Congratulations to Bethany and Carleton Lee '92 that graduated together and retired together! Below are Bethany's words on the day.
"It dawned on me that this probably doesn't happen very often. My husband and I (USMA '92 classmates) both retired in a joint ceremony this past Thursday, 6 June (75th Anniversary of D Day) aboard the USS Missouri. He was active duty and I finished in the Army Reserve. Coordinating retirements from two different components was a bit challenging, timing-wise, but we somehow made it work. We pinned each other's 2LT bars on 27 years ago and married 6 days later.
We chose D Day as I lost a paternal great, great uncle who was injured at Ste Mère Église on D Day (died 11 Sep 44 during Operation Market Garden–he was the inspiration for my father to join the Army) and my maternal grandfather (who dropped me off at West Point for R Day as my parents were stationed in Germany at the time) was a survivor of the Bataan Death March & 3-1/2 years as a POW under the Japanese. The USS Missouri is where Japan signed the instruments of surrender to the Allies on 2 Sept 45. The other cool thing is that my dad and uncle are USMA '63 and the USS Missouri's hull classification is BB-63!"