Afganistan

Yesterday, was a long day. Jon called me in the morning with some news he had received. Apparently they pulled him out of class to tell him he was being tasked for a deployment. At first we thought it was a 6 mos maybe to Saudi or Diego...he tells me to be thankful that it's not a 1yr in Iraq, and I try to find peace with the possibility. I call his mom. Then he calls back about 20 minutes later telling me, that they are now telling him he is one of 4 instructors tasked for a 15 mos team to Afganistan. And then the kicker...two other instructors received their "hard" (official) orders and they leave on SUNDAY...THIS sunday!

Jon tells me that it's not "official" yet, but that they wanted him to go ahead and outprocess. I felt like I just had the wind knocked out of me. It just was not what I was expecting. He told me three thing might happen

1) Chief might be able to "turn the orders off" meaning tell officials he can't spare his instructors, or can only spare a couple of them.

2) He might be able to turn it down

3) Even if he turns it down, the unit commander in Afgani could override him and say, "We'll go ahead and take him for part of the 15 mos until he gets out in August."

Jon told me they were sending according to highest rank, and he was the highest of the four. So he tells me that since it's not "a hard order" yet, to just try to hang in there until we know for sure. He goes to the squadron to begin his "out processing and briefings" and tells me he'll get as much info as he can on the situation.

As of yesterday afternoon - it was "word of mouth" that the Chief got the orders "turned off", but as of 3 PM yesterday still had not "officially or in writing" confirmed that. The head guys can always override us. Jon says he's seen soldiers make it all the way to Baltimore in the airport, and headquarters are "turning off and turning on" orders, and some even have to come back home after "deploying". It's NUTS!

So today we wait for "word of mouth" to become "written or OFFICIAL turn off orders". There's nothing to be done for the two guys that have already gotten their hard orders. They still leave on Sunday for 15 mos. They had 6 days notice for their families!!!

These teams are dangerous - they work right in the heart of the explosions and IED's. Although AFGANI is not as dangerous as Iraq. One thing that frightens me is they are still having him prepare for outprocessing. He spent all day yesterday and today - going to appointments and filling out paperwork. Today he gets his immunizations for the dessert. They've never actually made him outprocess before for "unofficial" orders, but then again, they need this team to leave by Sunday so they are just making sure he's ready if he has to go.

Please, pray for us. Him leaving would upset our plans for getting out. How can he interview for teaching jobs if he's over there, and who would babysit my kids as I travel to Texas repeatedly for interviews and Teaching exams? If we get tasked and we get "the boot" then we would have about a month to find a job. Jon was offered a job in NC as an explosive supervisor at a Plant this week (which is also kind of peculiar on timing), so that might be an option - but there goes our plans for moving to Texas!

Sorry this is long, but it's all the info I have at the moment. Right now I'm just going to hope we are not going to have to say goodbye this weekend, and just trust in the Lord to protect him. We'd appreciate your prayers - the timing is just wrong, and if the worst did happen, we would have ZERO time to prepare the children.

Thanks for your prayers in advance.

Our love,

The Sellers: Jonathan, Dawn, Bree, Zane, & Braden