Space-A Blues

Well, Joe had a trip coming up and for the first time I thought I was going to be able to join him! Wrong!!! For OPSEC reasons, I can't disclose where they're heading. Anyway, I got the word that the teacher I was filling in for at school was coming back, so I was excited thinking I could hop on the flight with Joe, no problem.

For Space-A you have to get a command sponsored letter (basically permission to fly Space-A and proof that you're a dependent). Space-A puts people into categories (Category 1 has first priority, which includes people who are PCSing, etc.) and down to Category 6. I was a category 4, and I was still hopeful I was going to make it.

I had to get to the PAX terminal at 4:00am... not fun. I was so excited though, I was able to get up without too much of a problem. I got to the termial and it wasn't open yet and there was already a line. Uh oh...

Roll-call was at 4:40am. By 4:30am there were already 50+ people waiting. There were only 20 seats. Hmmm, the math doesn't quite add up. Needless to say, over half the people weren't making the flight!

I didn't make it, due to the fact I didn't sign-up until a few days prior to the flight. It's based on categories and when you sign-up. Some people had been signed up for weeks, so they get a seat over me. I wanted to scream, "It's not fair! My husband is flying the plane. Let me on!!! I know there's space!!!", but that would categorize me as the "snobby officer's wife who think she gets special treatment" (we've had a few spouses in the squadon do that and it didn't turn out well)...

I called Joe asking if there was anything they could do, and unfortunatley there wasn't. It was a huge bummer not to be able to go. I was SO excited, but should of known it was too much of a good thing. Better luck next time...

In the mean time, since I'm signed up, I'll have to see if there are any cool trips in the next 90-days (that's how long I'll be in the systems)...