Sunday, August 9, 2015

I Almost Went to Honduras

I am 3 weeks, I repeat, 3 weeks away from finishing flight school. 15 more flights and I will be a Blackhawk pilot! I have to pass one last checkride so that technically still stands in my way, but I am about to leave Ft. Rucker. 2 months ago our class got orders and mine said Honduras. I was not happy since I've been geographically separated from my husband for the last 18 months and he was deployed for 8 months right before we left Germany.
Honduras is a year unaccompanied tour with the "guarantee" that I would get my follow on to Ft. Bragg. If I were to go, that would mean over 3 years of separation from my husband and I about lost my mind. It really did take all I had to keep myself together and let's just use that term loosely. Honestly it was hard to even think about it without tearing up, let alone try and talk to cadre who didn't care at all and told me to look on the bright side. I'm a "bright side" person and I am very good at looking on that side, but that was not even an option in my mind so I was not hearing any of it. I did everything I could to try and change my assignment but nothing was happening.
Fortunately my husband's unit came to the rescue and knew the right people to talk to the other right people to force an assignment change. I can't really describe my relief but I am ecstatic that someone out there cared enough about a family to do something. I consider myself a career-oriented person and I feel that I make a contribution to the workplace and I enjoy a great amount of satisfaction from working. However, I will always choose my family over my career or job. I never want to be poor and never want to rely on someone else for sustenance, shelter or any other provision, but I truly believe that families are worth more than careers.
Nothing is official yet, I only have verbal orders but I should be moving to North Carolina next month to finally live with my husband again in our beautiful new home. I am so excited to be a normal family unit and work in the yard and clean the house and enjoy marital bliss again. Maybe in a few years I'll get the chance to go to Honduras because that is on my radar, but not just yet.