Follow up from 160th

Jared spent several weeks training and getting in shape and submitting paperwork for the Special Forces 160th SOAR flight program.  He was then sent down to assess and the National Guard paid him TDY to fly him down, board him and any other fees that went along with this.  After a rigorous week he was given the handshake that meant he had the green light to be part of this special group of soldiers.  I was looking up Chinook missions on You Tube and little bird pics.  He came home and submitted his official paperwork to get back in to active army.  This at a time when the base was experiencing sequestrations.  I was working as essential personnel without the guarantee of pay and Jared was getting Furlough Fridays and 2 weeks off no pay at this time. (later update: Ironically Jared did not have to go to work but got paid and I had to work and cover the work of non- essential employees, so working twice as hard and my pay was delayed.  Go figure!)
Jared began to budget for our life in Special Ops, I might not have to work, We began looking at homes for sale in some of the more elite neighborhoods.  Jared would fly over new developments to check out places we should look. We starting Pre-Qualifying and getting our credit score information on track.
Back in the reality of the Military, the paperwork was getting backed up and tracking it all down was challenging. It wasn't until after we went to a friends wedding and saw the person that we needed to sign off Jared's packet to get back in the Active Army, and he said it had passed his desk weeks ago.  We soon later found out that due to down sizing of the Army and Jared being so close to retirement that the Army did not feel that with his advanced age (36 at the time) that picking him up would be a benefit so they turned down his packet to get back in which then ended our options with Special Ops.

Job of the Month, February!

Job of the Month, February!

 

 

Update on the Job of the month... Jared has been off orders since Counterdrug went bust in WA state due to funding so he was doing the Daddy Daycare thing and flying missions here and there for the guard.  Now they have him filling in for a pilot that has been grounded but he is not on military orders they just picked him up as a contractor so he is the same as me right now a government employee.  Although he is on a contract I think he said it was for 4 months but then they extended him for a year but I honestly am not sure because of all the budget cuts if that will really be for a year.  I know confusing!

 

Anyway, this Job really does not help us to get closer to our goal of retiring in 20 years since he is not fulltime Guard right now, he is just doing the one weekend a month right now. This fill-in pilot position does nothing for our time in service.  

 

Right now the military is down sizing and although he has really good reviews they are not taking more pilots in the Active Army at his rank unless you go special forces, so he just submitted his packet for a unit called the 160th, they are special aviation opps and we are hoping that will get us to the 20 years mark.  Although we both are not big on the idea because it is a lot of away time and weird schedules.  We have had several friends in the past that have been part of this unit and it has not been favorable on marriages.  Not our first choice by any means!

 

Not sure at this point if it is even worth it to stay in 20 years active duty because they are cutting the funding to so many programs and medical.  So we will see where this road takes us.