Just a point of clarification for someone reading this thread in the future. This is highly service specific. Navy letter needs to be 9-12 months and there is no going back once its dropped. .
this is important-- a lot of things between our dysfunctional .mil families are similar but this sounds like a big difference-- navy folks take note.
@Homunculus Hawaii or Landstuhl? I can't think of any other place that would be worth staying.
Hawaii is too far from family. we want to go back to the east coast or Germany. funny story-- I was told a few years ago by my consultant to the surgeon general and HRC that my specialty going to Germany would "never happen" when I asked about it-- even as a post operation tour "reward."
then, lo and behold, literally a year later (yes, as you probably would have guessed by now) someone in my specialty went over for a BDE surgeon tour then stayed on as their specialty at landstuhl. the longer I'm in, the more I notice that all these rules and regulations really just come down to who you know and how you play the game.
in the meantime I'm trying to do the (complicated) stay in/get out reserve/guard math. too many permutations at the moment, in a couple of months our civilian options should be more clear and the decision may be a lot easier.
my wife's take on now working civilian-- "it's like when Dorothy first walks through the door to Oz..." her first weekend on call she had 3 new onset diabetes and a PICU DKA admission. this would have easily been 2 full days of rounding, teaching, ordering supplies, etc. but unlike her .mil job she has CDEs and support staff that do most of that. she was shocked. her first day the clinic manager told her that "anything that is slowing you down or that we can do to make things easier let us know-- we're here for you." luckily she was sitting down at the time.
sorry. small thread hijack. BLUF-- you need to plan for your exit, don't just expect to stop going to work the day after your ADSO, lol.
--your friendly neighborhood 34 days left in Kuwait caveman