Where do we go?

We found out good news and, well, not bad news, but just "other" news today.

The good news is that Thak will for sure not be deploying to Afghanistan immediately upon completion of his training. They deployed the entire two classes ahead of him, so they have enough free agent field service guys (I say free agent because they're not assigned to a unit over there. They just work with any unit's stuff.) and they're deploying Thak's class on a volunteer only basis. One guy volunteered, but the remaining seven want to be assigned to a unit instead. This means that we are definitely, 100% leaving El Paso when Thak finishes his training in a few months. We have found our ticket out of here!

Now, the billion dollar question... Are we going back to Ft. Stewart? The short answer is, we don't know. They're working on it, but we don't know yet if we have it or not. They're also still trying to work Ft. Bragg for us if Stewart doesn't come through. Again, we do not know. Now, they need to fill three slots immediately at Ft. Lewis, near Seattle. This is where it gets interesting. Follow me here.

3 slots need to be immediately filled at Ft. Lewis.
2 slots need to be filled immediately at Ft. Drum, upstate NY.
There are 8 students in Thak's class, 1 wants to deploy now, leaving 7 to assign.
This means there are VERY good odds we would get Lewis or Drum. We DO NOT WANT Drum. It is terrible, cold, and there is nothing for me there. If Thak stuck me in that place and deployed, I would hate his guts for the rest of my life. (OK, maybe not really, but at least until the snow thawed.)

With all this in mind, we put in a request for Ft. Lewis as sort of a defensive move, so that if they have to give us one of the assignments that they need people for, it'll at least be the good one. Keep in mind that Ft. Stewart is still listed as our first choice, and Ft. Bragg as our second. They are trying to get us one of those two, but if neither of them works out, then we are probably going to Ft. Lewis.

Why did we choose Ft. Lewis? Well, because we looked through all the other assignments they had, and while some were more in the part of the country we preferred to shoot for, they were in areas that didn't offer much for us. We need somewhere with at least half decent schools, because Erin needs a lot academically. On a purely superficial level, we'd prefer a place where there are more people like us. Thak will deploy eventually with this job, and I don't want to be alone in whatever corner of redneckville he decides to plunk me down in. Seattle has a huge alternative parenting scene, and I even know some cool people who are stationed there (activist friends who are also Active Duty! You know the kind!). Already knowing people there helps, and also being able to easily make contacts in the civilian community, because the military community at large is not terribly welcoming to contractors' families. The weather and the part of the country are drawbacks to Ft. Lewis, and I did not make this decision lightly, but my gut feeling told me to tell Thak to give Ft. Lewis as our third choice.

Now, the ten billion dollar question is when will we find out where we're going... The short answer is, we do not know. We're hoping to find out soon, and we may, or it may take a while. They know that everyone in the program has families, and they're all needing to be able to make plans and figure things out. Plus, the company has to make arrangements to move us all to our new assignments, and since the training is only 4 months, they need to figure out pretty soon where they're going to put us all, so that they can start hiring movers for us and stuff, and we can start house hunting.

My gut feeling at this point says that we are going to Ft. Lewis. Of course, last week, it said we were going to Ft. Stewart... So basically, we don't know, but soon we will.