Dress Blues in Different Hues

 Drug out from under cover a few weeks ago, and re-dressed with federal service awards, since it has been two years now in the Federal Reserves, which is different than the state National Guard, which doesn't mix I guess, although there are several federal service awards from his time in the National Guard.  This whole process still confuses me even sixteen years later.

 But, I will say, sixteen years later, it still fits handsomely. Even if this was taken at some awful early time in the morning, crammed into a hotel suite with four sleeping kids, and me wondering why everything military happens at the most unusual times of the day.

And Stuber family trips are taken around moments like this: the new DA photo, which you can't just get anywhere.

Interesting tidbits: The posture and pose of the hands are prescribed; there is a science to your decision to smile or not to smile (he claims there is an appropriately slight smile in there); the blue space between body and left arm is important. 

Questions from his wife:

"Why do they have such ugly pants?  They don't match.  Seriously, they're really wrong."

"I know Susan.  The Marines got the matching pants."

"Well, that sucks."

"What are all of the stripey things on the right arm?"

"Stripey things?" 

"Yeah, the stripey things."

"Those are overseas service stripes."

"What does that mean?"

"You have one of those for each six months of deployment to a combat zone."

"But you've been in crappy places far more than two years."

"But, I didn't get combat pay, only hazardous duty pay."

"Oh." (money talk registering with me, as he knows.)

"Why do you have two sets of airborne wings, and why is one fatter than the other?"

"What?  What are you talking about?"

(pointing)

"Um, because those aren't both airborne wings.  The top one is a Combat Action Badge." 

"Oh."

"See the knife in the CAB?"

"CAB?"
His eyes roll sometimes too.

"Hey, isn't that round, green thing with the rivers a Tennessee symbol?  That's National Guard."

"Yes, yes it is.  But I still wear it on this uniform.  The ribbons have to be federal."

"All of the colored thingies."

"Yes Susan, all of the colored thingies."

Him: "The red shoulder boards for the engineers are better than the old Cav ones though I think.  Don't you?"

Me: (lots of staring and blinking)  "You changed those?"

 Meanwhile, back at the suite....

We made a different spectacle of ourselves at breakfast.