On the 10th of April of 1991, Nick took Theresa Ann Black, Nicks his very pregnant wife to the Hospital where she delivered Julianna Lynn Black -- a healthy pink newborn baby girl. Two days later, the couple brought their little baby home to their apartment for the first time.
As you can guess, nobody in the household got a lot of uninterrupted sleep over the next 3 months.
Two months after arriving home, Nick was scheduled to take the promotion examination for SSgt called the WAPS test, Weighted Airman's Promotion System. He just barely had the 3 years time in Service qualifying him to test. Fortunately for him, the year before the Chief, his father-in-law, clued him in on how to study for the PFE, the Professional Fitness Exam. He filled out an order slip for a PFE study guide from the Air Force Times and sent it in to a company who advertise in the weekly magazine. Using the guide to tell him how well he was studying instead of relying on guide for answers to questions was the secret to success according to the Chief.
In addition to the hint on how to study for the PFE test, the entire time Nick was in the UAE during the war MSgt Goldman coached him on things he needed to know for the SKT, Specialty Knowledge Test. He told Nick that you don't study for your job; you study for your boss's job. By the time Nick got home, he knew more about the regulations than any other Senior Airman around.
In August, Nick received a call from the Orderly Room, that's where the Squadron Commander, the Squadron Adjutant, and the First Sergeant 'lived'. They told him that he had an appointment in 1 hour to see the Squadron Commander, Lt Col Ransom. Nick wondered if he had screwed up something, this was the first time he had been given a formal summons to report to the Commander. So, he told his coworkers he needed to head over to the 421st Squadron (where he was assigned) to see his Commander.
When he arrived, he had to sit outside the Commander's office for about 10 minutes and he was sweating bullets. He had no idea what he had been called in for. Just before he was called in to report, Major Kleinhaven showed up and was escorted directly into the Commander's office. Nick figured that the major was having another one of his hissy fits and planned on getting him in trouble for it.
Nick walked into the office and stood 3' in front of the Commander's desk. He popped the prescribed salute and spouted out, "Airman Black reporting as ordered, sir!" Lt Col Ransom saluted back and immediately responded, "At ease, airman." In this situation, one always assumed the position of parade rest instead of the commanded at ease. The Colonel smiled at him and said, "No, I really meant at ease, Nick" With the colonel using his first name Nick knew that was a good sign. If he was up for an ass chewing, it would have been 'Airman Black' all the way.
The Commander had one of those print-outs in his hand, the green and white computer paper they printed everything out on in the personnel office. With Major Kleinhaven present he finally had a pretty good idea what was happening. The Colonel handed him the sheet of paper and asked him if he had any idea what it was about.
Nick took the print-out from him and read the first line. It said, "Senior Airman Nicholas M. Black, 235-88-9225, 421st Fighter Squadron, Hill AFB, Utah, has been selected for promotion to the rank of Staff Sergeant. Airman Black, upon verification of eligibility, will be assigned the line number of 11293..." Nick was ecstatic! He was being notified that he was being promoted to Staff Sergeant. He let out a loud, very unprofessional, WOO WHO! Both the Colonel and Major shook his hand while smiling, congratulating him on his promotion.
With such a large line number, a sequence number determining who got promoted when, it was going take him almost a full year before he actually got to sew on the stripes. After he was dismissed he read the message in detail. It seemed he got an unheard of score of 86 on his PFE, and a 76 on the SKT, he was had the number 1 score that ranked him within his career field. He knew the average scores were high 50s. He had full points for EPRs, Enlisted Performance Reports, so the only detractor he had was the low time in grade and time in service points.
When he got back to the Flight Surgeon's Office, he made the announcement to all his coworkers and received a lot of congratulations. MSgt Goldman smiled and said, "Hey Nick, I knew you could do it! Way to go, bud!" Then Goldman pulled out his own green sheet and announced that he had received orders. Meaning he was being transferred. It seemed the Air Force needed him to move his family and himself to Fairchild AFB, 12 miles outside of Spokane, Washington. Nick was sad to hear the MSgt would be leaving. He really owed the man a lot.
Sergeant Goldman cautioned him, "When you put on your stripes, you can expect a transfer too, either you or Sergeant Alderman. They don't need two SSgts in the same SME. That was a wakeup call for Nick. People in the Air Force moved, a lot. Of course after 3 years at Hill, he was ready to move on anyway. He just hoped Terri would be up for it.
With SSgt Alderman's permission, he headed home early to break the news of his promotion to Theresa.
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MSgt Goldman wasn't the only one with a transfer; the Chief received orders also, the chief and the rest of his family would be moving to Mc Dill, AFB, in Tampa Florida. This was close to where he was going to retire. He was originally from Florida, and he owned 20 acres of land down there. He had pulled in some favors and landed the assignment. He would reach his 30 year maximum time in service and be forced to retire in a little over 3 more years.
The 'rest of his family' was getting to be a smaller and smaller list. Garrett, Terri's little brother who graduated that spring and was 18, left for Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, for basic training. He had a guaranteed job to become a Cryptographer once he graduated from his technical school. He had been really excited to follow in his father's footprints.