Ramp ceremony

Just a quick post tonight, as I don't want to deal with the very slow picture upload process. Anyway, two nights ago, I witnessed my first 'ramp ceremony'. The night before that (now 3 days ago) a soldier passed away (non-hostile related) here on base. So the ramp ceremony is a military send off of his remains. Similar to what you probably saw President Obama do at Dover Air Force Base a few months ago.

It is not a common occurance here, as the majority of the remains depart Afghanistan from Bagram or Kandahar. The command here organized it well and most of the base turned out to support. The road from the hospital to the airfield was lined with service members from every nation here. A helicopter flew in from Bagram and we all saluted until they departed. A bagpipe playing Amazing Grace was an added touch.

Anyway, it made me think of the movie 'Taking Chance' with Kevin Bacon. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend renting it or catching it on HBO. It's one of the very few military movies that's entertaining for non-military people and 'proper' (i.e. an accurate portrayal) for those of us in the military. Unfortunately, I think this movie is/was only popular with the military community; so I would encourage everyone to 'depart from the norm' and view it sometime.

Alright, so not to sound too morose (is that the correct usage of the word?), I'll end on a completely unrelated good note. The sunrises and sunsets here continue to be spectacular. Must be all the dust and crud in the air that reflects it just right; unfortunately my camera is too awful to capture it.