Our very first USMC Birthday Ball was held in Richmond. It was quite the experience seeing probably 1,000 marines in dress blues!! Little did we know at the time (I am posting pictures and writing this entry 11 years later) this was the biggest ball we’d ever go to—it was held on two or three stories of the hotel! If you weren’t in the main room (which we weren’t) you got to view the entire ceremony on a huge video monitor. I don’t remember dancing, but Tom said we did dance to one or two songs… Afterwards we went to stay the night with Jim and Beth.