How to Celebrate a Military Retirement

This article will give you a few tips and ideas to plan a military retirement party.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• list of people to invite
• party location
• budget for the big event!

1. It is the soldier, not the reporter,
   Who has given us freedom of the press.
   It is the soldier, not the poet,
   Who has given us freedom of speech.
   It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
   Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
   It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
   Who has given us a right to a fair trial.
   It is the soldier, like , who salutes the flag,
   Who serves under the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag.
2. Location: Find a hall to rent or locate a nice restaurant with a large room. The guest list size will guide you to the size of your venue. If renting a hall works out with your budget, then go for it. Having servers and using a caterer will keep you available to make sure all the other details fall into place.
3. Army Dress Blues Dress: If the service members are coming in uniform, use the level of uniform as your guide. If Dress Blues or Mess Dress are called, then formal evening wear is used for civilians. If Class A, is used, formal business attire is appropriate. Class B is business casual. ACUs are jeans. State this on the invitations, so everyone knows what to expect.
4. http://www.alohafriendsluau.com/recipes.html Food: Find out their favorites and serve what they love! Or tie in the food and theme into where they served. If they were lucky enough to be stationed in Hawaii then offer traditional Luau food, include Hawaii's own version of barbecued chicken it is cooked with Huli-Huli Sauce, for example. If they were stationed in Italy, serve Spaghetti and other native Italian dishes.
5. Theme: Either use a Retirement Party Theme, see Decorations and Jokes for ideas along those lines. Or have fun with it and have the Hawaiian Luau, Mexican Food or even BBQ. Any of these will be a hit for a party.
6. Decorations and Jokes: Get some blow up photos of the retiree. Put their picture extra large sized, on pictures you find of people doing various relaxed activities, fishing, sleeping in a recliner, walking on a beach, golfing, things like that. With the larger photo of their face you’ll get a bobble head look to the photos. Very funny!
7. If you have the right crowd for it, get sample sizes of "old people" products such as denture creme, Geritol and Preparation H. This highly depends, no pun intended, on the nature of the party. Get a rocker and have the retiree sit in it for any presentations and put a shawl around their shoulders.
8. If it’s mostly family and friends then go as far as you think is appropriate. If the party is more formal keep the atmosphere in mind when putting these joke type ideas together.
9. Gifts: Military Retirement Poem/Plaque, Gift Basket, Retirement Gag Gift Basket, Retirement Afghan or Pillow, Retirement Picture Frame or Gift Certificates for their favorite activities.

Tips & Warnings

• Leave disposable cameras on tables for guest to take photos. This is usually done at Weddings. Having all these photos after the big event would be very appreciated by your loved one who is now retiring.
• If it’s more formal toss out any of the really tacky ideas.
• Consider a cash bar for alcoholic beverage if your party is going to be very large. This will cut down on people over doing it.