Resolutions and Updates

I've been absent from the blog for far too long! Really there is no excuse. Everything with the Air Force has been more than up in the air and I just didn't want to even think about it, let alone write about it!

Here's a quick update (as part of my resolution to post once a week) of where we are and what we are up to.

We had applied for a waiver early in the summer for Scott's eyes, as he is partially colorblind and the post they had slated for him required full color vision. Early October we finally heard back that they wouldn't approve the waiver (understandably, I suppose) and they were going to put Scott's application back into circulation to see if other areas of the Air Force were going to have openings for the coming year that would be a good fit for him. The info about the waiver denial came in the first part of October and the end of December we finally heard back, sort of! The recruiter contacted Scott to say that the Air Force had some jobs they wanted to offer him but wanted to make sure he was still interested, after more than a year of hurry up and wait :) before they did all the paperwork of a formal offer. Umm, hello, yes! Yes, we are!!

So, we are still waiting, but with more of an idea of what's coming our way and perhaps a little more patiently. We had started to look into what else to do after graduation since we hadn't heard anything for so long but now we feel are back on track a bit.

Despite all the hurry up and wait we are still pretty excited about the Air Force and a little nervous to see what the job offers are. Who knows where we will end up?

Application Process

The application process was long and a bit grueling for my husband. He needed more documents and information about his past than I thought even existed. Thankfully he had a good Recruiting Officer who walked him through the whole process, so I can't tell you much about that except that there were many long nights filling out paperwork. If you have any questions about what paperwork you will need and what testing your spouse will have to go through, my advice would be to keep in close contact with your recruiting officer and they can answer those questions for you.
One thing to know is that you can apply for OTS (Officer Training School) BEFORE you graduate from college. You have to graduate within 12 months of when your application goes in and you have to provide documentation from the school of what classes you have left, which semesters you will be taking them and the expected date of graduation. This is called the Delayed Entry Program (DEP). delayedentryprogram
As part of the application process my husband did change his major to have a better chance of being accepted into OTS. He only had one semester left before graduating with an accounting degree and on the advice of the recruiting officer he changed his major to a STEM degree. STEM_fields  I don't know if they would have accepted him with the accounting degree, and I guess we will never know. My husband really enjoys the classes for his new degree, so even though it added a few semesters I think it was probably a good switch in the long run.
My hubby did go through several phone interviews as part of the application process and yours will too. My husband made sure he dressed as though he were having the interview in person and went somewhere he could have peace and quiet and focus on the interview. (meaning he definitely couldn't do it at home with our two crazy fun kiddos)