Exodus

After a grueling 4 months Matt was not only told but ordered to go home for Christmas. He has a whole 2 weeks to spend with family before he graduates and ships off to Korea.

Matt's graduation is officially set for January 14, 2010. As long as there are no glitches, he will ship out within a day or two for Korea where he will live for the next year.

Matt has one more test to take but if he does as well on this test as he has on all the others he will graduate on top of his class! We are all very impressed, although not very surprised :)

As soon as he gets more information (like his address and such) I'll post it. Remember he'll be far from home and in a very different place and really won't know anyone because he hasn't had much opportunity to get to know people. Letters and care packages will be super appreciated. If nothing else, an email would be grand too. I'll post that when he decides which account he is going to use.

We really appreciate all your support this crazy, difficult year and we Wish you a Happy New Year! (hopefully filled with amazing and wonderful things for everyone...we all need it!)

Follow-on orders

Because Matt is being sent to Korea (an undesirable location for most airman) they allowed him to create a list of his top 4 choices for a follow-on assignment, where he'll be assigned next year.

We chose to put on our list
1. Guam
2. Nevada
3. Germany
4. another Germany

Today he got his orders and the verdict is GUAM! I'm actually really really really really really really (okay, enough, but really!) excited about this assignment.

Guam lies south of Japan- about a 3 hour plane ride. Its the furthest west territory that the US owns. It is said that the US says good morning in Guam because it is the first place that sees the sun on any given day in the US. The weather there is generally between 75-85 degrees year round and has a 6 month rainy season- July-December (I think). The island is only 30 miles long, 12 miles wide at its widest and is primarily a military island. But there is a large group of 'natives' and tourism is booming.

The beaches are all sandy, the coral boasts hundreds of species of fish and because of the reefs, most of the beaches are pretty calm.

We will most likely be there for 3 years as that is how long a tour in Guam generally lasts. But if it turns out as heavenly as it sounds, I just might want to stay there my whole life!

Blowing Stuff Up

Thanksgiving for Matt was wonderful. We got to spend Thursday through Sunday with him. He got a new packet of homework to work on but didn't because he didn't want to 'ruin' his vacation.

This week, tomorrow actually, he gets to go out to 'the fields' and watch bombs explode! He said this exercize is to show them how dangerous the explosives he is working on actually are. This is to drum into their brains how important it is to follow directions and not have things like cell phones and beeping watches around. Everything is important when you are dealing with human life.

Matt is pretty excited about school. This week he learns to work on bombs, next week its missels. Idon't know what comes after that but he is only 4 weeks away from graduation!

Matt gets Christmas off- its actually called Exodus, where everyone leaves the base who doesn't have to be there. There are a full two weeks where no one works unless they have to. So Matt will come home December 20 and stay until around New Years. It's going to be a great holiday. (Actually, I'm looking forward to him doing the dishes, vaccuming and cleaning the bathrooms! That'll be a great Christmas present!)

When classes start up again after Christmas its more or less a countdown to the end. Probably a few tests and several briefings. And then Korea.

Matt'll be recieving his follow on orders really soon- he hopes by the end of this week. I'll definately post when I recieve that information!