Our duty station, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

So this morning, Tim and I were talking and he was about to leave for class when I got this strange urge to check his AKO account to see if his duty station had been posted.

Last Friday on his AKO, he went from a Rule 4: student status, to a Rule 5: assignment instructions. Word was, that once that happened..a duty station should be posted within a weeks time.

So in hopes that a duty station had been posted, I checked. The next thing I saw had me jumping up and down and dialing Tim's number as fast as I could.

When he answered, I screamed CHECK YOUR AKO!!! The entire time it took for him to pull open a browser and get to the ako..I was telling him how great it was, how happy he'd be. Then he said 'no way...you're effing shitting me!'

FORT HOOD.

We got mother freaking Fort Hood. After the past year of mentally preparing ourselves, along with our families, that we'd be moving far away..we got the nearest duty station to us..45 minutes away. How does that happen!?

Not only did we get Fort Hood, but one of Tim's very close friends that has gone through basic and AIT with him, also got Fort Hood. Tim's close friend, Kris, has a wife, Nicole, who I am also very close with. How awesome?!

Tim's report date is August 8th, 2010. Yay for finally knowing, and another yay for being happy about it!

July fifteenth two-thousand ten.

Yesterday morning he went to the doctor who told him that if his feet don't improve after he goes to see a Dermatologist next week, that they will medically discharge him. Wow, so feet.. please heal. The doctor IS allowing him to return to class, thankfully, so he won't be missing any days in class or any study hall sessions. This new cycle also has class every other Saturday, so that's a plus for me, but I'm sure the soldiers hate it. Oh well, anything that provides more classroom time for Tim, makes me happy.

He has been told that his predicted graduation date is July 15th, 2010 for this cycle. This makes me VERY happy. When he graduated from BCT, it was freezing and wet, not the best 'looking fabulous' weather. When I realized he'd be graduating in the summer..I already made my mind up, sundress!

They have these unwritten rules for military graduations, no B's. This means, no boobs, no butts, no backs, no bra(straps). Of course you'll always find people who don't follow these rules, but me, I'd rather comply and not draw any unnecessary negative attention towards my husband. This is when I'd be meeting his superiors, his friends, his teachers and I'd rather not wear something off the wall and them think craptastic things about me. It's about representing your soldier, not yourself, so you should wear something that reflects positively towards them. There are other days I could wear something that would make my ass look amazing, can't say chest obviously, so I don't need to possibly make him look bad in order to feel better about myself. This is his day, and he should have nothing but positive memories about it.

::climbs down and pushes soap box away:: :)

So when I say sundress, I mean something with taste. No low plunging neckline or something that cuts off closer to the crotch than the knee. Something like this..

I love that dress. It's simple. Classy. And I can accessorize! So, that is what I want..or something like it. It doesn't necessarily have to be a solid color..but that style is what I'm aiming for.

I am excited for Graduation, I can't wait...now we just gotta get those feet taken care of and we will be all good. Are there any foot doctors in the house I can mail to my husband?...what..just askin.

Oh that blasted Army, always changing...

So after being told that Tim would stay at Fort Huachuca for an additional 21 weeks..he was told yesterday that he was being placed in a class that will have him graduating in July. Normally this would be great news, we won't be separated til September and he won't have to redo the first 9 weeks of his training, but this has me stressing out more than THAT idea did.

The class he is joining is two weeks behind his old class, meaning that their next test is the test he was failed on. Awesome, he won't have to wait long, not so awesome..he's still on bed rest/quarters and can't attend class.

Do you see my reason for a slight freakout? They are expecting him to pass this upcoming test..without allowing him time in class to get a refresher and learn the material again. He went to class this morning and is going to a doctor's appointment today at 1130, where hopefully his doctor will be generous and say his feet seem to be improving and allow him off bed-rest (Tim say's his feet don't look any better). If this happens, he plans on going to study hall every day and studying his notes on the weekend.

I know God has a plan in all of this and that is what Tim and I are trying to lean upon to keep ourselves from going crazy, but sometimes..I wish he didn't trust my sanity so much! :)

I will keep everyone posted and I request that you keep him in your prayers. If he is to not pass the class this go around, he will be placed in a separate MOS..one that is in the critical field.

Oh the Military...

So, Tim is still on quarters for the next few days. The doctors informed him yesterday that his foot still isn't getting better.

He also found out what will be happening with his training. He will be restarted from the beginning of his training, but not need to take any tests til he gets to the one that he failed. He has been moved from Delta company to Charlie and moved out of the two man room/4 man suites, back down to the 40+ man bays. He will also be losing the privileges that he worked so hard to get. The next cycle doesn't start for another three weeks, so when he is let off of quarters he will be doing detail(mopping/cleaning) until then. So basically...he got a pretty crappy deal.

This means that he will be at Fort Huachuca, for an additional 21 weeks. Instead of graduating in June, it will now be sometime in September. Oh the military..

June 10th no more.

June 10th, at the time you seemed so far away...now you seem right around the corner.

Tim is no longer graduating on June 10th, like we had been expecting.

After passing every single test with a score never under 92, and while maintaining a 97 average..he was flunked on a test that he provided correct answers for..just provided too much information.

He took his test April 6th, and was told shortly after that he failed it. They told him that he provided too much information. We can only assume that since he's intel, that he was failed because you can't give too much information in that field. The following day, Wednesday, he had a retest. Once again, he provided the correct answers..just not worded properly. Say instead of using 'unfavorable' he used the words 'not good'. Ridiculous reasons. Apparently the Sergeant that was grading the tests was grading based off the rubric.

**In AIT you are only able to fail a test twice, the first time and the retry, before you're restarted or reclassed. Restarting would have him retaking the course again, either from the beginning or putting him with a class that is coming up on what he just failed. Reclassing is switching mos', which normally only happens if a person is restarted and fails again or requests to be put in a critical MOS.**

Since he has been doing great in his class, sits at the front, takes TONS of notes and aces his tests..his teachers wrote an appeal to their superiors on Thursday, requesting he be able to take the test a third time. A few of his classmates even joined in and wrote appeals as well. So we waited, and we waited, and waited some more to hear what would happen.

He had spoke to his directors in his class and told them he was thinking about just reclassing to a separate mos. His director told him he'd be stupid to do that, that he was amazing in this field. He told Tim that they grade off the rubric, which sees in black and white. He told Tim, 'most people in the intel field see things in black and white without any shades of grey. You see in shades of grey. You have common sense in this area, which a lot of people lack. We need people like you, to even out those that can't see it that way.' I'm pretty sure that made Tim feel better, because honestly, he does kick ass in the intelligence field.

That weekend, Tim showed one of his sgt's his foot and his sgt told him that if he saw him in class Monday morning, he'd give him an Article 15 and drag his ass down to sick call himself. So early Monday morning, Tim went to sick call.

Tim waited for five hours before he was seen by a doctor. The doctor came in, told Tim to take off his boot and sock and then he turned around to wash his hands. When he turned back around, Tim said he nearly hurled all over the floor from the smell and sight of his foot.

I guess I haven't explained that part yet. When I went to see Tim in March, he was complaining about a small, quarter sized, part on the side of his foot that was raw and tingled. At the time it just looked like a blister from running in his boots, so we blew it off. When I went to visit him for his birthday..he showed his mother and said it had gotten worse. I didn't look because I was eating, I didn't want to hurl. Anyway, turns out it had gotten a lot worse.

Well, when the doctor saw it..he called in the head doctor for that area..who in turn, called in 6 more doctors. They told Tim that he had a severe case of trench foot, and it was beyond any cream or medicine. They told him he needed to keep it dry and if it got any worse, they'd talk amputation. They were worried about gangrene setting in. He was put on profile; no PT and he couldn't wear anything but flip flops so that his feet would dry out and heal.

Later that week (12th-16th), he was told that since he was on profile and wouldn't be able to do the upcoming training that was required to graduate, that he wouldn't be able to retake the test. They told him he was going to be a restart and that he was going to be put on quarters til his foot healed.

Quarters, when he is stuck to his room til his foot either A) gets better B) rots off. So basically, he gets to go crazy stuck in his room all day ever day. Can you say cabin fever?

He had a doctors appointment this morning to see how his foot is healing. Hopefully the doctor thinks it's getting better and allows him to go back to class. This whole 'not knowing when the next time I'll see my husband is' thing is fairly irritating. If they tell him he can go back to class...hopefully he will find out where he is at in his training. Whether they are going to restart him from the beginning or wait til an upcoming class reaches where he is at.

I'm not expecting him to graduate before November to be honest. If he does graduate in November like I'm expecting..that means by the time he is done with training..he will have been gone from us, the length of a deployment. No, I'm not saying it's like a deployment, for very obvious reasons, but the time apart and not living and functioning as a family..will be the same. They are being told to expect deployment within 90 days of graduation, if that is the case..we will have been apart for a year, together for three months, then he'll be gone for another year.

The reality of that possible situation is slowly sinking in. The silver lining in all of this is that Tim has non-deployable status longer since he'll be in training longer..and that he's knocking more time off his contract being in training.