In the Air Force, many of us spouses use the phrase, "until the rubber hits the runway." It means, we're not going to believe they're (spouses) are home (from a flight/deployment/tdy) until the plane is actually on the ground. There is always so much back and forth in the military which is something that makes this job harder than other jobs. I mean, you can get jerked around by the hour.
To make a long, tiring, stressful (can't be posted on the Internet) story short, Mason was told about a month and a half ago that he was probably going to deploy (early) to Guam along with a few other people from our squadron. Then he was told that they needed him to stay to go TDY to Minot for an exercise. For about two weeks, he was pushed back and forth between these two options.
It was a pretty stressful time for our squadron, because other families were going through this as well, and a lot of people who are new to our squadron were sort of thrown into an early deployment without much preparation. There were several crews of people preparing for the Minot exercise, and then there were people waiting to find out about new assignments based on the VML.
VML stands for the Vulnerable Move List. In the AF you are stationed at a base for 3-4 years and after that you move to another base. People joke that Barksdale is Barkatraz because you can stay here for years (8-10) if you want to stay here. When we arrived at Barksdale Mason started B52 training, and now we've been in our active squadron for almost 3 years (we've been on base for about 3.5 years). When Mason went to the active squadron he made it known that he wanted to stick with the B52. There are several people who don't really want to continue working with this airframe. Anyways, once you have been on base for 2-2.5 years you get put on the VML and you are eligible to move off base. The VML cycles are 4 times a year about 3 months apart. For Mason, you really need to be an Aircraft Commander (AC) to qualify for the jobs, so it's really closer to being on base for 3 years when they start looking at you to move. Last December Mason became qualified as an AC and in January we started getting talked to about moving. Fortunately Mason's commander at the time really talked with Mason and knew he wanted to stick with the B52 and the other office that Mason worked in was in charge of assignments and they knew that Mason wanted to stay in the B52 community- but more than wanting to stay, they knew he was good at the job and wanted to keep him.
For an AC, like Mason, the possible moves are called Alpha tours. You (most commonly) go to another job for 3-4 years and then come back to the B52. One of the reasons Mason didn't want to do this is because it would put him "behind the timeline" with the B52 and then he'd be a Major trying to compete with Captains etc...So, he could have gotten sent to pilot training. This would basically mean that he would go back and teach people how to fly (like the training he did in Texas). It could be in the T38, or T6. He could also have gotten an assignment like UAV's or he could have done an ALO job which is working with the Army. The pilot training bases aren't really in great locations, but he would have been home more consistently. ALO jobs are at some really nice bases (although they are army posts), but Mason would pretty much be deployed all the time to not so nice places.
Fast forward to getting our new commander in June who fortunately is like this dad to everyone in the squadron. The wives joke that he's got "master plans" for everyone, and he truly wants to help his guys out. Which is AMAZING! Fortunately, he recognized Mason's potential and has been pushing and working really hard with Mason to get us to stay in the B52 community. For Mason's career, however, our commander told him that it would be beneficial for Mason to be in a different squadron so that he could gain experiences and further down the line when they are looking at him to promote, he's got a "varied resume." We figured that a move to a new squadron would probably happen at the end of 2013 because it would be after Mason's next deployment and by then we were hoping that Mason could have completed Instructor Training (CFIC). To start CFIC Mason would need 1500 hours in the B52 and it could be waived down to 1350 hours, which we calculated to be sometime next year during the deployment.
Okay, back to two weeks where they were telling Mason he might deploy early or stay home to go to the Minot exercise. His commander tells him that he really wants to push the training envelope with Mason and get him going with CFIC. (Which starts the end of October, and this was the beginning of September). In order to start CFIC Mason needed a publication to get published that was lowering the required hours to start CFIC. It was supposed to get published on Oct 1, (it got pushed back to Nov 1-still don't think it's out), so Mason had to start the waiver process. Long, stressful weeks happened here because Mason had to basically complete all the prerequisites for CFIC in 3 weeks. This included 5-6 flights, WSTs, a study notebook to be completed, plus getting the waiver all worked out, and Mason had to do all this without knowing 100% that he was in the October class.
Meanwhile...while all of this is going on, Mason comes home with "I've got news..." This had pretty much been a daily occurrence. So there I am in the kitchen making dinner, listening to his day, when I find out- we're moving to Minot!!! So, while this wasn't really unexpected, it was about a year sooner then we were thinking.
So here we are. November 2nd, and Mason just completed his first week of CFIC. I'm SO PROUD of him, because he (might be) the youngest guy to be going through CFIC and he's doing GREAT so far. It's really awesome that his commander pushed so hard for him, and that he's getting this training at this point in his career. There are a few more pieces of the "master plan" that Mason and his commander are working on, but that's for another time. So right now, we're praying that Mason can take his checkride before the Christmas Break because the runway will be closing, and that would help him with some paperwork. He'll probably go with his squadron to a training in January that will help get some more qualifications completed, and then we'll take the 23 hour and 49 minute journey North around Valentine's Day. We'll be in the 23rd squadron up there, which is where my gut was telling me I wanted to go. We're hoping to live on base as well. It's going to be a different experience. The weather doesn't really scare us, and from our friends that live there they all say it's a great community feeling and great base. I think we're both ready for this new chapter of our lives, and I'm sure Theo will love snow- a friend already gave us 2 snowsuits.
So while we're still waiting for the rubber to hit the runway 100% (us being up there, all the paperwork etc...), we're getting prepared and ready to move in, eek 3 months!
So, why not, Minot?
