picking orders

Comment by Anti M on July 3, 2009 at 12:44pm

Are you talking about the "dream sheet" when you say picking orders? Because that's always been the case, the dream sheet is simply a request. If he's offered orders and then cannot have them, the same set of orders could have been offered to another sailor who jumped on them. The detailers all see a pool of billets, and sometimes the billets get assigned faster than expected. It is a crapshoot, I know from experience.

As for sending him to the West Coast, that must have been where they needed him then. Even back when I was enlisted, west coast sailors stayed in the west, east coasters in the east. To change "sides" you usually had to take overseas orders or go on a hardship or unaccompanied set of orders for a year or so... such as Diego Garcia. That's in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Another way to change "sides" is to request that that be part of your reenlistment incentives, but with everyone staying in, that may no longer apply.

But sometimes you do get sent where you requested, even cross-country. I hope he gets something good!

Comment by janie on July 3, 2009 at 4:24pm

this is what happened the last time he picked orders. he was in oceana. they kept denying him and then they picked and he got sent to the west coast. my daughter was almost 7 months pregnant. when he checked in at the base they said by the way we are deploying on the 1st of march. so my daughter flew back home she didn't have anybody out there and didn't want to have her first baby all by herself. he missed his daughter being born by 16 days.

Comment by Anti M on July 3, 2009 at 7:51pm

That must have been very frustrating for them. The Navy can be hard that way... I've been in, one way or another, all my life. I do know how it goes sometimes. All we can do is hope for the best.

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