Saturday, October 02, 2004
Life delayed three more weeks!
Had a lovely seafood dinner out last night with Husband, during which he informed me the promotion board will not start meeting until October 19. He also told me that one of the 2 people above him is scheduled to get out (retire, whatever) on November 4. It normally takes 3 weeks for the board to decide and announce who will be promoted. I'm looking at my calendar and that means they would be selecting the week after this Marine is no longer active duty. Once a Marine submits a retirment package Headquarters will not let them pull it for promotion purposes.
So, what does this mean to Husband? Husband is #3 in the zone and they're only promoting two Marines. Neither one of those Marines is a combat Marine and one of them has been stationed at the same duty station almost his whole 20 years, meaning he's never been on duty in a foreign country, combat or not, and I think this same Marine is the one who's EAS is November 4.
The way it's supposed to work is the board has certain criteria they're supposed to be looking for to promote to the upper ranks. Combat, flight service (if your MOS requires that - George Bush anyone?) foreign service, collateral duties, physical fitness, certain training courses (correspondence and in school) just to name a few very important ones. A photograph is taken of each Marine and submitted with their record jacket to Headquarters Marine Corps. The board looks at all the information on the Marine on paper. There are no personal interviews, no tests, nothing.
Husband has been in combat, he works for the Air Wing but does not fly so lack of flight time would not affect him, he's had 10 years of foreign service, he's filled more higher ranking positions that he cares to think about (collateral), he's top in the physical fitness program and maintains a lower enlisted first class PFT score even tho he's allowed to cut back because he's over 45 and his Marines hate him for it (long distance competitive runner, weight lifter) and I know he completed all training requirements before his last promotion board.
Does this mean he's automatically going to be selected because of this other Marine's EAS? Beats the heck out of me, but I'd sure love a crystal ball right about now.
Today is my computer exam. I guess I'm ready. I typed the notes I'll be allowed to use and will just have to wait and see. It's very hard to study for a first exam since I don't know how the teacher tests. I know some of it will be hands on computer work and of that ability I'm 100% confident.
12:00 update - I'm now home from school. It was a tougher than I expected and I don't know as much as I thought I did. Thank goodness we were allowed to use our notes and I'm a good note taker. There were 3 parts and it took me almost 2 hours. The professor decided to not lecture today and allow more than 2 hours since there are several students who don't type very fast (no minimum required to take the course). When I left the student sitting next to me was still on the first part and it took me longer to do parts 2 and 3 than part 1.
I can't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but we've had a houseguest this week. One of Son's friends who moved away is back out here applying for AmeriCorps. He's leaving today and while he's been an okay guest, I'm glad to get my house back. Plus Bandit does the "stranger danger" bark everytime the young man gets in the house since, we got Bandit after this young man moved away from here several months ago. Dogs are such good judges of character so I'm beginning to get leary that they two of them haven't made friendly yet, since it's never taken this long with the other guys that hang out here.
The rest of my weekend is supposed to be ho-hum and I hope it happens. I need to get some laundry done, I can't remember the last time I dusted my living area, and I need a good stitch. I have a tiny bit of homework for next week and I need to get in a good stitch!
And can anyone tell me why the minute I hit "publish post" I see the 38 typos I missed after I proofread?
So, what does this mean to Husband? Husband is #3 in the zone and they're only promoting two Marines. Neither one of those Marines is a combat Marine and one of them has been stationed at the same duty station almost his whole 20 years, meaning he's never been on duty in a foreign country, combat or not, and I think this same Marine is the one who's EAS is November 4.
The way it's supposed to work is the board has certain criteria they're supposed to be looking for to promote to the upper ranks. Combat, flight service (if your MOS requires that - George Bush anyone?) foreign service, collateral duties, physical fitness, certain training courses (correspondence and in school) just to name a few very important ones. A photograph is taken of each Marine and submitted with their record jacket to Headquarters Marine Corps. The board looks at all the information on the Marine on paper. There are no personal interviews, no tests, nothing.
Husband has been in combat, he works for the Air Wing but does not fly so lack of flight time would not affect him, he's had 10 years of foreign service, he's filled more higher ranking positions that he cares to think about (collateral), he's top in the physical fitness program and maintains a lower enlisted first class PFT score even tho he's allowed to cut back because he's over 45 and his Marines hate him for it (long distance competitive runner, weight lifter) and I know he completed all training requirements before his last promotion board.
Does this mean he's automatically going to be selected because of this other Marine's EAS? Beats the heck out of me, but I'd sure love a crystal ball right about now.
Today is my computer exam. I guess I'm ready. I typed the notes I'll be allowed to use and will just have to wait and see. It's very hard to study for a first exam since I don't know how the teacher tests. I know some of it will be hands on computer work and of that ability I'm 100% confident.
12:00 update - I'm now home from school. It was a tougher than I expected and I don't know as much as I thought I did. Thank goodness we were allowed to use our notes and I'm a good note taker. There were 3 parts and it took me almost 2 hours. The professor decided to not lecture today and allow more than 2 hours since there are several students who don't type very fast (no minimum required to take the course). When I left the student sitting next to me was still on the first part and it took me longer to do parts 2 and 3 than part 1.
I can't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but we've had a houseguest this week. One of Son's friends who moved away is back out here applying for AmeriCorps. He's leaving today and while he's been an okay guest, I'm glad to get my house back. Plus Bandit does the "stranger danger" bark everytime the young man gets in the house since, we got Bandit after this young man moved away from here several months ago. Dogs are such good judges of character so I'm beginning to get leary that they two of them haven't made friendly yet, since it's never taken this long with the other guys that hang out here.
The rest of my weekend is supposed to be ho-hum and I hope it happens. I need to get some laundry done, I can't remember the last time I dusted my living area, and I need a good stitch. I have a tiny bit of homework for next week and I need to get in a good stitch!
And can anyone tell me why the minute I hit "publish post" I see the 38 typos I missed after I proofread?