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#Post#: 12895--------------------------------------------------
Mikell Wells
By: Jack Date: May 14, 2019, 8:16 pm
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Mikell is my second oldest son chronologically, and he's been
part of the family since I 'only' had four other sons. Mikell
is now married, with two children, and is a pilot in the Air
Force.
Mikell's career has been derailed a bit since his wife, Nita,
got him to turn down fighter training. He now has a chance to
get back on track with a squadron command, but he's going to
have to live in South Korea for a year. Nita has decided not to
go, and she and the kids are going to live with her parents
while he's gone.
I'll expand on this later, but I neefed to share this to start
anothe rd post.
#Post#: 12897--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mikell Wells
By: kalico Date: May 14, 2019, 8:41 pm
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Good luck to him......
Hugs kal
#Post#: 12901--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mikell Wells
By: db105 Date: May 15, 2019, 4:19 am
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Doesn't sound like his wife supports his career too much, but of
course there are other things to consider, like probably she has
a job that she doesn't want to lose and so on...
#Post#: 12902--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mikell Wells
By: Jack Date: May 15, 2019, 5:11 am
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Actually, Nita is a homemaker. I love most of my DILs, but Nita
is able to quickly rub me the wrong way, so it's hard to be fIr.
#Post#: 27401--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mikell Wells
By: Jack Date: July 13, 2023, 8:57 pm
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Well, I'm afraid I might start something, but since I've posted
a couple of updates the last few days, I thought I might as well
keep going, especially since there's some major news to this
one.
First of all, i never updated after I started this.
Mikell and Juanita were divorced not long after I made this
post. It was NOT a friendly divorce.
Let me back up and remind you of a few details.
1) Mikell just turned 40 last April.
2) For many of the same reasons he ended up living with me, he
had to repeat 7th grade.
3) He graduated high school in 2002. Graduated college in 2006.
Joined the Air Force that fall.
4) My memories getting old, but I believe Mikell and Nita had
known each other in college, and when he was stationed not far
from her, they got in contact and married not too long after
that.
5) Duncan was born 5 May 2009 and Moira was born 19 November
2013 (so 14 and 9).
6) Nita wanted to be a stay at home wife and, despite being a
college graduate with good potential earning, she never worked
the entire time they were married. At first, it wasn't a huge
problem, but then she also didn't want to accompany Mikell when
he was stationed abroad. On top of both of those, she threw
huge fits about the idea of him being a fighter pilot, which had
always been one of his main goals.
She wanted to move home with her parents and divorce hi min
California, but he put a stop to that and filed in Oklahoma,
which had been their residence for more than a year. That was
better than California, but it's still a no fault divorce state,
so the fact that she wanted him to keep her in style while
letting her live alone didn't cut too much ice.
Let me say Mikell had no trouble with child support, but he was
insulted at having to continue to support someone who'd done so
much to sabotage him over the years. It was finally agreed that
he'd pay her for four years, to give her time to upgrade her
skills. He's nearly coming up with this.
The actual reason for this update is that Mikell, Duncan, and
Moira will all be visiting with us for most of a month -
arriving next week and staying until about a week before school
starts. We still don't have a lot of girls around, but Moira
will get to hang out with the ones we have. Duncan is pretty
excited. He has never lived close, so he's not as close as a
lot of the boys, but he's the same age as Connor, Rhett, and
Andy, and close to several others. Mikell wasn't able to get
leave at a good time last year, so he has plenty available now.
Oh, that's not the actual, actual, however. Mikell is having to
decide if he's going to retire. He's currently a major... This
is kind of complicated. If he re-ups, he's pretty much
guaranteed to get a promotion to lieutenant colonel. If he
re-ups (I'm saying re-ups, because I know officers don't enlist,
but I'm blanking on the proper term), then he will have to
decide on his retirement plan next year, which means he pretty
much needs to know if he wants to retire in four years or eight.
Duncan does NOT want to live with his Mom, but if Mikell leaves
the military now, he gets basically zero retirement pay, but if
he works four more years, he does really well, and eight more he
makes out like a Bandit. Mikell wants to spend some time as a
commercial pilot, but that has a couple of problems - mainly
that he wouldn't be home regularly enough for Duncan to live
with him anyway.
And no, I can't really get custody of him. His dad could
without much trouble, but his mom isn't bad enough to lose
custody to another relative, which is really difficult without a
major, provable problem.
I don't have a ton of miltary knowledge and no experience of my
own. Worse, my boys have spread out when chosing the services
they'd join, so I might sometimes confuse what I know for
another service. Having said that, there's a decent chance that
Mikell could be assigned domestically if/when he gets this
promotion, which would allow him to take custody of Duncan.
Anyway, Mikell still has a couple or three months to decide, but
that gives us plenty of time to talk and for him to consider it.
He mostly updated me about it because he wanted me to research
and think about it, so I could be a good sounding board for him.
And, all things considered, it seemed like a good time to
update you.
#Post#: 27406--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mikell Wells
By: Zyngaru Date: July 14, 2023, 8:40 am
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I was Air Force for six years but enlisted not Officer and the
rule differ between them. As enlisted when re-upping you have
some negotiating power. Like how long, first permanent station
and bonus pay. I don't know if that works for the officer
corps.
If he can negotiate his continuation of service, then he might
be able to get state-side and at Lt. Col. he should be ground
command and not air, except for monthly flights for keeping his
wings. At Lt. Col. he could possibly be able to get Assistant
Base Commander some place. While he is still Major his options
are going to be limited. Squadron or wing commander.
All that said. The position of the military is simple. If we
wanted you to have a wife and kids, we would have issued you
them. But. Once you have them, the military will make sure you
meet your obligations to support them. His ex can call his base
and get him into all kinds of trouble anytime she wants. I saw
it happen with enlisted airmen all the time.
I even know of one case with a family in our church. Well not
really family just the wife and her three kids. Her husband
retired and left her to fend for herself. Once he was out of
the Air Force, she lost the support the Air Force made him give
her.
I want to stay positive for Mikell, but honestly, he is caught
between a rock and a hard place. For him the military is the
best way to go. For the kids, getting out of the military and
caring for them is the best way to go.
One option he might look into is Civil Service. Basically, that
is working for the government and keeping your GS rating you
earned with the military and thus it continues to add to your
future retirement. I knew of some men that went that route when
they left the military and continued to work on the same base
they were previously stationed at.
I know the military at one time offered Hardship leaves. You
could get an extended leave of absence yet still be attached to
the military and then when the hardship was over, you went back
to being active service again. This might work for the older
boy, for him to graduate High School, but it would be too long
to work for the younger girl.
Anyway, that's as much as I can think of at present.
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