The time here in Korea has gone both slow and fast at times, but my year here is more than half over! I'll be submitting my "dream list" of desired next assignments here in about a month and should know sometime in October where Lana and I are headed next. Currently, my list of assignments is as follows: Spangdahlem (Germany), Aviano (Italy), Eglin (Florida), Hill (Utah), Shaw (South Carolina), Misawa (Japan), Luke (Arizona), Nellis (Nevada), Eielson (Alaska). Of the first 6, 5 are what we call "operational" squadrons which are those prepared to deploy for war at any time. Luke is the "school house" for new F-16 pilots and Eglin / Nellis have operational test squadrons which develop and test new F-16 equipment and munitions. Eielson and another squadron at Nellis are full time "red air" who train and study to simulate potential air-to-air threats we may face in a future war. There are other job opportunities, but not all are flying related. There are those who will go back to the initial pilot training to teach the brand new pilots while others will go to non-flying assignments. There are many aspects that go into matching pilots to their next assignment...thankfully God has a plan for Lana and I and we have peace knowing wherever we head next is His plan for us! We'll be sure to update everyone on where we're headed next as soon as we find out!
I've said it many times before, but I'm also VERY thankful for the job God gave Lana and the ease with which she can fly to see me. We've been very blessed and it's made the difficult year not living together much easier than it would have been otherwise. We've been able to experience another culture and travel Asia some, so there have been definite perks to being over here.
Lana and I got an email a few weeks ago letting us know that she has been approved to apply for a permanent resident visa to the USA. We're currently in the process of filling out multiple forms, gathering police reports, immunization records, getting a medical exam done in Seoul and so on. We hope to have another appointment scheduled at the US Embassy in Seoul in early September so that she will be fully legal to accompany me to the USA if that's where our next assignment takes us. We'd appreciate your prayers for a continued smooth visa process. We have also decided it's time to start a family! Lord willing our family will have a little one sometime in 2010...we'd appreciate prayers on that as well.
Well, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow so I'm going to call it a night. Take care, fly safe and check six!
After parking the car, we picked up some water and started the short hike to one of the main attractions in the park, the Jiksopokpo Falls. We stopped along the way to take some pictures of a Buddhist temple and soon arrived at the falls, 2.0km into the park. At the temple, Lana had to "kung fu" fight off some invisible ninjas...they came out of nowhere (see picture below =)! We made our way to the top of the falls, where Lana proceeded to so swimming...the mountain spring water was too cold for me. The view from the top of the falls was nice, and one of the most picturesque places we've seen over the past 7 months.
Arriving back in Kunsan, we had sushi for lunch. It was a nice day together and an enjoyable time seeing a nice part of the Korean countryside. Lana will be here until the middle of September, so maybe we'll get a chance to visit another national park nearby before she leaves. We hope this post finds all of you doing well!
