Celebrate your stripes

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Elizabeth DeHaven
  • 7th Force Support Squadron
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Shine your shoes and dust off those blues. The 26th Annual Enlisted Dining-Out will be held Sept. 12 beginning with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 North 6th St.

Retired Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Robert Gaylor will be the evening's guest speaker. Sponsored by the Dyess Top 3 Association, Dyess Chief's Group, First Sergeant Council, Air Force Sergeants Association Dyess Chapter 1056 and Betty Dean, the Dinning-Out will be an evening of fine dining, laughs, tradition and fellowship.

The evening's dress is mess dress or semi-formal for military personnel and formalwear for civilians. Cost is $30 cash or check per plate. To attend, RSVP no later than Sept. 3 to your unit first sergeant.

At this year's Dinning-Out there will be a skit put on by some very talented actors, and your fellow Airmen will provide hilarity in general. Come hungry to savor dinner catered by the fine Copper Creek and the bar tended by them as well. Designated drivers will be provided by the Airman's Advisory Council.

As with most ancient traditions, the origin of the Dining-Out is not clear. Initially referred to as a Dinning-In, these formal dinners are rooted in antiquity as feasts from pre-Christian Roman legions, to second century Viking warlords, to King Arthur's knights. They were in honor of military victories as well as individual and unit achievements.

Some military historians trace the origin of the Dining-Out (In) to English monasteries. The customs then spread to universities and were eventually reintroduced to the military with the advent of the officer's mess, altering the dinners into a more formal setting.

British soldiers brought the custom to colonial America where it was adopted by George Washington's Continental Army.

The Air Force Dining-In custom began in the 1930's with General Henry "Hap" Arnold's Wing-Dings. The close bonds enjoyed between U.S. Army Air Corps officers and their British Royal Air Force colleagues during World War II added to American contribution in the Dining-In custom.

The primary purpose of the Dining-In is to enhance morale and esprit de corps within Air Force units.

In recognizing the importance of the military family to the success of the total force effort, the Dining-In has evolved into a more open forum where military units share their victories and accomplishments with family and friends as guests thus it has become known as the Dining-Out.

Formal military dinners are now tradition in all branches of the armed forces. In the Air Force and Navy, it is called the Dining-In, military only, or Dining-Out, open to spouses and civilian guests with military sponsorship; in the Army, the Regimental Dinner; and in the Marine Corps and Coast Guard, Mess Night.