It is ball season in Misawa. Misawa is a joint base: Air Force, Navy, Japanese Air Defence, and a few Army members as well. The Air Force birthday is in September and the Navy's is in October. We have two opportunities to dress up and go out to the club for a ball. I have always enjoyed going to the Air Force Ball. I love to wear formal dresses and Josh's mess dress is pretty handsome to me. Josh likes to collect a new challenge coin and take off his coat to show off his party shirt.
 |
| Friends the Trefflich's and Allen's |
Josh applied to the Navy two times before actually being accepted to the Air Force. The first time was shortly after he completed his graduate degree in Social Work in the hopes of finding a way to pay off his loans to the University of Denver. The second time was a period of job insecurity. Both times he was turned away as the Navy was only hiring contractors to provide Social Work services for the Navy. We sometimes wonder how our journey might have been different if he had been accepted to the Navy the first two times. We are happy in the Air Force.
We
had heard that the Navy balls were better so we decided to crash the party. They had
an impressive display of flags lining the walk into the ballroom. There were a lot of jokes about the baby Air
Force (71 years to 243 years) and some ceremony around inviting the
distinguished guests into the room.
There was a cake cutting just like ours, food, and dancing. They did have a general that was flown in for
the event to speak. The Air Force ball speakers in Misawa have always been pulled from the airmen serving here. They
also had raffle prizes which the AF does not have. So, there were some differences between the
two. I cannot say that I liked the Navy
Ball better. I knew less people, but
this is a small base and we certainly were not the only Air Force members in
attendance. I just like to wear my fancy
dresses and dance with Josh, so I was pleased with both evenings.
