Military Rollercoaster

So Mario has a couple dream jobs in the military.  One would be a Spanish instructor at the Academy in Colorado.  The second would be ROTC commander at a university.  He's begged for the Spanish instructor job and even told his commander he was willing to give up the chance for Colonel if they gave it to him.  He was denied because the military knew it would be a career ender.  So we moved to Omaha.

Now it's time to look for a new assignment.  As a Lt. Colonel, he is eligible to be  an ROTC commander. If he wants any chance at Colonel, (he's recently stated that he's glad he didn't close any doors to making Colonel, thanks to my advice) he needs a command job.  That would leave ROTC or Communications command.  He hates Comm and didn't really want to go that route.  He has dual career fields, the other being Regional Affairs Strategist.  Both career fields have to approve his next assignment.  RAS told him they wouldn't support him going ROTC because he is due to go back to RAS assignment after Omaha.  They would only release him to be Communications commander.  He prayed about it and went to the Temple and decided he would apply for Comm command if that meant he would be closer to making Colonel.  But later he was having major second thoughts.

When he saw an opportunity for RAS to send him to the academy, he decided he would give up on Colonel to have his dream job.  He really just wants to make sure he is around for the family.  It is a pivotal time for our children as Erin graduates from that assignment and the twins will be working towards Eagle scout.  He called RAS and said, "Ok, I will take the academy job."  The RAS guy told Mario that it wasn't an option.  It was a mistake on the slideshow Mario had seen previously.  I guess the assignment guy softened his heart and told Mario he would release him to be ROTC commander. Mario had been praying a lot for him to change his mind.

So now we are back on track to apply for ROTC.  The list of schools becomes available this summer. So hopefully Mario will get picked up to be a commander.  He has a good record so I think he will. We are hoping to stay in Omaha so we can lessen the hardships on our children.  But when the list comes out, we will let Erin choose her top 5 places to move if we have to move.   No guarantee they will give us anything on our wishlist though.

Mario has a lot of faith.  He has spent the last couple weeks getting his hair (two haircuts in a 8 days) and uniform in order to take a very professional picture for his ROTC application.  I honestly thought he was wasting his time on this picture because I didn't think RAS would release him to do ROTC. Obviously I need more faith.