The Eglin-Turkey Connection

When we first came to Eglin, we became friends with a third year resident. Tristan and his wife Shannon were there with us for a year before he was sent to Turkey. They did not choose Turkey. Turkey chose them.

One year behind him was Nick. He and his wife Kristy heard about Turkey from Tristan and decided to join them. Nick picked Turkey based on Tristan's recommendation. Like us, Nick and Kristy were excited about the opportunities to travel and the fact that we were "deployed in place" meaning unless something strange happened, there would be no deployment for those two years. It is virtually impossible to get a Base in Europe right out of residency. And while Turkey is definitely not Europe, it's close enough and cheap enough to offer some great travel possibilities. It also puts you higher up on the "picking pole" for your next Base since it is considered a hardship location.

Since Turkey is only a two year assignment, Tristan and Shannon moved on just a few weeks before we arrived. But one year behind Nick, John (my husband) heard about Turkey and decided to follow Tristan and Nick there. I so wish we could have overlapped with Tristan and Shannon as they are great people, but at least Nick and Kristy were here to help us settle in.

Nick is preparing to move on to the Azores (a location definitely on our radar for next summer when we are scheduled to leave Turkey). However, Eglin is still going to be making a presence in Turkey. Enter a resident one year behind JB, Yamil. He and his wife Patty are continuing the Eglin AFB --Incirlik AFB connection and heading here next. They are due to arrive sometime in July! We are their sponsors. This means that we are their connection in Turkey and help them get everything set for their arrival. I only wish I was going to be there to gree them personally, but either way, we are so excited they have chosen to make Turkey their home for the next two years.

I don't know Yamil or Patty that well. I was at mutual functions with them a few times during our time at Eglin, but we have really gotten to know them (well, I've gotten to know Patty) via email during the last few months as they debated, ranked, and then found out they were indeed coming to Turkey. Patty and Yamil are from Peurto Rico and speak Spanish. I can't wait to introduce her to Angelica! :)

Okay, so just wanted to fill everyone in on that fun bit of news. As for where we will head next, we will most likely be leaving Turkey sometime around this time next summer. Amazing that we are halfway through, huh? We have quite a few locations we are considering. We are trying to go somewhere (a) adventurous, with (b) good hours for JB, and (c) be "deployed in place" again meaning we can stay together as a family even though we are a world apart from our own family. Some possibilities include Guam (near Australia), the Azores (an island off the coast of Spain), and even Korea. We could also stay in Turkey for two more years. We have a feeling it will be one of those four places but you know, they have a saying in the Air Force: "The needs of the Air Force come first." So while we rank our location based on what we want, we must prepare ourselves to go where the Air Force wants. Hopefully those two can overlap! At some point in the future I will update readers as to how this decision-making process "goes down."

P.S. In completely unrelated news, I have updated my Germany book/movie list. Check it out: Books and Movies Updated. It's mostly a book update, not movies as Wimbeldon is on and I have been watching that nearly everyday.