One More (quick) Stop Before Selection Day

Well I am sure this post is a bit of a teaser, seeing as I made it sound like my very next post would be the exciting announcement of Jordan's flight platform. However, I wanted to document this final training phase of primary: forms, or formation flying.

I've spent this past weekend making myself scarce, tiptoeing around the house like a little mouse, and providing delicious sustenance, while Jordan and his formation flying partner studied non-stop in our living room. Most of their studying consisted of reciting radio communications, and practicing briefs (which sound like completely different languages to me) and chair flying. Chair flying is basically what it sounds like. Jordan and his partner took chairs from our dining room, and were pretending to fly as they moved the chairs around in their simulated formation flights, all while practicing reciting their radio communication, and imagining and acting out all their hand signals and flight procedures for their upcoming 8 flights together.

Jordan's formation partner has, unbelievably, had an even crazier fight to get to this point in flight school than even Jordan has. After finishing TBS in Virginia, he was sent to Infantry Officer Course (IOC), an EXTREMELY vigorous 3 month course, and then subsequently deployed to Afghanistan as an Infantry Officer for 9 months. During that time, he witnessed the many atrocities that this war entails and furthermore, was away from his wife during the entire term of her pregnancy with their first born child. Thankfully the baby was late, and he returned home 12 days before the birth of their son! However, his deployment left an everlasting impression on him and his future career decisions. While always being a die-hard jet guy, his priorities have shifted because of his experiences while overseas, and his first choice is now C-130s.  And when asked over a beautiful dinner, if I do say so myself, of balsamic dijon glazed salmon, grilled lemon asparagus and zucchini, and a strawberry honey balsamic salad,  if he would do that Infantry Officer deployment experience again, even after everything he witnessed and the experiences that he missed out on with his wife's pregnancy, he said yes, I would do it again. I am just personally thankful Jordan didn't have to do a ground deployment, although he said he would have wanted to as well!

Jordan and I often have the conversation about how funny it is, for as much as I experience and know about during his ongoing training and flight schedules, I only see the preparation that goes into his flights while on the ground, and can't even begin to imagine what his experiences must be like while actually flying in the skies above Corpus. So again, while I have been quietly giggling to myself while watching these two grown 27-year-old men, chair flying around our living room, it is hard to imagine them formation flying in the sky during the day while I am at work. I have seen the formation flights in the skies above base as I drive around on a daily basis, and have been in awe of their precision and accuracy, and have always dreaded the day when it was Jordan's turn to begin forms. Obviously the guys are not flying within 12" wing to wing like the blue angels, but they are flying in very close proximity-only 4 feet from wing tip to wing tip, and at this stage of flight school, with the limited number of hours and months of experience these pilots have accumulated, it is both awesome, and a testament to their ability and hard-core training!

Jordan, who is lead pilot for their first formation flights, and his wingman, personally would like to put a disclaimer in for the following pictures, that this formation flying will definitely look so much "cooler" once they are in the air...so I will have to update this post with more pictures once they get actual photos of their formation flights. Until then, you can giggle with me as these big-bad-marines chair-fly in our living room!

Notice the serious concentration and acting skills here: hands on the stick, other hand on the radio controls,  foot on the rudder pedals!

Marine Wife Lesson #4: If you Live on a Military Base...Always Keep a Clean Home!

Jordan and I have greatly enjoyed our decision to live on the base here in Corpus Christi, TX. As I have mentioned previously, Jordan enjoys his short commute and being able to come home for lunch or go back to "sims" (flight simulators) anytime he wants for more practice. We also love the security that comes with living on base, so much so that we have let our guard down, probably a bit too much, and often find ourselves not locking our doors at all. Which brings me to Marine Wife Lesson #4: If you live on a military base, always keep a clean home... because you never know when you will have your husbands co-workers coming over for lunch, dinner, to play with your dog, use your shower, cram in a quick study session, or take a quick nap between classes. We do greatly enjoy all of Jordan's friends, and they are all so grateful and respectful, but we have also had a few funny stories....

Story 1:

I was running late for work (as I often do most days) and was scurring around haphazardly somewhere between my 3rd and 4th outfit change of the morning, and attempting to quickly iron my next attempt at an outfit, using one of the barstools in our kitchen as a quick substitute for the ironing board, when I thought to myself...I should probably just lock the front door right now. Well, 2 minutes later I hear someone trying to open the door. Flustered and half dressed, I looked through the peephole to see Jordan. Luckily I happened to ask if he was alone...and thank goodness I did, because he had brought home another one of his buddies for lunch. I quickly locked the door back in place and yelled for him to hold on 2 minutes, as I scurried around as fast as I could to finish getting dressed, before letting them both in. Phew, that was close!

Story 2:

On those mornings when I am not scrambling around the house in a frantic rush to get ready for work, I greatly enjoy the luxury of being able to sleep in on my days off, Thursday being one of those days. The other day I must have been in such a deep sleep that I did not hear the knocking at our front door (keep in mind we have a small townhome, and our Master Bedroom is on the bottom floor). A few phone calls later, Jordan wakes me up from my slumber to inform me that one of his friends is at the front door, and he had been knocking for 20 minutes, because Jordan had previously arranged for him to use our shower that day, since his water was turned off that morning because of construction on his  apartment building. So much for a nice relaxing slumber!

Story 3:

Sometimes though, I am the surprise intruder in my own house, and catch whatever occupants are relaxing on our couch off guard. One of Jordan's good friends here in Texas, loves our dog. He was so kind to watch Gunnar while we were in California last month, and often asks if he can just hang out and play with Gunnar between his Sims. Well, one day I came home from grocery shopping to find him fast asleep taking a nap on our couch, with his boots propped up on our ottoman, and Law and Order : SVU playing on the TV. To complete the picture, Gunnar was also fast asleep, laying across his lap! I have to admit, it melted my heart a little bit.

Reminiscing about these stories makes me smile fondly and laugh, because I just love the camaraderie and family we have found in the military. I love that we have this military family here in whatever state we find ourselves in, and that despite only knowing these current group of Marines for 5 months, we are all comfortable enough with each other to act like family.

Well Jordan is currently on the final leg here of Primary, and will be completing his last bit of training over these next few weeks. Somewhere between the end of September to the beginning of October, he will be selecting his flight platform! This is going to be an extremely anxious day for the two of us, but of course even more so for him! We are both already currently losing sleep over upcoming decision even now! Since signing up for Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps with his flight contract back in 2005, Jordan has fought for and waited for this day to come, and it is finally nearly upon us. Sometime in the next month, Jordan will be selected to fly one of the following types of aircrafts for the Marine Corps: C-130's, Jets, Helicopters, or Osprey's. After selecting his platform, he will then move on to Advanced, where he will train specifically in one of these platforms, and then select the specific aircraft within that platform. Each one of these options has it's own exciting aspects, as well as its drawbacks. So in order to prepare you all for the announcement that will no doubt be attached to my next post, let me explain each one of these platforms, which Jordan may have the opportunity to fly:

C-130's: C-130's are the main transport aircraft of the Marine Corps, they transport cargo and troops from the U.S. to the operating airstations overseas. C-130 pilots are said to have the best family life, because their deployments are relatively short, but also more frequent, a few weeks deployed, a few weeks home. However, when they are in fact deployed, they are traveling in safe zones, say for example, from here to Germany, so the wives at home can rest easy .C-130's are also an easy transition to commercial airliner planes in the civilian world. However, these things are like giant buses in the air, and are less tactical then the rest of the platform options. And although they sound so appealing to most of us and are of course most wives' number 1 choice, for someone like Jordan, who you all know has a need for speed, it's probably not one of his top choices.

Jets: Jets are high performance aircrafts, and well, go pretty darn fast, as in faster than the speed of sound. However, with that power comes a lot of precaution. It's not all the glory that you see in movies like Top Gun, but more so learning how to perfect extremely dangerous techniques, such as short landings and takeoffs from aircraft carriers (see the documentary "Angels and Demons" if you are interested in to what goes in to this training). Jets also have long hours, because they require long pre-flight briefs in order to discuss all of the technicalities of flying such an advanced, high-powered airplane. However, conversely these pilots get very little actual flight time, approximately only 10-20 hours a month. The training for Jets in advanced is also approximately 6-8 months longer than other platforms training because of the deep airsupport role of supporting ground marines at high speeds and high altitudes, and also comes with a longer commitment, an additional 2 years longer than that of helicopters ( 8 years versus 6).

Helicopters: Aka "helos", are low-flying, aircrafts which work closely with ground Marines regularly, and are deployed forwardly with the ground Marines in hostile bases. They are "down and dirty" and in the fight, which is a pro for many Marine Aviators (although definitely a con for their wives). They have a few varying role options from transport toattack, but they are all forward, short-range, operating aircraft, which means they are usually all operating in hostile environments, regardless of their role. Helos make up the majority of the Marine Corps fleet. Although they seem very scary and the most dangerous of all, the positive of getting helos would be the pilots get the most flying hours out of all platforms, and we could possibly be stationed in Hawaii or Camp Pendelton, CA!

Ospreys: Ospreys are the newest of the flight platforms for the Marine Corps. They are a combination of helicopters and high-speed troop transport plane. Their main role is to deliver special operation Marines (the Marine Corps version of Navy Seals, called Recon Marines) in to combat zones, because of their ability for vertical take off and landing. It has the speed of a plane, but the forward deployment capabilites of a helicopter, in other words, they can land on makeshift airfields in the middle of hostile zones. This is the newest "bird" in the department of defense which is soley for the use of the Marine Corps. Each Osprey costs about 3x as much as a tactical jet, about 70 million dollars.

Jordan will put his own preference list in on selection day; however, one's preferences are not the only determining factor in to what platform you receive. The needs of the Marine Corps are the number one determining factor of your flight platform, and this varies by the week you graduate. So the week Jordan graduates, there may, for example be a draft for a certain platform, where the Marine Corps needs a certain amount of pilots for a specific flight platform (C130s, Jets, Helos, or Ospreys), and regardless of what your grades were, or what your preferences were, every person graduating that week  might receive that type of aircraft. So at the end of Primary, Jordan will just have to keep faith and be confident that he has put in his maximum effort and time devoted to studying, and just know whatever he is selected for, is what is meant to be for him and his career. Unfortunately for you all, I am not going to divulge Jordan's preference list to you, but we would appreciate all of your prayers these next coming weeks for Jordan. That he performs to his utmost ability and that he may have comfort and confidence in his abilities and the plan that God has laid out for him for his future.