With just 8 days to go until I retire from the Coast Guard, todays 20 Years a Coastie post is about two things. Transferring from Air Station New Orleans to the Coast Guards Aviation Training Center in Mobile, AL in 2013, and sending a well earned Thank You to a group of people over there for doing what they did so my career ended on a positive. First, the transfer. Up until that transfer season, wherever I went, the family went there with me. We would pick units that would work for Emilys medical needs and her job potential, as well as what I wanted to do with my tour. I never had the desire to jump to another airframe, so it was always 65 units. And since Emily had a heart condition that required big city hospital treatment that was aggravated by the cold, we were limited to 65 Units in the south. So for 15 years, we focused on L.A., Houston, New Orleans, Miami, and Savannah. I was ok missing out on L.A., although I hear it was an awesome unit, and Savannah just was never in the cards for us. So we got on the Grapefruit Tour, and hopped from one grapefruit producing state to the next. But one place I really did not want to go was ATC Mobile. No SAR, and it is a HUGE unit in a small city. After a stint in Miami, I realized I am a small unit in a big city kind of Coastie. We once had visions of Hawaii, but once we had the kids, that idea took a nosedive. A bit far to travel for family visits for our taste. Plus, Emilys job and medical care prospects were pretty limited. But for the 2013 Transfer Season, all we wanted was an extension in New Orleans. Not because the unit was great. In fact, if you read my (friends only) post from a few days ago, you will know that the AvEng department was going through a serious rough patch. But I knew I was looking at retirement about 15 months after I was due to transfer. And with the kids settled in schools, Emily becoming a rising star at her bank, and us knowing NOLA was where we wanted to set our roots, an Extension was what worked best for our family. Unfortunately, that was not happening. But, knowing I wanted to stay close, they offered me Mobile, AL as a sort of consolation prize. It was certainly not ideal, but as I really didnt have a choice to stay, Emily and I sat down to weigh the options of how we were going to do it. For those Military Families who have never been in this situation, and for non-military peeps who have never had the pleasure of being told This is where you are going, and if you dont like it, tough, because you cant exactly quit, I will tell you right now that it comes down to picking the lesser of the evils. When someone in the Military is in this position, it basically comes to 6 options, none if which we really wanted, but had to settle on one that we could live with the most. Option 1. Try for another unit (Houston, Miami, Savannah) and we all go together. The big downside to this is that if they say No and Mobile comes off the table, they could send me to fricken Alaska. And I would definitely be going there alone. Plus, it ment Emily giving up her job, and with her potential for upward mobility and this being my Twilight Tour (15 months minimum, 2.5 years maximum), that had potential to really screw us in the future. Sooo...NEXT... Option 2. We all go to Mobile. See Option 1 for why that wasnt gonna work and add to it that Emilys job prospects were going to be wayyyyy limited for her career specialization. Soooo...NOPE... Option 3. I go to Mobile with the kids and Emily stays in NOLA, working a 4 day work week. This option had alot of merit. We would not have to keep 2 houses, as Emily may have been able to get the Corporate Appartment in NOLA, meaning only 1 rent instead of 2. And since I would not be standing Duty in Mobile (except once a month OOD), I would have been available to get the kids every day. The problem came down to uprooting the kids and moving everything for just 1 year. The cost, both financially and emotionally, just didnt play out. Plus, when we moved back after my retirement, we would be forced to buy a house that we searched for from a distance, rather than being able to settle back into NOLA and take our time to look. Soooo...Try Again... Option 4. We find a place in the middle and both drive an hour and a half to work each day. I know people who do this, but once you add school age kids to the mix, it falls apart. Plus, 3 fricken hours a day driving. No thank you. Option 5. Not even an option for us, but some people use this as an opportunity for a non-working spouse and the kids to go spend a year or two with their parents, while the Coastie heads off to the Unit alone. For people who are not looking to settle in either the old or the new unit, and when the spouse isnt worrying about keeping their job, this is actually a great Family Focused option. But not gonna work for us. Option 6. I go to Mobile, the family stays in NOLA, and we see each other on the weekends. Because we were going to settle in NOLA, and we wanted to avoid uprooting the kids, this was our only real choice. The downside (aside from the time apart and Emily having to play Single Mom during the week) is that since my Housing Allowance is about $600 less in Mobile that in New Orleans, and we needed 2 places, we were basically doubling our rent. Between that and all the other expenses of maintaining 2 places and driving every weekend, we could have bought a new car for the ammount we had to shell out this past year. I looked at staying in a hotel during the week or finding a really cheap place, but that wasnt going to work out if they were going to come visit me and Dori could stay with me over the summer. So we found a reasonably priced apartment, and away I went for the next 15 months. Every Friday (just about) I would hop in the car after work and drive 2 1/2 hours home. If I was lucky, I would get home in time to see the kids before bed. Then I would spend Saturday and Sunday with my girls, doing family stuff during the day and having some Out and About NOLA fun with Emily Saturday night. I also would useualy take the kids for about 6 hours one of those days for some Daddy / Daughter time and to give Emily a chance to recharge. Then, after dinner on Sunday night, I would drive back to Mobile to start it all over again. After the first month or two, it became like Groundhog Day. The only break in the monotony was the fact I had about 60 Days of Leave and TAD time to spend in New Orleans with the family, which I used at a week or two at a pop throughout the year. But by the end, we were all kinda burned out. I dont know how people do it for 4 years and at a greater distance. But there were two major Upsides to this. 1, Emily and I became tighter as a couple, because we took the time we spent together more seriously. And 2 (and the second part of this post, being the Thank You) ATC Mobile, while not a place I wanted to go initially, turned out to be exactly what I needed before I said goodbye to the Coast Guard. I wont rehash it here, but at the time, the atmosphere of Air Station New Orleans was the worst I have seen in about 20 years, and not just for me. Most of the people at my level and below were feeling that, and it wasnt looking to get better any time soon. I do think that if I stayed, it would have worn down my sunny, optimistic disposition, and I would have become bitter, just counting down the days. Instead, while I am clearly still counting down the days, it is with a sence of bringing 20 years of awesomeness to a close. Like finishing a great book, rather than waiting for a crappy movie to end. And the main reason for that is because the Cheifs Corps in Mobile were what a Cheifs Corps should be. They looked out for their people, did their job without dumping it on those below them, and NEVER threw their people under the bus to save their own skin. Not that things were always rainbows and unicorn farts. Sometimes they would drop that Anchor, but it was when appropriate, and not for selfish reasons. On my check out, I thanked each of them in private, but here is a public Thank You for all of them. Thank you for letting me go out of the Coast Guard with a solid Cheifs Corps above me. I am not sure if you know what that ment to me, but I think that THAT, more than anything, enabled me to keep a positive attitude about the negative changes in the Coast Guard. I know you were just doing the job as it should have been done, but it really did make a difference for me and alot of the guys on that hanger deck. MC Langlois, please pass my thanks and what it ment to me along to the Cheifs I am not on FB with and unable to tag here. Thanks.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 16:40:29 +0000
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