When will we find out...

where we might be going for active duty???? I thought we would have the list by now at least ( I know it doesn't really matter but I would like to see the choices). Is anyone else waiting? I would love to know if we have been forgotten or things are just SLOW! I am trying not to worry about it but it is getting close to the end of feb. and still nothing.

[DCJenn]

February is early yet. I think most people found out by end of March, early April. The way it works is that they know who the incoming residents and interns are for each training program. They should now know who is retiring from each program (the contracts that need to be signed will be signed in the spring). They'll take a look at the current physician base and see of there are transfers that are being requested (from either side) and then and only then will they figure out where the graduating residents are going. They'll take a look at where they want to go vs/ where they need them to go and I suppose they'll say that they try to match them up- experience has shown that preferences are usually based on the needs of the military first.

So- bottom line, it's the trickle down theory. If you husband has any contacts with people on the inside, he may find out early. When my husband graduated from USUHS we knew way in advance that we were coming to SA because the Program Director's secretary told us.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Jenn

Anyone? Has anyone found out yet? I go to the mailbox every afternoon hoping. . .

Nothing! I think ours should be here soon but who really knows...

I made my husband make some phone calls today. I couldn't stand it anymore. Supposedly orders were supposed to come out the first week in March (uhm, isn't that NOW? ) but are delayed for "some reason." So it should be very soon. Needless to say, DH has orders to make some more phone calls tomorrow. I am not going to make another $150 preschool deposit without some certainty.

[DCJenn]

I asked an AF friend lasst evening and she said she wouldn't get too excited until mid-April. None of the fellows have their orders yet, either.

Jenn

Who knows....
I guess some of the residents here and others being traded out, recently heard...as in, last week, yesterday, ten minutes ago...
We found out sometime near the end of March, I believe.

My dh (army) called yesterday too and they said that we should know by 3/31. I hope we know by then! I am starting to get a little restless...

Gosh, I hate how they control your life. DH got an email this morning and it said that we are most likely going to the other base (yeah, the one that they said had about an 8% chance of working out).

hate, hate, hate, hate. . .see me in the call room. . .

I am so happy to hear that someone else admits to feeling the same way I do. I think this is insane! Some of the places on the list would be a crazy adjustment (korea???) and I think a little bit of time to prepare would be nice. I have no idea the timing or money situation. I am nervous that we won't have money for a period of time. We are running on fumes as it is and this year is so expensive with reviews and boards!!

What base/post did they say you might be going to?

Hope I can survive the week let alone the entire month of March!

Anne

[DCJenn]

I gave up to the Gods of War a long time ago. I think it's the only way to get through it w/ a modicum of sanity at the end.

The military spouse is a unique person and that's way WAAAAAAY long time ago Sally and I decided we needed our own forum.

At least the good news is that a lot of the seriously crappy bases/posts have been closed over the last 10 years. (although not Ft. Irwin- I was so dreading that we'd be sent to Ft. Irwin. He had the nerve to put Ft. Irwin on the list. I think the only person in the world that would have been happy would have been a spouse who was here at the time whose husband got stuck at 29 Palms (Navy Ped))

And between us all I'm sure we have enough connections to hook you all up with people to get the lo down on whereever the Gods of War decide to send you!


Jenn

Screw them. I'm so sick of it. It's very likely that it is Ohio or Cali. A month ago, it was almost 90% certain that we were headed to Cali. Last week, an email stated that Ohio was very likely. This weekend, California again. The guy was so "kind" to apologize that the orders are coming out late this year.

Jenn - how much weight would you put on the word of someone who is working at the base where we (think) we are going? Would they be fairly certain in their knowledge of whether someone is going to be joining them or not? The "insider" would be DH's partner.

Anne - Oh, I don't think you'll be out of money. From our experience, the military is notorious for giving you a ton of money and then 2-3 months later, calling you and saying "Oh wait! We overpaid you. . .we'll have to take that out of your checks for the next 6 months!" That SUCKS.

From our experience, the military is notorious for giving you a ton of money and then 2-3 months later, calling you and saying "Oh wait! We overpaid you. . .we'll have to take that out of your checks for the next 6 months!" That SUCKS.

Been there, done that...still have the wounds to show for it...

[mommax3]

Jenn - how much weight would you put on the word of someone who is working at the base where we (think) we are going? Would they be fairly certain in their knowledge of whether someone is going to be joining them or not? The "insider" would be DH's partner.

Not Jenn, but just a word to the wise.....

When DH was finishing residency, it was well-known that the Army was short OBs and the AF had a surplus. The Air Force was willing to "lend" OBs to the Army, if the OB volunteered to take an Army posting. DH's parents live near Ft. Riley in KS, and at the time, I was pregnant with our third baby, so we were all over the deal. Things looked like they were going well. We filled out our preference sheet accordingly, with Ft. Riley 1st and other midwestern AF bases after that. The consultant all but told DH that it was a done deal. People at Ft. Riley who were moving on started emailing their house listings to DH. At the end of March, 2001, we found out that.......we were going to Mountain Home AFB in ID, which hadn't even been on our list of possibilities. We were so disappointed that we bought a Suburban (long but true story). Four weeks later, someone who had been assigned to Sheppard AFB contacted DH and asked if he wanted to trade assignments, and since we hadn't been to either place, we traded in order to make our move (and the next four years) easier, since Sheppard/TX was closer to family. After we moved to Sheppard, we were visiting my in-laws and one of my sons had to go to the ER at Ft. Riley. When DH checked in at the desk, the overwhelming response from the people there was "Aren't you the AF OB who is coming here?" They still didn't know his assignment had changed.

We finally figured out what happened with our assignment. There was a female AF OB assigned to Sheppard after a civilian residency that HATED it there. (I can sympathize. ) She also had family near Ft. Riley, and when she heard of the OB shortage that the Army was experiencing, she called Ft. Riley directly and basically, got herself a new job. Because she was new to the military, she "claimed" ignorance of the process and said she didn't know she was supposed to go through channels regarding getting her assignment changed. So the Air Force went ahead, not knowing of this arrangement, and assigned DH to be loaned out, but when they went to finalize that, they realized that the place they were going to loan him had already been taken by this other chick. Then they just had to stick DH wherever there was a slot, and due to DH trading with someone else, he ended up filling the slot left by the woman who took the spot that had been his at Ft. Riley, even though DH had more active duty time in than she did, and "should" have been first in line to get loaned out.

We were so bitter.

Granted, we kind of did it to ourselves by doing something outside the norm, but it still sucked. Especially since we hated it at Sheppard, too, and DH was even willing to add to his time owed if they would get us out of there, and had two residency program directors that wanted him as a staff OB, but the higher-ups still said no. (In retrospect, I am glad we didn't do that, but at the time, it really sucked.)

SO the moral to that long confusing (probably very boring) story is that you can't believe anything they tell you until you have orders in hand. The military is not "fair", they don't give a rat's ass about what makes an individual happy or sad, and the bureaucracy means that oftentimes, you can get one story from one person and a completely different one from someone else.....and they can both be "right" as far as they know.

Good luck.....I don't envy any of you who are waiting. I don't miss anything about DH being military, but lack of control over your life is one of the things I miss least.

Sally

[DCJenn]

Yeah. What she said.

My only hope is that the Walter Reed fiasco forces them to take a really good look at military medicine. and start paying people (especially nurses) more money.

and that USUHS starts a Health Care Admin program because we've all seen that not all docs should be forced into adminsitration just based on rank. Some, like my husband have no interest in management AT ALL. He wants to see patients. Period.

So, accept the uncertainty because all aspects of medicine have the same kinds of uncertainty. We just get the added benefit of the knowledge that no one gets to control where they're going.

Jenn

PS- Our friends who were supposed to go to Enid, OK wanted Mountain Home FIRST. and ended up in San Angelo, TX.