The Future's So Bright...

we can't see where we're going.

Abe's career will soon be taking a new direction. He was selected to receive the Army's fixed wing training. Yup, he will learn how to fly planes on the Army's dime. Being selected is no small feat. They conduct a board only once a year to select just a few dozen soldiers. This was his first time applying and for him, one time is all it took.

The soonest he will begin his 3-5 months of training is October. The first 3 months of class will be at Ft. Rucker, AL. The additional 2 months, which at this point is not guaranteed (all depends on what aircraft he is assigned to) will be at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. The boys and I will not accompany him during this time but we will hopefully get to visit him a few times as schedules allow.

And that is literally just about all we know. There is one man in charge of scheduling the classes and making the duty assignments following the training. We have submitted to him our top three choices for duty assignment but they are only requests. At this point we are waiting to hear from him on 1) if Abe will be utilized as a fixed wing pilot following the training or will the "needs of the Army" dictate that he return to a Chinook unit 2) when his class date will be (we're hoping for after Thanksgiving because of other family plans) and 3) where he will be stationed following the training. Supposedly we will be told our duty station 90 days prior to his class date which will give us 6-8 months to prepare for the move, unless of course we get Ft. Hood which would not require a move.

Not moving would certainly be easy on us, since we wouldn't have to change much of anything in our day to day lives and wouldn't have to sell the house. But it was actually our second choice. Germany is our third choice. Korea is our first choice. There are two huge factors that make Korea nice. Most importantly he would not deploy from there. He would come home to his family every night for 3 years. And secondly, he stands to rack up a great deal of flight time there. More so than any other assignment would be able to offer. And then you throw in the adventure of living in a foreign land and we were sold. We've also heard nothing but good things from our friends that have been there.

So now we wait on pins and needles to see what exactly the Army has in store for us. Hopefully we'll hear something SOON. In the meantime I'm just going to watch proudly as my husband embarks on yet another exciting chapter in his professional life.