Well, it's official- Ammon is now in the Air Force Reserve.
Taking his oath.Going from full-on civilian in casual jeans (I thought he should have dressed up more) to soon being in uniform. The guy issuing the oath is wearing the Air Force uniform (the camouflage) which is what Ammon will be wearing everyday for his training. I wanted to see Ammon dressed in it and to get a picture before he left but there just was not time. He was frantically finishing up his last class (early) before he left (more about school below).
He flew out today to Alabama for Commissioned Officer Training. He'll be gone for 4 weeks. Then home for 10 days then back for his first tour for 2 months with the other Chaplain Candidates. He's pretty excited and hopeful this will be what he feels it will be.
This possible career change has been a long road so far and something he (we) have been working on for a long time (at least 18 months now). Because he will be a LDS Chaplain and we don't have a paid clergy in our Church nor do our leaders go through seminary (not early morning-ha ha (or cushy release-time like Ammon did) but a divinity school), he has had to take correspondence courses through a divinity school out of California. [As a side note, this school does not like Mormons. He has been told by the Church military department that if they knew he was LDS, that there are professors there that would fail him. He (or any LDS) is also not allowed to take courses on their campus- why, are you afraid we'd convert your ministers-in-training?! He's only allowed to take independent study courses, which is what he's doing]. These courses are necessary for him to gain credit acceptable to apply as a chaplain for the military. Ammon has also taken a BYU LDS military chaplain class (part 1 done and part 2 to go) to prepare him. He will be done next Spring with his coursework- yeah, can't wait!! It's been hard having him working full-time and going to school full-time. He studies every spare moment. We totally thought we were done with the "being a student-thing". Ammon made the comment that he was a student when Connor was born (getting his Master's from CSU) and is now in school again when the girls were born. I hope this isn't a pattern where he'll be back for more schooling when our next babies come along!
When Ammon was leaving today he asked Connor if he will miss him. Connor said "no, I'm not going to miss you, I'm going to remember you." Ammon liked that response. Pretty intuitive for a little 5-year-old, eh? So, see ya honey, we're so proud of you and we'll be missing...errrr...remembering you!!!
