She found out in November that she would branch Air Defense Artillery. She will train for 4 months (starting in August) at Ft. Sill, and then she selected Fort Bragg, North Carolina as her post. The vacation potential is overwhelming and strong.
Her exuberant video made the USMA instagram page.
If you watched "post night" anywhere they were streaming you would have seen pretty sedate people walking to the front, and calmly picking out their posts and everyone politely golf clapping. Pretty much across the board. Then you click over and see Hallie, basically bouncing up and down, impatiently waiting her turn, praying there would be a Ft. Bragg on the board left for her to claim, then practically skipping to the front to take her place! Everything sooooo Hal. Lee. (except the guy calling her Haylee. DUDE. Hal. Lee not Hay. Lee. Hal. Hal. Hal.)
She knew the guy in front of her was on the fence about it, and if he had taken it, she would have been stuck at Ft. Sill for 5 years instead. We have talked HOURS about this possibility. I told her several weeks ago that God had her plan and if HIS plan was for her to be in Oklahoma, there wouldn't be any Ft Bragg patch up on the board. And I've always said this girl should be a lawyer, because her negotiation style is on point. She had already told me she had figured out how she was going to try and convince the guy ahead of her that Oklahoma was the PLACE TO BE. I think he didn't really care where he was going, and because she was so passionate about where she wanted to go, he deferred to her impassioned argument and let her have it.
HALLELUJAH!
The best part of the video is her goofy goofy self, forgetting to take off her mask, and then forgetting to hold up her post page for the picture and not even understanding what they are pointing to -- everytime I watch it I roll.
My mom heart is sad she won't be 2 hours away, but the past 4 years have taught me that distance doesn't stop my girl from calling me 4 times a day, so 12 hours south of New York, won't be any different. Plus I can drag my happy butt out there any time and actually seeeeeee her. WHAT? So, yeah, I'm pumped. Beach, mountains, lakes..... Melba(one of my besties) just a bit south. So, it's all good.
Now if we can get everything open so we can all attend graduation like we have been planning for 4 years. We have a magnificent house reserved for the entire gang (like 25 of us) in Bear Mountain and we are STOKED with our fingers crossed and our airplane tickets bought and ready to go, praying that nothing weird goes down and that everything keeps opening back up so we can all attend.
What a crazy, bumpy ride this journey has been. I will be forever grateful for the time she got to be home with us this past long "spring break". What a blessing and so much fun.
I feel pretty sorry for the class of 2021, the entire existence of West Point is all about the "firstie" year. The freedom, the civilian clothes, all of that gone from them this year. They are surviving and thriving and counting down the days until they are out of there!
WHAT A RIDE. 
