Yesterday was a long awaited day. Ryan passed his promotion board (to move up in rank) in the middle of deployment. Due to lots of crazy complications, mostly paperwork, he was not official until yesterday. Thatcher and I had the opportunity to attend the ceremony. It happened during their end of day formation. Corporal King was called to the front and they announced to his company that he was being promoted to Sergeant King. His Captain had some nice things to say and mentioned how "this promotion has been a long time in coming." After the Captain made a few remarks Thatcher and I had the honors of ripping off Ryan's old rank and putting on his new rank. Next Ryan was given a few minutes to address the men as an NCO (non commissioned officer). Of course we had to celebrate after so here's what we did: sparking grape juice for a toast, chips, dips and bread sticks for dinner and Avenger fruit snacks along with candy corn for dessert. It was a good day!