ORDERS!

Well. Three days ago, husband got his orders. His first duty station will be in the beautiful state of North Carolina at Camp Lejeune. I can't believe it took me this long to remember that I have a blog ABOUT the marines and this absolutly falls the related catagory.
Good news, we will be CONUS. Bad news, he is attached to an infantry unit.
Helpful hint to new ladies; CONUS refers to the continental USA, everything except alaska and hawaii. OCONUS is anywhere overseas. Alaska, Hawaii, or any other post you have to swim to is considered oconus.
Anyways. We have begun the process of pcsing. My stress levels are already through the roof. So much paperwork. I filled out less for college! But I am extremely glad to finally have a plan(ish) instead of this awful limbo. I doubt I will be a huge fan of Lejeune, but at least its better than 29 Palms!
Working on seeing the glass half full. Hopefully full of tequila or rum!

T-55

I got a call from the husband today, which was awesome. It is always such a wonderful blessing to hear his voice.

The good news:

• His bronchitis is cleared up (they caught it early, thank God)
• His platoon won Final Drill
• He got his orders

The bad news:

• His orders are complete bull.

Let me elaborate:
We have been being told, for three months, that Danny would find out on t-55 what job school he would be going to and for how long. He enlisted with a contract for Communications, but not for a specific job within that MOS. So we were expecting to get his specific information yesterday.

No Dice!

He called me and told me that the only information he had recieved was what he already knew. Just where and when he was supposed to report after his 10 days of leave.
So I was pretty upset and started bawling. I am not usually a crier, but the pregnancy horomones make me a little irrational. I was just so broken because I hate being in the dark. No one tells me anything and I just want to know where we are going after this.

I really need to work on not being a control freak. Granted, a baby wasn't in the picture when he enlisted, but we did sign for this, literally. When the husband approached me about joining the Marines, he told me that "hurry up and wait" would be the lifestyle. I guess I just didn't fully grasp what that meant.

I am not in control....
I am not in control....
I am not in control....
I am not in control....

Anyways, I called and talked to the recruiter and he explained that in the Communications MOS, everyone goes to the same school for 6 weeks, but could be placed in advanced classed for different jobs, depending on test scores. The way that I understood it was that the husband will be given apptitude tests in the first couple of weeks, and depending on how well he does, will be placed in his specialized Communications Job. However, the school for communications school will be 8 weeks at the max because a lot of the field is on-the-job learning. So the school is short, and they learn their jobs mostly at their PDS. Confusing, I know!

So- Communications Job School= 6-8 weeks.

I guess that isn't so bad. Not as bad as it could be. And I do believe that students get phone privleges, so it wont be as bad as Bootcamp, in terms of separation.

As an aside, if you have  no idea what T-55 is, refer to this website for a detailed training matrix for San Diego. It will let you know what your recruit SHOULD be doing everyday. Training can get delayed a couple of days for various reasons, but they usually get back on track.

http://www.usmcgradsandiego.org/links/trainingMatrix.php

Don't forget OPSEC. DO NOT post specific dates on your facebook, twitter, etc. If you know for a fact that your recruit is moving to CP on a certain date, resist the temptation, and dont share online.

Thinking About Plans that Should be Made

I have a problem that has no easy fix. I need to make plans, but doing so feels naughty. I am trying to find a job, so as to support myself during the husbands bootcamp, but doing so basically requires me to lie about how long I intend to work there. I cant exactly walk into an interview and say "Well, I really need this job now, but I might be leaving in three-ish months."

Who in their right mind would pay to hire and train someone who wont return on the investment? Is this same issue going to crop up wherever we go in the next four or eight years? If so, what is the point of getting a college degree in something when a potential employer is just going to look at my application/resume and see tons of jobs/locations?

So how do the fully initated military spouses handle this? At this point, I consider myself in pre-school (pre-basic/post-enlistment). I wish there was a website specifically for experienced women or men to offer advice and information to spouses who are blindly being thrown into this lifestyle. No one in my family was or is a soldier, so I have NO idea how to handle this stuff. I have seen dozens of responses on yahoo answers for "what to expect" but none of them really seem helpful.

Maybe it really IS an initation type of thing! Maybe once my husband graduates all of the marine spouses will kidnap me out of my bed and make me endure some sort of alcohol related hazing (wouldn't mind that) and then they will finally tell me what the hell I am supposed to be doing.

Does anyone think it would be inappropriate to go and harass my husbands recruiter? I mean, if I bother them for long enough, wont they tell me whats up if only to get rid of me? I would...