On November 10, we attended the II MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) Marine Corps Ball at Camp Lejeune.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps was the guest of honor, which was a pretty cool. (He’s kind of a big deal.)

I’m glad we took advantage of the opportunity to meet him and have our photo taken by his official photographer.

United States Marine Corps Photo by Cpl Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

(Yeah… he’s tall, huh?)

The ball took place in a gym, but it was one of the coolest ceremony-wise that I have been to. Not only did we get to hear the Commandant speak, but we also got to enjoy the II MarDiv Jazz Band (I think that’s what they’re called) during the cocktail hour:

And then during the ceremony, the regular marching band came out to do a few songs.

Not only did they sound great on the instruments, but they even sang a few bars of one of their songs!

Sitting in a gym and listening to a marching band play military pieces really brought me back to our annual Veteran’s Day assemblies in high school. They were annoying to have to do back then, but now that I’m an old fart, I guess I miss them.

Hey look, we made use of our tripod and took some pictures before we left for the ball! (Since we’re too cheap to ever pay for the professional photographs you can get at the ball.)

And of course John took this one of me all dolled up.

I loved this dress, even if it probably was worn by 16-year-olds at proms across the country last Spring!