Ok, now I had a good cry and got it out of my system I feel better.

I'm trying to look on the bright side of things.....Dave and I are scouring the map, looking for bases that are relatively close to his hometown.  We figure if we can't be close to my family, we should try to get closer to his.  So far we have 5 choices, ranging in location from Ohio, all the way down to to Alabama and Mississippi....even Louisiana is being considered.  2 separate individuals have indepedently assured us that he WILL NOT get extended at Thule, and that we will have an alternate assignment within a few weeks. So, things could be better, but they could also be a hell of a lot worse. 

This is but a bump in the road; the journey is still ongoing.

Thanks, Grey.

The way it works now is that they officially cancel our assignment to the UK, then look at the list we gave them of places we want to go.  If any are available, then we get an assignment there. If none are available, then they look to see where IS available, and send us there...so it's not like we pick and choose where we want to go.  Having said that, however, because Dave's coming off a remote assignment we'll get more of a say than the average enlisted person looking for orders would.

It's all very confusing and time comsuming..the AF is a law unto itself most of the time, as I'm sure the Army is.

Well, Miki, I have to.  I made the choice to marry into the military, so I have to accept all the shit that comes along with it.  It's really not that bad; the AF ships all of our stuff, gives us extra money to move with, provides us with housing, and it's not like we have to look for work or anything when we get there.  I know we'll be ok wherever we go, I'd just like to know the geographic location of where it is we're going!

The AF is notoriously slow at these things too, so I have probably a good 3 weeks to stress about it yet.

I say that because the military IS our life.  We live it 24/7.  It's not an occupation for Dave, it's his life.  We live on a AF base, in military housing, we shop at military facilities, we see military doctors when we're sick...it's an all-encompassing thing.  Like now, for example:  if it were up to us, we'd be going to England.  But, it's not.  The AF holds the reins.  We just do the running.  We might think that we're running free, but really we're not. 

 So yeah, it is a tight fraternity....to the more dedicated of us, the hard-core 'lifers' as we call them.  I'm married to a 'lifer', and a pretty gung-ho lifer at that.

Yes, we would!!!!!

Wow!  That would be quite something, wouldn't it? 

It would be cool to know someone in the local area.....man, now I'm hoping we go to Ohio!

Errmm...he's not a pilot Miki, he's a cop.  If he were an officer instead of enlisted I"m pretty sure this fiasco wouldn;t have happened in the first place.