First is the oath. The officers take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America against enemies foreign and domestic. As Karl explained to Anton, if the President told Karl to shoot an innocent person on the street, Karl could not because he is defending the Constitution which protects the innocent bystanders. This is different from the enlisted oath which also states they will obey the orders of the officers. For the movie buffs, this is why the issue in A Few Good Men was of concern. An officer was ordering them to do something against the Constitution. The oath assumes the officer, in defending the Constitution, would not order an enlisted personnel to do something against the Constitution. Thus the first rule for the enlisted is to defend the Constitution and then the orders of the officer.
Next comes the changing of insignia pins from gold to silver. Anton was very confused here because he kept saying "But I thought gold was more valuable than silver!" Isabella was also very determined to be a part of the ceremony and the Admiral obliged by helping her with the pins. He was very impressed that Isabella knew the clasps were called frogs.
Then the Admiral said to Isabella,
"Now let me help you up so you and your mom can give dad a big kiss."
Later, Isabella asked why we had to give Daddy a big smooch.
Karl responded,
"Because the Admiral said so!"
Then, I had to turn over my badge to security and we left the building. Karl escorted us back to the car and we returned to our normal civilian life. It is times like this I miss not being in a Navy Community. Yes the Capital is very military but there is no real community because it is just too big and everyone is very spread out. Our military side is more like an alter ego or secret identity that only applies to us some of the time as opposed to living in other places where it was our identity all of the time. This is actually helping us as Karl edges closer to his retirement and we become former military.
