I may have mentioned this in passing before, but my sister and her husband are both in the army. Her husband completed basic a few months ago as a private first class, and yesterday my sister graduated basic as a specialist. Currently, she's on her way to AIT.

It surprises me how different bases seem to have varying levels of difficulty in regards to actually getting on base. This base was surprisingly easy to get into. The mp just sorta...looked at our IDs and sent us on our way. A big, huge difference compared to the base my sister and her husband are actually stationed at. Then again, their base has had a couple shootings.

Anyway, I was also surprised by how many soldiers from different countries were there. I had been wondering if other countries had military bases all over the place like the US does, but it turns out that no, not really. They just use ours. It was kinda cool seeing how different all the ACUs were. Also, Lithuania produces very tall boys. VERY tall boys.
I also learned that artillery bases do not give any sort of shit about noise ordinances. At all.

Aaaand brown recluse spiders are bullies that will chase you out of bathroom stalls.

Overall, it was nice to see my sister after not really being able to talk to her for about 10 weeks. The graduation ceremony was nice, and I must say I didn't think the army would sing as much as they do. It was very cute.

She's carrying on a very long tradition of military service in my family. Pretty much every male on both sides of my family have been in the army (with a handful in the navy). I'm actually gonna be getting my great grandfather's dog tags and medals from my grandfather sometime soon. He was an admiral in the navy, so I'm excited to see everything he has. I'll post pictures and stuff when I get them.

Anyway, I've got some links to the photos I posted on facebook:

The drill sergeants (graduation ceremony)

Shaking hands with her drill sergeant

Post-graduation photo

My sister and her husband

My sister and me