Wait wait wait

 
It seems that life in the Military is full of waiting. Waiting for the ship to leave. Waiting for it to come home. Waiting on the Detailer. Waiting for orders. Waiting for housing. Waiting for your household goods to arrive or your car to be shipped. Waiting for space at the local military clinic. Waiting at PSD for ID cards or updates. Waiting at the pharmacy (that's a long wait). Waiting at the commissary. Waiting for the phone to ring or the e-mail to refresh. The kind of waiting that makes me most crazy is the waiting for advancement results to be posted. Your life really does hang in the balance. The Senior Chief (E-8) board convened April 18. It's now the 1st of June and nothing has been posted yet. No notifications have been made. No one knows anything, although there is a lot of speculation. What we do know is that this is Justin's last best chance. Out of 47 applicants in his group and rating, 27 are being selected.
      What hangs in the balance? It only feels like our whole lives... If he's selected, he will most likely be pulled off of shore duty early and go back to sea, somewhere, to serve in a specialized job called EDMC. He also has to extend his enlistment to go back to sea and to accept the new ranking. If he doesn't make it this time around, it means we really have done our last sea tour and that when we leave here in 2 years, we retire from the Navy and move on to a whole new phase of life.
    In case you really don't know me, patience is not my long suit. So we wait. And wait and wait. I'll keep you posted.

 {The sail of the USS Kentucky leaving port. Used with permission.}