The Few. The Proud.

So, for those of you who haven't heard yet, Sterling is joining the Marines. He's actually applying for an officers spot through an Officer Selection program. He wants to be a pilot, and they only have 3 pilot spots open for Utah candidates, but despite that his chances are really pretty good of being selected. They look at a whole bunch of things, like academic achievement (you have to have a bachelors degree), leadership experience, extracurricular activities, etc. The application process is basically just like a job application, except that there's a physical fitness test and a written exam, which is similar to the ACT, but includes naval and flight questions as well. He's currently finished everything except for the written test, so once the whole application is complete, we should hear back from them within a month or so. If he doesn't get accepted, there's still time to bring up any scores that disqualified him the first time and try for a pilots spot again.

Once he's been selected as an officer, he's guaranteed a pilot's spot in Pensecola, FL. So next summer he'll go to OCS (Officer Candidates School) for 10 weeks in Quantico, VA. Cami and I won't be able to go to that with him, sadly. Then he'll graduate from there in August and receive his commission at which point he'll start making a 2nd Lieutenant's pay. Then in Oct or Nov of next year, we'll all move out to Quantico for TBS (The Basic School) which is six months long. That's where they learn all the leadership skills they'll need to be an officer. Then we go to flight school down in Pensecola, FL. Flight school is two years long. Sterling is thinking he wants to do fighter jets, hopefully an F-18.

In order for him to be a pilot, he had to get corrective eye surgery. None of the branches of the military will let you get Lasek because of the flap they cut in the cornea for Lasek - they're afraid that the G-forces will pull the flap back, though that's not possible - so Sterling had to get PRK surgery, which is a much more painful recovery process. He was in serious pain for three days, whereas with Lasek, you're good to go the very next day. I got a picture of him, though he probably won't want me to post it. His eyes were really red and swollen for about a week or so. He's better now thankfully and his vision is getting clearer every day. There was a brief period of time there that I wondered if he thought it wasn't worth it. He says that despite the pain, he always felt it was. He's very excited about being in the Marines, since the military is what he's wanted to do since he was young. I'll keep you all posted on whether or not he gets accepted.