husband has won all of these awards he is eligible for two other awards that his commander has already put him up for. He is now going for Airman of Year at Hill AFB as well as the Lieutenant General Leo Marquez award which is an Air Force wide award and the ceremony is in Washington DC. How cool would that be? Pretty exciting!
I must tell you though, with all of this that happened to my amazing husband, he tried to act like it wasn't a very big deal. Of course he got anxious and excited every time the next award would come out, and he loved coming home and telling me all about it, but he counted every single one of those awards as a blessing from Heavenly Father. He looks at all of this as stepping stones to help him become an officer and a pilot...and he is right. My husband is an amazing person who loves to serve others as often as he can and is an extremely hard worker who will work as long as he needs to and as hard as he needs to to finish the job right! The last couple of months he got recognized for that by his friends, co-workers, and commanding officers. But instead of gloating himself, he turned everything back around and recognized it all as a huge blessing from God. That is why I married my husband, because he puts God first in everything he does, and I couldn't be more proud!
Camarron I love you and I couldn't be happier to be married to such an amazing person as you!
