Late last year, Dan found out that his name was on the HSST list. I'm not completely aware of what the acronym stands for but it is basically a list that comes out for all special duty assignments / B-billets for enlisted personnel. He had to put together an application package by the beginning of the new year, and was to have a screening interview on the 16th of January.
That's today, folks. Last night, however, I didn't realize that the 16th was today. After supper he casually mentioned, "Hey, remember I have that screening tomorrow." I turned around from what I was doing in the kitchen, confused, and said, "I thought that was on the 16th, though?" He just smiled at me a little bit, chuckled and said, "Tomorrow is the 16th." Oh. All right, then.
So anyhoo, today was Dan's screening interview. He (we) are qualified as a family for recruiting duty (RD), so that will be our family's next adventure. It is an adventure that will be three years long, stationed somewhere in the United States.
"When?" is a question many of our family members, from both sides, have been curious to know. We're curious to know, too. I may be more curious than Dan -- I do not do well with the unknown. I want to know when, where, how, and why we're going to go about doing things. I don't like going into situations blind. Before we moved to Okinawa, I was on OkinawaHai often, learning what I could. As soon as Dan mentioned that he was on the list for RD (he was specifically on the list for RD, it wasn't an open ended, "What B-Billet would you like to do?" question for him), I joined a Recruiting Wive's page on Facebook.
Now the question of, "Will we be doing it?" is eliminated. We're just waiting on knowing when we will be doing it. There are no school seats open this spring; the screener said Dan is slated for 2014 recruiting -- meaning that the soonest he could get in is October, or maybe the beginning of 2014. However, someone Dan works with and who has been on RD before, said that people drop their seats all the time, and that he and another guy that Dan works with may possibly be able to get a spot sometime this spring.
If Dan gets a spot this spring, we'll be leaving Okinawa about on schedule. Without RD looming in our future, we were due to leave in August of this year (it went by so fast). Now with RD in our future, we may leave a month earlier than August, if he is able to get a seat in one of the spring schools. If he is unable to, and is not able to get a spot until October, it is highly unlikely that the Marine Corps would move us to a new duty station for two months in the States, pay for us to get settled, and then pay for us to move again. By highly unlikely, I mean that it won't happen. No chance.
If Dan is unable to get a seat in one of the spring schools and the earliest he can go is October, then we will be staying in Okinawa until he is done with school. The school is only a couple months long, so Evelyn and I would stay here, and he'd go to school in the States. By the end of his school session, he'd know where we were going. When he came home, we'd pack up and be on our merry little way.
That's one of the newest adventures in our horizon right now. I'll keep everyone up to date as I learn information.
Thanks for standing by with my lull in blogging. There have been a couple reasons that I haven't updated in about two weeks. One -- I lent my camera to a fellow Stroller Warrior in the beginning of December for her daughter's 1st birthday pictures. I got it back before Christmas, but I have misplaced my camera battery's charger. Dead camera = no pictures. Putting up a slew of photos on the blog is a quick way for me to get some information up for family and friends in the States, without having to find the time to sit down and type a long entry. (Who says the entry has to be long, though?)
I do have time at night to blog, generally, but my internship was given the green light! Yahoo! So now I'm interning for a few hours each night, and that takes up my evening. Right now, though, Evelyn is taking a nap, and I wanted to fill everyone in on the newest news in our family. Some of our family and friends already know, and some don't. So now everyone should be on the same page.
Happy mid-week, everyone!
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