A lesson in patience or unfairness?  Maybe.  Life isn’t always fair, and at least what I’ve been presented isn’t that bad of a deal.

I can’t tell you how much I’m ready to get back to flying.  I’ve learned a lot in my current non-flying assignment, much of which I never would’ve learned in a flying-only career.  I’ve enjoyed it; I feel like I’ve actually made a difference in the current U.S. conflict, I have an understanding of how the military fits together and operates as a whole, and I’ve had the chance to truly lead people and fight for my guys.  You don’t get that kind of opportunity in a flying squadron until you reach a Squadron-Commander-or-higher type of job (and that would be about 10 years out based on my rank and time).

The value of bringing me into the job that I’m in is because I can bring a pilot’s perspective to the ground scenario (I guess you can call me an “Army-to-Air-Force translator”).  The problem about keeping me in this job for too long is that with time, my specific flying knowledge that I used to experience on a day-to-day basis starts to fade… which again, I’m brought to this job in the first place because of my flying knowledge. Sure, I do my studying and research to keep up with the tactics and weaponry, but nothing beats hands-on.  I’ve always been a hands-on learner.  They say a look is worth a thousand words?  Well for me, doing is worth reading a thousand books on the topic.  In a few months, I’ll be going on 2 years without touching a cockpit.  I’m ready to get back to what I’m used to. I can’t tell you how much I’m ready to get back to flying.

I posted a month ago about the Air Force, in their infinite wisdom, pushing all Army-related assignment lengths right 3-4 months.  Instead of getting back to the jet in December ‘08, I got pushed to April ‘09.  Really that just means that I have a 3rd full rotation to the sandbox again (in 2 years!).  I can deal with that (though I know Pam’s not the happiest about it).

To see what potentially can be in the cards for me come April, I gave a call to the assignments guys.  *Sigh* It looks like I’ve been pushed right another 3-4 months.  At this point, I’ll get my first crack at flying about this time next year: July/August ‘09. That hurts, but of course it could always be worse… there are guys stuck in UAVs (think computer flying simulators) indefinitely right now (ouch!) – they were promised 3 years there before they could go back and actually fly again, and the reply they’re now getting is “indefinite.”  At this point, I’m almost expecting one more slip in addition to the 2 that I’ve already had - to make my total “slippage” 1 extra year.  I hope it doesn’t happen that way; that’d probably incur a 4th trip to the sandbox.

Anyway, when you’re looking forward to actually flying again, getting strung along sucks… I kinda feel like the jackass in the picture…