In Depth: Turning Green Ceremony

So, what happens during Turning Green or Family Day...guess what...you came to the right place! I am going to break down how my Turning Green experience went as well as where I stayed and approximate travel times to base. 

As I have mentioned in previous posts, it is very important to follow your soldier's company Facebook page. This is where important dates will be posted. Mind you – the Commanders letter will have these dates too, but the Facebook page will post updates in case of time changes or location changes. 

The company Facebook page posted official Turning Green dates about a month before the event. I do not live in Georgia, so I had to book flights, a hotel, and a rental car. No biggie, anything to see my soldier. Fort Moore is located in Columbus, GA and the ceremony will be on base. Typically, the ceremony will be in the morning, for example my husbands began at 9:00AM. If you are flying, I recommend flying in the day before the ceremony. The only airport you can fly into is ATL Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, GA and it is about 1.5 hours from Columbus. The drive is an easy one; it is pretty much all highway. 

ATL Hartsfield-Jackson Airport: This airport is huge. If you have never flown into ATL, it can be very scary at first. Looking at a map of the airport will not help...or it didn’t help me. The airport is confusing, and TSA can take a while to get through. The airport runs on a sort of underground train system to get from terminal to terminal (they call them concourses). When it comes time to fly home, I recommend getting to the airport at least two hours before your flight leaves. 

Rental Car: These days, car rentals are expensive. I also always worry about if I am going to have a car when I get there. Personally, I use Turo. It is a car sharing app. It is kind of like AirBnb, but for cars! I have used Turo ever since COVID and it is the best. I will link it here https://turo.com/ . Within the app you have the ability to have the car dropped off at the aiport or you can pick it up at a certain location. I usually always have the car dropped off at the airport (sometimes it is an extra fee) and I can take the airport shuttle to the parking lots. There are a couple of different parking locations at ATL: ParkATL and ParkATL Select. ParkATL is uncovered parking and Select is covered parking. There is a shuttle for each one. Make sure you get on the correct shuttle for the correct parking lot. I got on the wrong shuttle...it wasn’t a big deal, and the driver took me to the right lot, but I did feel bad. Some cars can drop it off right outside of the baggage claim area, which is nice. 

Hotel: I like to earn reward points when I travel. I am a Wydham Rewards member, so I typically stay at Wyndham hotels. I stayed at La Quinta Inn & Suites Columbus North...here is the link... https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/laquinta/columbus-georgia/la-quinta-columbus-north/overview?CID=LC:6ysy27krtpcrqev:12201 . They have military rates, but I noticed that they were more expensive than just a regular rate. The hotel is very nice, with clean rooms, comfy beds, and complimentary breakfast. The hotel is about 25ish minutes to the base. I will discuss later in this post what time I left and the traffic. 

Now, let's talk about the actual ceremony! I recommend checking the company Facebook page the night before to make sure the time and/or location hasn’t changed. My husband’s ceremony changed due to the weather, and if you are just as excited to see your soldier as mine, you don’t want to miss a thing. 

The ceremony will most likely begin in the morning. Ours began at 9:00AM and was originally going to be at Kanell Field but was moved to a building on base and all we were given was a building number. I had never been on base before, so I had no idea where I was going. This is where an app called “GuideOn” comes in handy. GuideOn is an app made by a military spouse to help others navigate around different bases. This is a great app to have and will help navigate you to the correct building on base, even if all you know is a building number. No matter how close or far you choose to stay from base, you will want to be at the ceremony location at least an hour before the ceremony starts. I left the hotel about 7AM, 30 minutes of travel time and 30 minutes for unexpected traffic. You don’t have to leave this early, but don’t expect it to be fast getting on base or finding parking. 

Each platoon marched out on their own and got in formation. There were four platoons total in my husband's company. Like I said in the original post, it is very important to know your soldier’s platoon. The DS will be standing around and directing you to a certain side depending on which platoon you’re there to see. My original post goes into what the ceremony is like, so I won't re-hash that here. 

After the ceremony, your soldier is yours for the weekend. Have fun and be safe. Enjoy your time together and just make it fun.