Sunday, October 25, 2009

The drop.

"The drop" is what us Air Force folks call the assignments that are given to the class to choose from. Assignments basically equal where we'll be going next. So here's the drop for Mark class.
2 to Spangdahlem, Germany
1 to Aviano, Italy
1 to Hill, UT
1 to Osan, South Korea
1 to Shaw, SC
1 to Kunsan, South Korea
(I have listed them in our order of preference.)

So now that the guys have their drop, they have to decide amongst themselves who's going where. They're going to try to "bro it out" as they call it, meaning just try to make everyone happy so they all get they're first or second choice without bringing an element of chance into it. If a few people all have one base as they're first choice and none of them are willing to bend then they have this formula to figure it out, where they all rank they're choices from 6 (being their first choice )and 0 (being their last), and then they roll dice and multiply what they rolled by the rank of their choices. Supposedly according to that they wouldn't get any lower than their 4th ranked choice. Since we have Germany as our first choice, Germany for us would be ranked 6 AND 5, since there are 2 spots to Germany. I hope they get it all figured out soon because this suspense is killing me.

It was a lot easier for me to deal with the "what if's" when we didn't know the drop. It was fun to dream about living in Europe, but I wasn't holding my breath for there to be any Spang or Aviano's in the drop. Now that we know there are THREE of them, it's tough for me to not get my hopes up really high. And it's very hard for me to not think about all the "what if's" 24/7. Mark and I have been discussing where we could possibly be going next a lot this weekend. I have a billion questions and have been doing some research, but I don't want to get too deep into it all, incase we don't end up getting Europe.

This would be a lot easier if we had a better idea of where everyone in his class wanted to go. There are 7 guys in his class. We know for sure that 1 of them really wants Kunsan, so we know we won't be going there. We know for sure 2 people REALLY want Hill, so we know we won't be going there. One guy in is class is a true blessing. He's saying that he just wants everyone to be happy and he'll take whatever's left over. That's almost unheard of and we're not sure what we did to deserve someone like him in Mark's class. So because Shaw is our 2nd to last choice, and we know for sure someone else is going to our last choice, Kunsan, we know we're not going to be going to Shaw either. One guy in his class has a wife who's also in the military, and they're trying to figure out where they can be stationed together, and I think they're looking closely at Osan. He had said before that they've already ruled out Germany, because her job can't transfer there. So unless she decides to get out of the military, I don't think they'll want Germany. So we're thinking that we have about a 90% chance of going to either Germany or Italy next, which is so excited and terrifying at the same time.

I don't know if it's related, but they got their drop before they left work out Friday. Ever since Saturday I've had a rash all over my face, ears, neck, and chest.... I can't figure out what's causing it. Hopefully not stress. =) But it burns and itches and is annoying and I hope it goes away soon.

My parents are super excited about the possibility of us going to Europe for the next 3 years. Mark's mom doesn't seem very excited about the prospect of her only grandchild leaving the country.

I'll keep you up to date. I'm praying to God that we'll know more by the end of this week. I'm not sure I can take this suspense much longer than that.

Until later, Wiedersehen!! (Goodbye in German)

1 comment:

Our Jeremiah 29:11 Life said...

Anxiously awaiting your news!! I'm hoping to have our PCS figured out by the end of the week as well ... not as exciting since we already know where we're going. But I'll feel much better with details settled.