Who pins the wings at winging Ceremony? Wife or Dad?

[xj220]

Mother, father, wife, girlfriend, or whatever. Relax. Be happy. It is your winging, not theirs.

Keep calm and carry on.

Whoever does it, just be thankful you don’t end up getting this smiley, happy guy as I did (I have no idea who he was.) I was a geographical orphan at my winging. Worse, my old college sweetheart had just dumped me (seriously).
So the Wing brought in this 'friendly' and 'happy' unknown dude to pin them on:

View attachment 12802

It's kind of a sad story, but I can't help but laugh at the picture. Just the expression on both of your faces is priceless.

 

[BusyBee604]

Back in the day (1960) there was a winging every Friday at Corpus. It was not unusual for brand new ensigns (former Navcads) to have their wings pinned on by their very pregnant "sister-in-law, Mrs Smith".

*Note: NAVCADs were required to be unmarried until commissioned/winged (at the same ceremony). During our era, provided you met all ground school requirements, progressed satisfactorily in the flight syllabus... and otherwise kept your nose clean, the no-married rule was pretty much ignored. Even quite a few candidates obtained divorces upon application, with the intent of remarrying upon completion (some actually did)

As a result;, just about every weekly winging in Beeville had one or more very preggers "Sisters-in-Law" doing the pinning!

*23-yr old BusyBee just prior winging
BzB

 

[MIDNJAC]

I know my old man has told me this story as well, from his time as a NAVCAD in the same timeframe (late 1950's). Pretty funny, but also that would have been really awkward....even if everyone knew your story was BS, it would be creepy to pretend for a day that your girl was the sister.

 

[LFDtoUSMC]