As most people know, my husband Mike is a pilot. He obtained his private pilot license at age 19 and his commercial license after we were married. Flying is his passion. He knew he wanted to be a pilot when he was five years old. For the past couple of years we have been trying to get him into the Air Force, and then the Air National Guard.
I am incredibly happy, and proud, to report that he was just accepted as a pilot with the 191st Air Refueling Squadron of the Utah Air National Guard. He will be flying the KC 135Stratotanker, which is a big refueling jet.
To say that we are excited, is an understatement. We are grateful, excited, anxious, curious and ecstatic. :-) Mike has wanted this so badly, and I'm so thankful he gets to fulfill a lifelong dream.
So, what does this mean for us? Being in the Guard is going to be great! It is a part-time flying job, so he'll keep his job at Chase. The deployments will be short. He will always be stationed in Utah, so we don't have to move around, and best of all, he gets paid to fly. We have spent A LOT of money on flying since we've been married, so it will be nice to recoup some of those expenses. :-)
We won't know a timeline until next month, but here is a little of what lies ahead of us. Mike will go to six weeks of officer training and we can't go with him. Then he'll go to four weeks of initial flight training, and we don't get to go then either. Then, he'll start his year and a half of flight training and we'll move with him. Once he's done we'll come right back to Utah and never leave.
I'm really tired, so I'm going to bed. I'll post more on this next month when we find out more details.
Here is a picture of what he'll be flying and doing.
9 comments:
We love you guys are so HAPPY for you!!
Wow Liz - that's so exciting! Keep us posted!
Yeah!! Congrats Mike! That's awesome! I'm kinda sad you'll have to be moving even if it is just for a short period of time! But I am so excited for you guys!! Congrats!!
Congrats Mike!! Love the Starley's!!!
That is so wonderful! Where does he do officer training at? We were just at Lackland AFB in San Antonio for Lee's PRK surgery. (Maybe Mike will get that done--but maybe he doesn't wear glasses.) Lee did officer training just down to road from there at Fort Sam Houston, also in San Antonio. That is great that he can do it part time too. CONGRATS!
By the way, how long are deployments? Hopefully Lee doesn't get deployed because it would be for 12 months. We've heard Air Force is the most family-friendly, but they didn't have a good scholarship offer. Well, it was okay, but the Army one was more enticing. Didn't Mike just finish his MBA? Does he get to go in as a Captain?
Sorry--the last comment was from me, Ruth, but I was signed into my husband's account.
How exciting for you guys! My dad retired a few years ago from the 151st refueling unit and it was a great career for him. (He wasn't a pilot though- he just LOVES anything to do with planes.) Good luck and congratulations! And yeah!!! I found your blog! :)
Congratulations! That's so exciting.
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