What We're Doing Here

Okay, so a little background as to why we are now in Alabama. Tom was in the Air Force for 4 years. In fact we met at Weber State after he got out of the service and had been stationed at Hill Air Force Base. He decided to stay in Utah and became a theatre major (No, he had never done anything remotely like theatre before) and we had classes and were cast in plays with each other. After graduation he went on and got his Masters in Film Production at The University of Utah. He has been working as a civilian for 22 years back at HAFB first as a producer/director (he was also writing and doing on-camera work) and then the past couple of years as Deputy Director when they changed that department to the Second Combat Camera Squadron.

He is also in the Coast Guard Reserves though he is on some kind of leave while we’re here. It’s always a little confusing because between both jobs he’s done quite a bit of traveling and it was always difficult keeping the two jobs straight for those of us at home. When he was activated for long periods of time after 9/11, those were all for the Coast Guard. This opportunity in Alabama however, is through his job at Hill Air Force Base.

First Day of School

So, he’s here going to The Air Command & Staff College. He was one of only 15 civilians chosen to come so it’s a great opportunity. Here are some stats:

There are 514 students

316 are Air Force

83 are from other branches of the military

75 are international students representing 68 countries

25 are reservists

15 are civilian

Average age is 35.8 (We think Tom is maybe the 2^nd oldest student here)

Students tend to be in the top 20% of their peer groups and will become senior leaders.

They tend to be Type A personalities (Um, for those of you who know Tom….ya think?)

The 514 students are broken down into 15 “divisions” and then those divisions are broken down into “flights”. In Tom’s flight there are 13 classmates. This is the group he spends the most time with. It includes 2 international students; one from Colombia and one from Saudi Arabia. One female who is expecting her first baby (twins) this Spring while her husband will be deployed (God bless her) and 3 of the other’s wives are expecting babies as well while they’re here. So yes, they are all in a very different season of their lives than we are.

Graduation will be in mid-June of 2012 but everyone here will start to find out where their next assignment is around Feb or March. The whole point of this program to earn a Master’s degree and prepare the students to move on and use the knowledge they’ve acquired here in new positions. So, though they are holding Tom’s job at HAFB for him (someone is in it temporarily for now) until he has something else, the real intent is to take this experience and move on to something new. Definitely, an adventure.