Brandon had Selection Day today. Now we know what he will fly for the rest of his Army career.
I could just flat out tell you, but I feel like making you suffer through some of the same suspense that we had to go through. So I'm going to tell you what the process was like. If you are really impatient I guess you could skip down to the end of the post, but where is the fun in that?
It started off with Brandon and I dropping the kids off at a neighbor's house. We could have brought them with, but I didn't want to have do deal with four rambunctious kids in an official setting. So I was happy when the girls' Primary teacher agreed to watch all four kids.
Then we went to the Bravo Company building and found the classroom where we were supposed to meet. There was another class in there so we waited in the hall until they were done. There were many other soldiers waiting. Some of them joked among themselves, but you could tell they were nervous. One joked, "we'll get in there and they'll say, you all failed IERW. You're all starting over with the Lakotas." (This was one of the last classes trained on the TH-67s The Army's new training helicopter is called the Lakota.)
Finally, at 9:45 we were allowed into the room and we found our seats. Brandon and I sat in the back. We could have talked but we were just too nervous.
Around 9:50 one of the guys in charge (sorry I don't know his official title) took roll and everyone answered with "Here" or "Here Sir." Then he said, "you still have 7 minutes." And everyone groaned.
Brandon and I documented our nervous faces.
At 10:00 the guy gave a little speech about how this was probably the most important decision they'd make in their army career. (As if we didn't know it yet.) He also had everyone clap for the spouses for the support we've been giving. (One single soldier had jokingly asked if he could bring his dog since that's who had been helping him through flight school.)
Then another guy gave another little motivational speech. He seemed to be standing in for whoever normally does the job so he just said, "This is you motivational speech. Good luck." Everyone laughed nervously.
After that it was time for the National Guard soldiers to "select" their aircraft. When their names were called they would stand up and say their name, their home state, and then the aircraft. Most of them already knew what they would be flying, but some of them weren't sure on the model numbers. For example there are two options for which kind of Blackhawk. The is the UH-60M (Called the Mike model) And the UH-60A/L (Called the Alpha Lima Model). So some soldiers would say UH-60A/L and then be told that they were getting Mikes. or vise versa.
The funny guy at the front made sure to make some silly remark to each soldier. He joked with the Mississippi soldier about which college football team was better. And he told a short female soldier that she needed to stand up - even though she was already standing. He shook hands with a Texas soldier and said, "every soldier from Texas deserves a handshake."
That all helped relieve some of the tension in the room.
After the 20 or so National Guard guys had selected their aircraft there was a short pause while the guy in charge got their papers in order.
The mood in the room noticeably changed. There was relief from a lot of people and yet the nerves of others seemed to sky rocket.
In the front of the room was a white board that was covered with a screen. Behind the screen all the model numbers of the aircraft were written. Each model number had a tally mark for how many of those aircraft were available during this selection. There was a side for the Commanding Officers and a side for the Warrant Officers.
In the front of the room was a white board that was covered with a screen. Behind the screen all the model numbers of the aircraft were written. Each model number had a tally mark for how many of those aircraft were available during this selection. There was a side for the Commanding Officers and a side for the Warrant Officers.
Whichever group had the student with the highest GPA got go first. For the first time in anyone's memory their was a tie between the COs and the WOs for the highest GPA. The highest scoring CO and and the highest scoring WO faced off in a rock paper scissors competition. Scissors cut paper and the CO's got to do their selection first.
Somebody flipped a switch and the screen in front of the white board started raising up. Just as we could see what was written on the board someone turned off the lights and everyone groaned and laughed at the same time.
The lights came back on and we could see what was written.
AH-64E I
AH-64D 0
CH-47 I
UH-60 M IIII
UH-60 A/L II
C-12 II
OH-58 0
For those of you who can't read military goobidlygook (myself included) here is the translation.
AH-64 = Apache
CH-47 = Chinook
UH-60 = Blackhawk
C-12 = Airplane
OH-58 = Kiowa
OH-58 = Kiowa
The letters at the end of the model number represent slightly different models. For instance the M (known as Mike) model of Blackhawk has a glass cockpit. (That means it has computer screens for instruments). The A/L (said Alpha Lima) model has regular steam gauges for instruments.
The Officers selected their aircraft and then it was finally the Warrant Officers Turn.
Before I tell you how it all went down, lets do a quick run down of what we were expecting.
Brandon was hoping to get a C-12. He still really loves airplanes so that was his first choice.
The Warrant Officer with the highest score walked up to the front and wiped off the tally mark next to AH-64E. That was the one Apache on the list! Brandon noticeably relaxed once the Apache was out of the equation. No matter what he ended up with he'd be happy.
Now it was just a matter of waiting to see what the people ahead of Brandon selected. Each soldier was called by name and they would stand up and say what model they wanted. The soldier at the front would rub out the mark. Someone else was officially recording everyone's selections.
The two C-12s disappeared and the one Chinook.
It was just down to the four Mike model Blackhawks and the two Alpha Lima models. The Mikes were all gone and there were just two Alpha Limas left. The guy at the front said, "Congratulations Mr ____ and Mr Illguth. You are some of the first active duty UH-60 Alpha Lima pilots that we've had in a while."
And that was it. After all that build up it was over pretty quickly. The actual selection process probably took about 15 minutes.
We were so relieved to finally know what Brandon will be flying.
I left to go pick up the kids and Brandon stayed for a briefing. He found out that he only has about 6 weeks off before his training starts. That's way sooner than I expected. I'd been hoping for lots of family time while the kids are out of school this summer. But instead Brandon is going to be flying most of the summer. The way things look right now we'll have graduation and then move to the next duty station in the fall.
And where will we be moving? Well right now we don't know. But our options have narrowed down a bit. Here's a somewhat complete list of where Brandon could be assigned. He says that Fort Carson Colorado should also be on this list. That's good because that's probably our first choice. But we'll worry about all of that later.
