Monday, February 14, 2011

Promotion to Captain

I stressed about Top Gun's promotion ceremony more than I should have. I will tell you what we did and then what others have done.

We provided heavy appetizers after his pinning ceremony. We had a large fruit salad, chips and dip, spinach dip in a bread bowl with extra bread along side it, veggie trays and a large cake with punch. Plus I had some pretzles I dipped in chocolate in cute jars just to spruce up the table a little. The ceremony was around 2:00 so I knew most would have just barely eaten lunch. We had tons of food leftover. We did hold it on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so people were out of the office which had something to do with it.

Another Captain who was single took the other Captains to a restaurant after her ceremony and bought appetizers and drinks for everyone. Another served lunch at their house, subway sandwiches and salad on a completely different day than his pinning ceremony. Another served lunch there at the courthouse afterwards, meatballs, side salads, sandwiches, etc. I think Top Gun said someone bought pizza for everyone once too.

Generally, (which I have yet to see it happen on the Captain level) they say you spend one months increase in pay from one rank to the next when promoting. Top Gun has been to a Lt.Colonel pinning ceremony of a friend of ours from church and he had a full on catered BBQ lunch afterwards. This is not uncommon once you get up in rank like that. Amy, I hope this information helps.