Career Crossroads?

I've spent the last 23 years of my life in the Air Force, with a current rank of Major. This year I am "in the zone" for promotion to Lt Col. I'm ambivalent about staying in, however. My youngest daughter will graduate from high school next year and I'm ready for a new career. I put in an application for the Peace Corps, but was rejected on account of my work for an intelligence agency some ten years ago. I was only a comm officer, not engaged in analysis, so I've appealed their decision to the Director of the Peace Corps. I'm not holding out hope on that front though.

Last April I took the exam for the Foreign Service to work as a diplomat for the State Department and just last week I learned that I passed the exam and have been invited for an "oral assessment" next December in Seattle. I spent two years as an exchange officer in Ottawa, Canada from 96 to 98, during which time I socialized with embassy staff. I found them very engaging intellectually. I would love to make the jump in careers from military to state department--from dropping bombs to "foggy bottom".

It is quite a process getting on with the Foreign Service. I think it was in January that I signed up for the Foreign Service exam. I took the test in April and just learned the results in late July. Now I have signed on for the "oral assessment" in December. If I "pass" the oral assessment, my name will be placed on a list of "eligible hires". I can advance my name up the ladder of that list by veteran's preference or by proof of foreign language fluency. Critical languages get higher placement. I should stand in good stead with a "veteran's preference" and fluency in German and French.