Any news is better than "w...a...i...t...i...n...g..."

Ain't he good lookin in at uniform? Now, this is an old picture, but the uniform is still a part of his life. Of our life. We weren't sure for how much longer, though. Still in our early 20's we already owe a lot to the military, including virtually no student-loan debt. The deal he signed, after he selected to be a pilot after graduation, obligated him to be an officer for approximatly 10 years. After a 4-year degree, and nearly a year of training, it looked like we may be on our way out. The grading system in use is pretty screwy. It's very subjective and they use 2 seemingly unrelated systems to determine your fate. One system is the old navy system, one is the new air force system. One grades you on a number of things each flight. The other is an overall sort of average. It would take me forever to try to explain, so just know that dh (dear hubby, as the lingo goes on another site I use) was passing and getting good comments on each individual flight, but somehow, his overall "average" was too low. Dh was then "attrited." Basically, that means he is officially no longer in training to be a pilot. Needless to say, he was devestated. All the other students we know agree that he's been screwed over. They said, "tell them to look at your grades, and look at some of the people who've gone through."

We decided to not go out without a fight. The commadore who attrited him did so, referring to dh's squad CO, on basically his last day of work. Dh called his CO from ROTC in college and told him the whole story. The CO made some phone calls on his behalf, including the chief aviation training office. This office agreed to review his grades and look into it for him. The CO said he didn't want to get our hopes up, but he gave us about a 10% chance of being reinstated. He said he's seen a number of people "rise from the dead" in the military. This was 2 weeks ago. Dh has been calling him weekly since, to check in and see if there's any news. Last week, the CO told him the guy at the training office has a second person reviewing his case also. Positive news...I guess.

CO called today. He said the training office has decided to refer his case back to the new commadore. This is postive news. Dh was a duty driver for him a couple of weeks ago, which means they've met. Any face time is good. This is such positive news, we are trying hard to not get too excited. At this point we want some resolution. We've just been waiting. When I moved here, we were planning on being here for about a month. It's been almost 5. We don't even know if he was going to stay in the navy after this. If the re-instatement doesn't work out, he can redesignate to another job within the navy, or be out altogether. We've been waiting, for only God knows what. Waiting to see not only to see what my husbands job will be for the next 5+ years, but if he will have a job at all!

So, we're still waiting. But, at least we know there is progress being made. Something is being done. Someone who knows something agrees that this is worth looking into further. That's comforting. We could know by the end of the week! That is exciting! Then again, if the commadore decides not to reinstate, we will be back to the waiting. Waiting to see if a redesignation pans out. So, pray for us as we wait. Pray for patience. Pray for resolution. Pray for strength to handle what is thrown our way, so early in our marriage.