here's a true story about the military, and how they can fuck you over:
ten years ago, after being stationed at wright-patterson afb in dayton, oh, my dad was nearing 20 years served. at this point, he wanted to continue his tenure in the af, but staying at wright pat was not in the cards because of my illness, and the fact that their hospital, in plain words, SUCKED. everytime i came down will illness, i couldn't go to the AF's hospital, we had to drive downtown to the civilian hospital(which was great.)
now, my father was willing to accommodate. he began research on af military bases where hospitals that included my type of care were at. this is when he noticed that lackland afb has a CF-centric center that covers a large part of texas. he talked to doctors and so forth, and all of them put in their recommendations that i at least pay a visit down here to see what they could offer us, and to keep my father in the af.
we take the trek, and everyone agrees that it's vital that i be taken care of down here, at wilford hall, where the focal point is CF, rather than wright pat where asthma throws the doctors through loops. the doctors write their final reports, my dad writes his, and finally submits them to the proper commanders.
can you guess what the commanders said, after looking at all the information, research, and final opinion of the doctors?
a big fat NO. they ordered him to stay at wright patterson.
his response? fuck you. he retired at 19 1/2 years, and moved the family to san antonio so that i could recieve treatment at wilford hall.
you would not believe the anger in his face when the af told him "no." he wanted to stay in the af, too. nowadays, though, he has nothing but terrible things to say.