So as Im about to leave last night our Retention NCO walks into my office and says that USAEUR put out a new involentary sep list and my name was on it. This means that the Army can cut my contract up to 1 year from my current ETS date. My wife and I had everything figured out, I would be getting out next december, we are staying here in Germany, she would be done with college by then and have a job, and I would have had the next year to improve my German and find a job. Now I am stuck with basically 3 options. I can 1) Re-enlist, not going that route for sure, 2) Extend to meet the requirements for my units up-coming deployment, 3) Not do anything, and hope the Army only cuts my contract by a few months, not a year.

The wife and I are leaning towards the extending to meet the requirements because its really just too risky if my contract gets cut that short since we could lose everything. The wife is not happy about me going to Afghanistan again. The other issue, which just kills me, is she said she cannot handle taking care of all my animals while Im deployed. This is going to be my second breeding season, and hopefully my first successful, especially with all the females I will be breeding this year. She said she would want to keep a few, but she cant handle all 16. That leaves me with 2 options, sell them off, or hope our breeding partner would be willing to care for them, but Im not so sure he has the space, or the time, considering he owns a reptile store. I am just so lost as to what to do. I will be getting some more information this morning that will hopefully make this decision easier. Im hoping if I extend I will be able to find a way to get left back on rear D, giving me time to square away a job, get some more college under my belt and keep my animals.

Life always throws me curve balls....