<p>Today is a day I will not soon forgot. My son’s ALO presented his appointment during a school awards assembly. There was a spontaneous standing ovation from students, teachers and parents alike. Considering the fact that he attends school in a very liberal and sometimes anti-military part of the country, I was pleasantly surprised and, of course, very proud. The ALO memorized a 15 minute speech about the air force, the academy, my son and what it took to get there. (Not to mention a little about what would happen next). He delievered it perfectly and, I noted, was easily the smoothest and most engaging presenter of the day. As they both stood there, in front of the school, he spoke about flying formations and about how fellow pilots (if he became one) would “watch his six” and how he would be expected to do the same. I’m telling you, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Got the whole thing on film, too! Just had to share it with an audience that I know understands how I think we all feel!</p>
<p>Wow---
I'll bet you are proud. I had a similar experience last year when my son's appointment was announced at the senior awards assembly. Our ALO did an outstanding job as well. He said it is his favorite part of the job! I now have a junior getting ready to go to summer seminar, so I may get to experience it again next year. </p>
<p>Congratulations to your son. He has many tough, rewarding, challenging, endless, amazing, grueling, exhilhirating, days ahead!</p>
<p>Our senior assembly is at 0900 tomorrow and my son's ALO will be presenting the appointment. He sent the text in advance to us. They do an amazing job with this. I can't wait!</p>
<p>So ALO normally attend the awards ceremony to present it to you all? My ALO called me up and told me to pick up the appointment certificate over at his office. Anyways it's great that you all had great ALO's.</p>
<p>Same thing for me next monday. However, I get it from a different ALO and I am sure it won't be very memorable from him. :( But I'm glad your achievement was properly recognized!</p>
<p>Since I'm not in HS anymore, my ALO is just going to come over to my house for dinner and present it to me then. Sure would've been nice to get it back then at the big awards ceremony...</p>
<p>I was presented mine tonight. I had to fight tears and I tried so hard to keep my composure. </p>
<p>Congratulations, AFDAD. :D</p>
<p>Thanks RTB and I'm sorry that some of you won't be able to experience this. I'm glad I was able to record this (and of course, burn a few CDs for the family members that couldn't attend!) Would love to hear from Nicksmom and others about how it went.</p>
<p>On a funny note, I'll be presented mine while I have a black eye on my face. :) lol</p>
<p>Do most schools do this? My school sends about one person to service academy maybe every other year and has never presented an award or anything like that in award assemblies. It's just weird because my school never made a big deal of someone who's going to US_A.</p>
<p>Green09, that is strange. Is your school overly pro/anti-military? It sounds "pro" (by your every-other year comment), and sending students to an academy is a big compliment to a school. Usually, something like an appointment is a huge deal to a school.</p>
<p>My school is incredibly liberal(mostly students) but I don't think they're "anti-military." Usually, the most we get for kids going to service academies is a little article on school newspaper consisting of literally 2 sentences. We've actually had at least one person go to service academy every year for the past five years I think but none of them as far as I know received a public acknowlegement at any award ceremony or announcement, etc. I wish we had, but we also send multiple kids to HYPS every year and they don't get a big acknowledgement either so I guess it is "fair" in a sense.</p>
<p>hornetguy, please tell....How DID you get a black eye? *)
I hope you are on the mend.</p>
<p>momof3boyz- got into a fight with a complete fool. I look pretty funny. :)</p>
<p>Green09 -- sometimes the schools don't even know that it is something that should be done. If you tell the administrators that this is typical for a service academy appt. you might be surprised at how willing they are to add this to an assembly. You can tell them how good it looks for the school since most ALOs generally compliment the school faculty during their speech (at least ours did and same with West Point a few years ago.)</p>
<p>I don't think our ALO is planning on any presentation this year even though our school is quite willing. In the past five years he's had one appointment per year. This year he had SEVEN. Also, he's retiring this month, so everyone just got their certificate in the mail.</p>
<p>Our assembly was very nice, but no standing ovations. The ALO stuck to the script for the most part. The whole assembly lasted nearly 2 hours (in the gym, sitting in cramped bleachers), so a 15 minute speech wouldn't have been popular. There was a spontaneous round of applause in the middle of the speech when the ALO announced the value of the appointment was in excess of $373,000. </p>
<p>Despite living in a very patriotic area with numerous USNA grads, the school officials didn't seem to understand the significance of an academy appointment. Our school hasn't had an appointee since 1998 or so (yeah, the ALO mentioned this in his speech). When we called to let the school know to include this in the awards ceremony, we were first told it was too late. After my husband persisted, we were told they would stick it in with the other military awards (DAR, Marine Veteran's , etc.). When we forwarded an electronic copy of the ALO speech, the Award's Day Coordinator finally called back to apologize. She thought when we talked about an appointment being worth over a quarter million dollars, that we were just exaggerating. When the documented worth was over $373K, it started to get folks attention. </p>
<p>You can really tell when people understand the significance of the appointment. Most people hear and respond about how wonderful it is and say, 'oh, how nice!" Then you tell others (mostly academy grads or other career military) and the response is a dropped jaw, wide open eyes, and they say, "Outstanding !!!" Those moments are priceless.</p>
<p>That's great for those of you who got yours in front of large audiences, but if you didn't/don't, don't feel bad. I didn't get either one of mine in front of a large group or even in a memorable way. Looking back, I really don't even remeber getting them, with the exception of a photo that was taken the secomd time with my ALO and a photo that was taken with me holding both of them. There are plenty more opportunities in which you'll get presented with things that will mean a LOT (shoulder boards at the end of BCT and prop and wings at the end of Recognition, just to name a couple). This is only the beginning... ;)</p>
<p>Ha I loved this: </p>
<p>You can really tell when people understand the significance of the appointment. Most people hear and respond about how wonderful it is and say, 'oh, how nice!" Then you tell others (mostly academy grads or other career military) and the response is a dropped jaw, wide open eyes, and they say, "Outstanding !!!" Those moments are priceless.</p>
<p>When I stated telling people I was/am applying this summer my friends were like "ok thats cool"anyone one who is a little older like my teachers I used as references for summer seminar seemed a little astounded. I actually had to laugh at a few of their faces especially my parents they didn't know until my ALO called when</p>
<p>I wasn't home. THey were alittle surprised to say the least. I wish I could have had a camera when they told me my ALO had called when I got home from work and apparently my Dad had talked to him on the phone for about an hour. Surprises are not my favorite thing. OK I am rambling now so I might just shut up</p>