Short Ordered

Short ordered is a term used when the military gives you an extremely short amount of time to get ready to PCS.  When Tim first commissioned in the Air Force he had just been Medically disqualified from being a pilot, and we were sort of shoved into the maintenance field.  We were given approximately 3 weeks to pack up and move to our first assignment in Alaska.  That wasn't too hard, because we weren't renting or selling anything, in fact we didn't really have anything!  The whole thing was rushed, but it wasn't too difficult......

This time, we knew we were probably going to go to Germany, but because of some problems with someone working at another base sitting on our paperwork for 5 weeks we couldn't get anything started.  You can't do ANYTHING without your paper orders.  You can't book a flight, lodging, movers, nothing.  So you can only sit, and wait..... so wait we did.  We waited and waited and waited, and then FINALLY we got our paper orders, and 3 weeks to accomplish something that takes usually 2 months to do.  This time, we have housing inspections, cleaning, lots more stuff to move, cars to ship and sell, and we're crossing the pond, so there's medical clearances, and passports, and pet transportation, and more.  With the holidays, it is even less time, because all these places we schedule things aren't even open!  So we're running around, trying to accomplish all this, and hoping we can fit everything in!  We've already sent off our pre-shipment, stuff that will be in Germany when we get there, like dishes and bedding, and we'll be packing up our house very soon.  It will all be worth it, when everything is said and done!  I can't wait, and most of all, I can't wait for this stage to be over!