The Update to Trump All Updates

So, in case you haven't been following the news, northern Japan was devastated by a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The earthquake rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant about 150 miles north of Tokyo and about 250 miles north of Yokosuka. The nuclear power plant took heavy damage from the earthquake and has been sending questionable amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. There have been two explosions from the power plant already. The last two of their reactor towers remain unstable. This morning, the news reported they were pouring sea water from helicopters over the reactors in a final attempt to cool them down.

This is a dangerous situation as nuclear power is....well....dangerous as Hiroshima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island have all proven to us in the past. Being exposed to high levels of radiation can cause health problems and even death. Radiation particles float in the air and can travel miles from ground zero. The US has begun a voluntary evacuation of all personnel in Japan. There are no reports of any mandatory evacuations.

This morning, word came that all Navy personnel who were planning to move to Japan have now been put on hold. Shortly after I read this information, John's detailer (the person in charge of telling you where you are moving) called him to let him know he has been placed on hold indefinitely. John asked if his orders had been cancelled (which means we would not go to Japan at all). The detailer was adamant that this was not the case. The detailer instructed John to remain at his current command until further notice.

We are so close to moving. We have sold both of our cars, have our household goods ready to be picked up on Tuesday and are all but out the door. So of course, we went into crisis mode....

John went into work today and all of his senior supervisors had also heard the news. Knowing how close we were to moving they were all very sympathetic and helpful. They could have instructed him to get to work right away since he was sticking around, but no one said anything about that. Once we get word that military families are once again going to Japan, we have to go, so he can't be held up being on a ship that's out to sea.

Right now, there's hundreds of families in our situation. It's frustrating, it's inconvenient, and it basically sucks. They can't put us all on hold forever, so all we can do is wait this out. Who knows when it will be safe to go there? I think the US is waiting to see what's going to happen with these last two reactors before sending people back to their homes.

So, what's our plan? Here it is:

- Everything is on schedule as normal. We leave San Diego next week, John takes 30 days of leave and we wait out the situation with John's family. Hopefully before the leave is finished or right after we'll have the okay to enter Japan. Remember folks, we were not reporting there until April 25th anyway....so that's a pretty long time from now.

- IF (and huge IF) we're still not cleared to go by the time John's leave is finished, he'll return to San Diego and stay in Bachelor housing (basically dorm rooms) until we get the okay. Wylee and I will go to Alabama to stay with my family and wait out the situation.

John's detailer assured us the orders were not cancelled, "everything has just shifted to the right" were his exact words.