Assignment, but not really.

There is no assignment. What they had today was a list of definite openings to choose from, and we might have actual assignments by the end of the week. We submit our official final choices from the options that were given today, by tomorrow, and then they do what they will with it.

The options we have chosen are, in this order:
Ft. Stewart
Someplace in Maryland (we're not sure if it's National Guard or Marine Corps, but it's in Maryland)
Tooele Army Depot, Tooele, Utah

Let me explain. Ft. Stewart is obvious. We want to go back. Obviously, that's job 1. Maryland is a nice location that has a lot, so we chose that one second because it's nice there. It would also be easy for Thak to transfer to a job in corporate HQ in a few years if we're already in MD. That's just a nice added benefit to that location. We chose Tooele Army Depot because it is a non-deploying position where we could stay for a few years until all these deployments stop, and then transfer somewhere else. I wanted to put that one second. Thak wanted to put it third because he doesn't like Utah all that much. I told him to trust his gut on it and do what's best for us, and that's what he did by putting Maryland ahead of Utah.

Now, here's the curve ball. You know there always is one. Well, they need two people to go to Ft. Drum, in upstate New York. It's remote, and cold, and shitty. Nobody likes that place. They HAVE TO have two people to go there, though. There are eight people in the class. Three volunteered to deploy right out of training, leaving five to assign stateside. Two have to go to Drum. If two don't volunteer, they're just going to pick two. That's 40% odds that we're going to Ft. Drum. We just have to hope that our ties to Ft. Stewart are enough to pull us there.

Now, here's the thing about Ft. Stewart. I give it about 50/50 odds right now that we can get it. The reason it's only 50/50 is because there's this other guy who is trying to get it, and he claims he has a house in Savannah (most of us think that's BS, but that's what he's telling corporate). This guy is NOT a fit for the Ft. Stewart team at all, personality-wise, and they have talked with Thak about this in the past as well. He's told them that he doesn't think this guy is a fit for the team, and exactly why so they know it's not because he's trying to get that assignment for himself. They already know that Thak is a fit for the Stewart team, because some of his references when he got hired for this job, are part of that team. They have also talked with the team there, and they have said they want Thak to come work with them. They are doing what they can. If it's enough to boost us into that assignment over this other guy, that remains to be seen. I do think our odds are good, but I'm not going to say we've got it yet.

So basically, we don't know much of anything yet, but we do have it down to four possibilities, two of them strong possibilities. Stewart and Drum are the strong possibilities. Maryland and Utah are the lesser possibilities. We may find out later this week.