Happy Halloween

Batman and I

Kristen and I were reminiscing about our last Halloween the other day.  We had a great night.  We had some friends over to our house (and their dogs).  We just sat in our driveway at Laughlin AFB handing out candy all night.  The weather was perfect.  They were a descent amount of kids all night.  It was awesome!

Some crazy truck I saw while waiting for the bus... what is this stuff we buy?

 Another week has come and gone over here. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So I was sent an email from my commander a few days ago telling me to come and see him because he has my departure date.  Yes!  I was so pumped up.  It was late in the day and the commander had already left for the day so I figured that I'd see him the next day first thing.

Well, next morning I went there bright eyed and bushy tailed to find out when I'm going home.  He asked me if I had heard about the RIF's?  I told him yes.  He told me that he sent that email out before he knew about the RIF's and that now my date had changed.  Darn!  Long story short with this..., I still expect to be on a rotator home towards the end of November.

What's a RIF?  It's a Reduction In Force.  See, the Air Force every now and then realizes that we have too many people (more than our contract to the taxpayers) so we have to get rid of some.  They first say what commissioning years will be affected.  Then they ask for volunteers.  It's usually people past their 12th year, but not to their 15th year in the military.  The reasoning is that pilots sign up for 10 years, but usually end up at around 12 after some tricky Air Force math.  And at 15 years in Uncle Sam owes you a retirement check for the rest of your life.  So the AF says thanks for your time, commitment and dedication....., now see ya'!  It sucks.  Well, two pilots here in my deployed squadron got RIF'd.  So they'll be on the next rotator out of here.  And basically pushed me two people further down the list.  Aghhh.  But I shouldn't complain.  Those two dudes have it the worst.  That would be a crappy email to get while you're deployed.

I'm still P-9 while I type this blog.  But I expect to be P-7 tomorrow.  I hope to only have two more "deployed" blogs after this one!  Woop woop..., get up for it!

The weather has been so nice over here lately.  High's in the 70's and lows in the 50's, with zero rain, but the dust still lingers.

I now have 129 combat flying sorties and 637.3 combat flying hours.  I want 140 sorties before I leave.  I'm pretty sure that I'll get it.  They usually make us stop flying six days before our rotator.  I'm guessing that I'll have 15 more flights..., so I'll make it!  That will up my air medals to 7.  I'm going to look like a Mexican general for my sisters wedding in May... Haha.

Congrats to Brooke AKA: Diva on getting homecoming queen.  I'm so proud!