Assignments - Part Two

The jobs for the Army that lead you to living in countries like Djibouti are part of a very small section of the Army. Essentially, the Army provides Military Liaisons to the US Embassy in a host country. The jobs vary, as well as the responsibilities - but that is what the jobs are in a nutshell.

So, this is what my husband will be doing and that is how we were able to go to Ethiopia and now how we are going on to Djibouti.

You might be asking yourself, can't you do that job, say in France or Sweden or Austria? The answer is yes - those jobs exist there, just not for my husband.

Years ago - I am going to estimate 10, he filled out paperwork asking to be part of this Liaison program. I was excited about the opportunity to move somewhere exotic, like France, Sweden or Austria.

We had learned about the program during my husband's first year in the Army when the soldiers who were years ahead of Darling Husband were putting in their paperwork and getting their futures planned.

My husband listed his credentials, took a language aptitude test - or supplied them with his scores, and gave the Army all pertinent information. Later in the process, he was asked to put preferences for areas of concentration. He put down his preferences and for a bit of drama, listed Africa as his last choice for an area of concentration.

We were fairly confident that he would be put in the European program, he had studied Russian, and has a high aptitude for languages (which I will address in a later post, I am sure). We were certain he would be picked up to do the Eastern European program.

Imagine our surprise when the paperwork came back and said that he was slotted to go to Niger, Africa. Huh? That is not Nigeria, that is Niger. French speaking in the middle of Africa.

I wrapped my mind around it, we started doing research. We bought books about Niger. We studied everything we could, laughing that every bit of tourist information regarding Niger warned to "Stay off of the Kennedy bridge" and were generally excited to give it a whirl.

Kosovo, 9/11, Army and life got in the way and while Darling Husband was in language school for Portuguese we found that his assignment had been changed and we were going to Abidjian, Ivory Coast. Back to research, reading, preparing, etc. I was exchanging e-mail with the family we were replacing and one of the last I received was from the wife who was hunkered down listening to the coup d'etat that was happening out on the streets of Abidjian. Coup d'etat's trump assignments and all of the sudden we were moving to Ethiopia. (Where they don't speak French OR Portuguese.)

Language school finished, we were off to Ethiopia! (More to follow on Ethiopia.)

What I wanted to tell was the story of Djibouti. For many reasons that I am sure I will address in later posts, the opportunity to go back to Africa is a real gift. When Darling Husband was supplied the list of places in Africa he COULD go and asked to put in preferences, it had some seriously uninviting locales and Djibouti is one of them. I know people who LOVE Djibouti, but when the list of locations are Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya, etc., Djibouti is not the natural first choice. In fact, it was the LAST place on the list Darling Husband supplied. And when he put it down, I said to him, "You know we are going to go to Djibouti because I am sure you are the ONLY person who put it on their list."

Voila!

That is how Djibouti became the next military assignment. As I type this, know that had we stuck to the other plan I would be in Vicenza drinking a REAl macchiato right now and deciding what flavor of gelato I wanted for lunch..

Assignments

The assignment process for the Army remains a mystery to me, and I am going to go out on a limb and say that is the case for most of us associated with the military.

Many of our assignment stories would be hard to share, because they just don't make sense -- and if they don't make sense to us, how would they make sense to those of you who are dear to us who don't live ARMY day in and day out?

Djibouti came about in a very convoluted way. The bizarre part of this assignment, to most people, would be knowing that we gave up an assignment in Vicenza, Italy to move to Djibouti. If you refer to my previous post on moving, you will see and most likely agree, that Vicenza is a GREAT assignment compared to some of the places we have been or could go...

There were a lot of factors involved in our choice, but I say with great humor, a smirk, a snort (yep - I am a snorting type of girl) and a chuckle, that we are excited about Djibouti and are not regretful that we aren't going to Vicenza.

As I sit here and go over the constantly running "to-do" list in my mind in preparation for the move, know that I will complain & whine and bemoan the process - but I want to chronicle it, because I didn't do a very good job of sharing our Ethiopian experience.

More to come..

Moving

Being a military spouse has been an adventure with moves all over the United States and now the world. A blessing in many ways, we have made wonderful friends and had amazing life experiences.

We started this process of zipping around by eloping while my husband was moving en route from Fort Huachuca, Arizona to Fort Riley, Kansas. I flew out to Huachuca from Maine and we drove to Vegas. We drove from Vegas to Fort Riley and I will never forget descending in to Western Kansas and sitting in the car thinking, "What have I gotten myself in to?". Darling Husband tried to ignore the crocodile tears rolling down my cheeks.

From Fort Riley we went back to Fort Huachuca, had baby number 1, and then on to Fort Campbell - home of the 101st. We were there for five years, which could lead to an epic novel if I were to go in to detail, but the short version is that the 101st is our "ARMY" home. Baby Number 2 was born at Fort Campbell and I have kitchy Screaming Eagle baby stuff to prove it!

After the five years at Fort Campbell we moved to Fort Ord, California. From Fort Ord we went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An adventure of a lifetime!

We returned to the US to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. My children and I moved to Maine for one year during a deployment and when the deployment was over we all came back to Fort Belvoir.

In the midst of those moves and assignments my husband has been on countless NTC and JRTC rotations, a deployment to Saudi Arabia, one to Kosovo and two to Iraq and has even spent time on a Navy boat. Let's not forget that while I LIVED in Ethiopia, he traveled to 20 different African countries as part of his job description. I am sure that I am missing some of the "adventures" but you get the gist.

So, now we are on to Djibouti, which represents another adventure and two years during which, in theory, my husband will not deploy. I have to say that I would even move to Fort Polk if it meant two years in a row together... in fact in many ways Djibouti is a lot more desirable than some of the stateside assignment choices.

Fort Polk has long been on my "Will not go" list, because even our friends who are from Louisiana didn't like it... along with Fort Drum, simply because of the rumor that they issue you a snow blower when you get there....

Djibouti, Djibouti, Djibouti...

Djibouti

The first time that I pondered Djibouti as someplace other than a random African country, I was on a Scuba Trip. At that time, when I wasn't scuba diving in the Bahamas, I was preparing to move to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. One of my fellow divers had spent time in Djibouti and was trying to sell me on the idea of Djibouti vs. Ethiopia. He had me at Whale Sharks and lost me at 100+ degrees every day.



When I was living in Ethiopia I didn't try to visit Djibouti. Not because I didn't think it would be interesting, but because my choice was to travel with my two children who were 7 and 2 at the time or to take a weekend away with my husband. As you might imagine, Djibouti wasn't where I was dreaming of taking my children, nor where I fantasized about a weekend away with the husband... that was Zanzibar. So, I never made it to Djibouti.

I have been back to East Africa a number of times since we returned from living in Addis Ababa and I still haven't found a good reason to choose Djibouti as a destination, but as luck has it, my husband's career has dictated that will be the next place we move. And this will be my attempt to share the process with friends and family.

Wish me luck...