Saturday, November 28, 2015

TGBKA: HAIL AND FAREWELL

Ah, the Hail and Farewell. Traditionally, this event is reserved for unit leadership positions. It is literally the event when a unit Hails the incoming Commander, and bids Farewell to the outgoing Commander. It is different than the Change of Command Ceremony, which happens during the duty day. The Hail and Farewell is usually a Dining In event (no family members or outsiders are invited), but there are times when a Dining Out (where family members and other specific guests are welcome to join) is scheduled. The Department of the Army actually published a Guide to Protocol and Etiquette for Official Entertainment, which is something I'm just nerdy enough to find fascinating.

But there are times when a unit finds it necessary to have a Hail and Farewell for every Soldier that comes and goes. And that is where Sweet Baboo's office comes in. Every Soldier who comes into his office gets Hailed. Every Soldier who leaves honorably gets Farewelled. Then we eat, we drink, and we spend a lot of time laughing.

Being the new girl on the block, I didn't know the gentleman who was being Farewelled. But I know of him. I have heard his name many times; Sweet Baboo spoke of him often. And when the girls and I arrived in Korea, he was the Handy Helper who drove us home and helped us get situated after a long day of traveling. He is a good Soldier, and I'm sad that we won't get to see him much longer.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the evening:

There was a lot of eating, and even more drinking!
Only about a third of us stayed behind at the restaurant to keep eating. The others went out for karaoke.
They mixed eggs with kimchi. We loved the result!

The meat comes out raw and frozen. As with Angry Face, we are supposed to cook it ourselves.

The girls love dining out so far! 

Bob came over to teach us how to cook the meats. He works in Sweet Baboo's office.

But it didn't take long for The Elder to take over and cook an amazing meal for us!

I'm pretty sure I ate the lion's share of those eggs. It was truly a fight for the meat, though. The Elder did a fantastic job!

One of the side dishes was chunks of tofu with kimchi. A local showed me how to layer them. I rather enjoyed the flavor!

My friends in Alabama would shake their heads if they say the beer I drank that night. It's no craft beer, that's for sure!

Things got pretty silly towards the end of the night...

I love participating in these events! They are a great way to let the hair down and enjoy each other outside of work.

The girls have accepted one of the incoming Soldiers as one of their own. We quickly left one Korean BBQ restaurant to go to another one... right across the street. 

We went back to Angry Face!

And this time Sweet Baboo stayed long enough to eat the food. How romantic.

These guys are pretty legit.

But these ladies rock my world!
Remember, this event happened the night before I cooked for an Army. We got home, went to sleep, woke up, and got started on the big feast! What. A. Weekend!

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