Brandon dropped something very important today . . .

I woke up this morning to an e-mail from Brandon that contained 5 little words that I have been waiting to read for over a year.  This is what they said.

My packet has been sent.

Five little words that seem so simple and yet mean so very very much.

Brandon has turned in his application to be a helicopter pilot as a Warrant Officer.  In military lingo this is referred to as "dropping his packet."

It's been 4 years since Brandon decided to graduate from Utah State without finishing his flight ratings.  At the time we thought that he could earn those at the small flight school in Woods Cross.  That plan was shelved when we discovered that I was still* pregnant with the twins.

We went into financial survival mode.  Brandon had a job that covered the basic bills.  There was no money for paying the student loans and there certainly wasn't money for more flying.  I vividly remember the despair that I felt the day that Brandon's instrument rating lapsed because we didn't have the money for him to do the required flying to keep it current.

Over the next several years Brandon's dream of flying seemed destined to be one of those things that never panned out.  We chased other aviation related careers for a while.  He worked for an airline hoping to move up in the company.  Unfortunately the work environment and the pay were awful.  Then he spent a lot of time applying for jobs with the FAA.  When we found out he was missing a qualification for the FAA jobs we became desperate.

Brandon joined the Army because he needed a job that could support his family and help us get out of debt. He was too old for the Air Force and had too many dependents for the Navy.  We'd heard that there were helicopter pilots in the Army, but nobody could really tell us that much about how to become one. The plan was to pay off as much debt as possible while serving in the Army.  Once we were out of debt we'd look into maybe paying for flight school so Brandon could finish his ratings.

Brandon learned about Warrant Officers during basic training.  He even had a drill instructor who sat down with him and started looking at the requirements to become a Warrant Officer Helicopter Pilot.  For the first time in a long time Brandon began to think that he might have a chance at achieving his dream of flying for a living.

In January of 2013 we moved to Fort Hood.  Within the first week we found out that Brandon's unit would be deploying to Korea in June.  And then a few weeks later we found out I was pregnant with Veronica.  Brandon started working on his Warrant Officer application packet right away.  He was hoping that somehow he could go to flight school instead of Korea.  Thankfully the deployment was delayed until after Veronica's due date, but he continued to work on the packet.

At first he was met with a lot of opposition. No one in his unit believed that he really could be a pilot - even though he was a private pilot already.  Then the first miracle occurred.  Brandon helped a Lieutenant with some little job. The Lieutenant was impressed with Brandon's work ethic.  He helped Brandon with the paperwork needed to take the SIFT test.  Brandon scored very well on that aptitude test.  After that his supervisors supported him when he said he wanted to become a helicopter pilot.

That was in March of last year.  Even with support from his unit the process to get everything together for his packet was excruciatingly slow.  Everything took months.  And it didn't help that he had to spend a lot of time out in the field.

Gradually it all came together - tiny miracle after tiny miracle.  Brandon passed his flight physical, he obtained his security clearance, his supervisors wrote two glowing letters of recommendation, he had an official Army photograph taken without the usual months long waiting period, and he was given lots of time during work to work on filling out his packet.  It seemed like he might get to drop his packet before he left for Korea.  For a while we even still hoped that he could get it turned in and avoid going to Korea.

The only problem was he couldn't find a Chief Warrant Officer 5 to write him a letter of recommendation.  He interviewed with two lower officers but those interviews didn't pan out.  One said he would pass on Brandon's info to a CW5, but then never did.  The other WO got hung up on some technicalities and didn't think Brandon was ready.

So, despite working feverishly on his packet for almost a year, Brandon went to Korea without turning in his packet first.

The ironic thing is that going to Korea was probably the best thing that could have happened to him and his application.  Within a month of Brandon's arrival in Korea, the Military Relations Missionaries introduced him to a Warrant Officer 2.  That WO interviewed Brandon and then referred him to a Chief Warrant Officer 5.  That CW5 interviewed Brandon and wrote an incredible letter of recommendation.  I get teary eyed every time I read it.

While all that was happening, Brandon was transferred to a new section of his battalion.  It was kind of a prestigious transfer and it will look really good on his application.  The people that he worked with are also very supportive of his application and gave him time to work on it.

He spent the past few days working on his packet every chance he had.  I reviewed it a few times and suggested edits.  His dad looked it over too.

And then Brandon attached it to an e-mail and hit send.

After all that work it was kind of anti-climatic to just send an e-mail from his computer.  Fireworks should have been going off, a marching band should have played a fanfare.  Instead it just went into his sent folder.

So now what?

For now all we have to do is wait.  The review board meets in the middle of July.  There really isn't anything to do until then.  Brandon doesn't even need to appear before the board. The letters of recommendation pretty much count as an interview.

I don't know when we will hear back about whether or not Brandon has been selected for flight school.  If he is selected he will go to approximately 3 months of preliminary training.  After those are completed we will all move to Fort Rucker, Alabama for 2 years of flight school.

Part of me worries he wont be selected.  There have been so many disappointments over the years as we've chased this flying dream. I'm kind of afraid to get my hopes up.  But the rest of me feels that this time it is different.  Everything has worked out so far.  I have faith that it will continue to work out.

Brandon and I talked this morning and we both said we feel kind of like Inigo Montoya in the Princess Bride.  To paraphrase one of his lines, "I've been in the application business for so long I do not know what to do with the rest of my life."

So for now we wait, pray, and CELEBRATE!.

*Its a long story.  Read this post for the details.