Distinguish Honor Grad

Jesse will be graduating from A.I.T. on 29 January 2009. He will be graduating with the highest g.p.a. in his class, 99.57. This earns him the status of "Distinguished Honor Graduate." This award is only given to one soldier per class. There will be two others in his class that receive a status of "Honor Graduate."

Jesse received his orders and will remain at Ft. Bliss in Texas for at least another 2-3 months. He will be moving to the other side of the base so will have a new address. I will post when I receive. In his new housing he will have more freedom.

I'm in hopes to have pictures from the graduation soon.

Fort Bliss Address

Jesse's address is:
PFC Jesse Jones 14T
A Btry, 3-6 ADA
Bldg 1008 Mailroom
Ft. Bliss, TX 79916

It's Official!

Jesse has me checking out flights to come home December 17th (17 Dec 08) with a return flight on January 2nd (02 Jan 09)! I was able to talk to him several times yesterday (08 Nov 08) as he had a pass to go off base. He went to the local mall (all his civilian clothes are too big) to buy some jeans and then went to the museum. He could only talk to me when he wasn't walking; because Army rule...no talking on cell phone while walking :).


Says I should have his address by Monday or Tuesday of this week. Will keep you all posted.

Fort Bliss, El Paso Texas - Week 1

Well...I got a call from Jesse last night. His luggage finally made it via grayhound bus! He was told his duffel bag was too heavy for the small planes leaving out of the Lawton Airport (after he arrived in El Paso).

He says, so far, it's like being in school again. He was not sure how long he would be in a classroom atmosphere. He was already having a test today.

Here they have more freedom; but, he won't be able to have an off base pass for two to four weeks. Said they have a couple of big screen televisions and get all the cable channels. He also gets about an hour every day of personal time (to call me and everyone else).

I am waiting for him to give me his new address...as soon as I receive it I will post. He sounded a little discouraged, so a few letters from home should cure that.

Onward to FORT BLISS, Texas...1 November 2008

On our way to Oklahoma City Airport on Saturday, 1 November 2008 we stopped by the base for another quick hug & good-bye (and Jesse wanted us to drop off his "dip").




The trip home was long....but I was getting text messages from Jesse. He let me know when he landed in Dallas. Said he was going to go get his first beer. I don't know if I believe him or not...I was better off not knowing for sure. He then was headed to El Paso, Texas.




When he arrived at El Paso, he discovered his luggage had not. I guess about only four of those on board actually received their luggage. So, he was filling out papers on his loss. He also let me know that he was not going to be able to use his phone for three days. I figure by Tuesday or Wednesday I should get a call.





The building in the background of this picture is Jesse's barracks where he spent the last nine weeks. You see the "pink" in his hands...that's an Army knit hat (for me!).

fyi: you can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.

The Graduation....31 October 2008

When we entered the auditorium, Jesse's entire platoon (approx. 250) was already seated. It was announced that we could wander around as we wished to take all the pictures we wanted. I never realized there was a "seating at attention." They were not allowed to talk or move. Of course, I was wandering the aisles looking for Jesse. When I finally spotted him (he had spotted me long before I spotted him), he had been trying to get my attention without moving. It was rather comical.

The graduation was so moving. There were many special moments during the graduation.One was when they asked all veterans to stand, so that we may say thank you to them and my brother, Charlie stood up.

The speaker was inspirational and he had a son that was graduating with Jesse.

Below was a video of when they called out Private First Class Jesse Jones, but the 10 sec video was too large so it would not load :( I will be posting on myspace or maybe this link will work...?
http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l184/rojowalters/?action=view&current=150.flv

They told us not to applaud after each name was read...so, I didn't ;)

These are some pictures we took after we picked up Jesse from the base. We could not take any pictures after graduation as they rushed them all off onto buses and took them back to the base.

see...same ol' goofy Jesse!

front: Me & sister-in-law, Becky

back: Charlie, Jillian, Keith, Jesse, Rick

Jesse & "Battle Buddy" Frazier.

(Jesse's stripes are the same as Frazier's

he just didn't get them sewn on yet)

Family Day...Thursday, 30 October 2008

Well...sorry about not posting or "blogging" while we were in Oklahoma. I wanted to spend every moment with Jesse (and my brother & his wife from Texas) that there just wasn't enough time in the day.

Jesse has lost quite a bit of weight since this photo was taken nine weeks ago.


We arrived at the base early, but didn't see Jesse until the very end of all the demonstrations. In the demos we witnessed first hand what Jesse had been learning from their different uniforms to capturing and un-arming the enemy.



After the demonstrations, Jesse marched out with about 20 other soldiers. Jesse had spoke to Rick the day before and told him when this happened, he was to come down because this was a special ceremony where he was to receive a promotion from Private Second Class to Private First Class (we've always thought Jesse was First Class, so this was no surprise to us :)). So, Rick got to put the new "stripes" on Jesse. This was a very emotional, special moment to all.



I have attached some pictures...I think they are self explanitory. Please feel free to leave comments.