It's finally happened.
I've been promoted to Captain (CPT). Actually, my effective date of rank was several days ago (1 Sep 2002), but we finally had the promotion ceremony today. So I "pinned on" the rank of Captain today during a small ceremony in our conference room. My XO (MAJ F) and our civilian boss (equivalent of a Colonel, Mr. W) pinned on my new rank. I'm wearing MAJ F's old CPT rank (which he got from a 1 star general), and old rank from CPT Klak.
We had cake and cookies afterwards. Afterwards, I took the extra cake down to the guards at the front of the building. They were confident that they could "take care of the rest of that cake for you, sir. Not a problem."
With this promotion, I leave behind the rank of First Lieutenant (1LT). All of these names/nicknames have been commonplace for my the majority of my military career:
- Lieutenant
- "ell tee"
- Loit-not
- Hey you
It'll be tough to get used to all the following names instead:
- Captain
- Cap'n
- Mon Cap-i-tan
- Hey you
As one of my civilian contractors told me after the ceremony, "I actually know very little about the Army -- all I know is that you're now the equivalent of Hawkeye Pierce in M.A.S.H. Are you going to start showing up to work in your bathrobe?"
Hmmm... tempting...