Stinkin’ Proud … (Day 14)

We first heard the term “stinkin’ proud” from TJ’s recruiting officer. He would often say this to TJ because TJ just kept excelling as he prepared to enter the Air Force. When his recruiter found out that TJ had graduated from boot camp as an Honor Grad and had earned his marksman ribbon the recruiter simply replied, “I’m so stinkin’ proud of him!” We quickly adopted the phrase ourselves to express how incredibly proud we were of his accomplishments. For some reason the phrase just seemed to carry a little more weight to our own expression of our “parental pride.”

Today, at the last minute, Joe and I decided to have lunch together at our favorite pizza place in town where you can buy it by the slice. While we were talking my phone rang and I immediately knew it was TJ! It is hard to forget the number you didn’t respond to fast enough just a little more than a week ago! I answered it immediately but heard nothing on the other end, and then it was gone. But, then it rang again, and again I answered it and heard nothing. This time I was really frustrated that for some reason the connection was not going through. By now Joe had his cell phone out and we were both sitting there staring at them, as if that would make them ring.

After what seemed like an eternity, my phone rang a third time. I pushed the button one more time and said, “Hello.” Silence came again. And then I heard the infamous, “Hey…” from TJ. I was thrilled! Again, he was dead tired and said something about dealing with 125 vehicles that day. (His day was over and he was probably half way into a sound sleep when he called). I then asked him, “Have you heard about the Staff Sgt. test? Do you know if you passed?”

At this point I need to stop for a moment and explain a little bit about military testing. For TJ to advance in rank he must test into that rank. The test is offered once a year,  and they don’t announce the date of the test much more than a month before it is given. So, you can’t just write down in your appointment book ‘Staff Sgt testing’ for the ‘whatever day of whatever month’. It just doesn’t work that way. Also, there is a huge amount to study,  so waiting until they finally do announce the date isn’t a wise idea.

 TJ began studying for this test back in January. He said the study manual was the most dry and boring book ever written. He certainly had no problem getting to sleep on the nights he tried to study from it! He received word sometime in March that the test was going to be given on Wednesday, May 19^th. His study efforts that had slacked off a bit were once again renewed. When he called us after he had taken it, he told us that it had been a two part test and he was not confident that he had done well enough on the first part to have passed. We reassured him that doing his best was all that was expected of him. Then in proper military fashion, everybody waits for the results.

Today was the day the results were to be announced, so, I asked him if he had heard. “Yeah, I heard,” he said with no expression - and then added a pause that lasted forever. With no emotion at all he finally said, “I passed it.” Kuwait was suddenly much closer than normal as I almost reached out to strangle him. I could just see him smiling with himself by the way he made my heart stop as I waited for his answer! But, the excitement of knowing he had passed was too overwhelming! That “stinkin’ pride” swelled again and all I could keep saying was, “TJ, we are SO proud of you! Congratulations! We are SO stinkin’ proud of you!”

Receiving the news in Kuwait. Not a bad way to end the day!

Several months ago TJ explained to us that it is not your score that they look at as much as how many attempts it took you to pass the rank test. Passing on the first attempt is not accomplished by that many Airmen.  But it was TJ’s goal, and today he again achieved it after a lot of hard work.

He must now wait, probably a year, before he will get to put on his new set of stripes and really own the rank of Staff Sergeant. He said that his new goal is to begin studying for the next rank and pass that test even before he gets his Staff Sergeant stripes!

Way to go, Staff Sgt Lombardi! Way to go!

I am one STINKIN’ PROUD Mom!