The Past Few Weeks

Yes, I know. I have been gone for awhile now. Last you all heard, I was off to Paris for four days. Well, I did go to Paris and I had a great time there, but as soon as I got back, work consumed my life. It has been a rough two weeks. I have had to make a lot of decisions about my future career in the Army, which turned out to not really matter since I don't get to make decisions. The following narrative may become confusing. I will try to explain it as easily as possible, but it is very difficult making sense of the Army's crazy decisions.

First, the regular work bullshit. I am not certain, but I believe that my NCO is just giving up on the whole I am in charge of an office and have responsibilities concept. Ever since I returned from Paris, she has rarely been around, and when she has, she has been of little help [especially with my reenlistment, but more on that later]. So when it comes to supply stuff, there really is no work going on because she is not there and there is no work for me to do. There are times when she is around and I am doing work. The most recent thing I have done, was take over the Hand Receipt for all the property on our floor [giving me the responsibility of accounting for it]. This shows that she trusts me to be responsible for $500,000 dollars worth of equipment, yet the entire time I was having people sign for their equipment, she was breathing down my neck and holding my hand through the process. This not only pissed me off, but slow me down because she would just jump in the middle of a conversation with a random question or comment. I understand that this is not my MOS, but I have been doing it for two years and if you are going to trust me with the equipment, then you should also not have to worry about whether or not I can fill out a DA 2062 properly (paper you sign for your equipment). She talks so much about how I am now a Specialist, and I am supposed to take responsibility, yet she spoon feeds me. I am very capable of receiving a task and executing it with success. Let me do that.

Anyways, enough of the bitching and on with my reenlistment.

Well the short version, it ain't going to happen. Now for the long version.

I wanted to reenlist to reclass out of my MOS and into the MOS for Public Affairs Specialist. I have been doing this job for four months, had two articles published and a few photos as well. This, I felt, was what I was meant to do for the Army, but the Army felt like it wasn't for me. The problem was that there were no seats available for class. Now remember, I have had to do a lot of stuff to meet the requirements for this, so I am already a little spent.

I tried everything I could. My retention NCO sent a request for class seats up to the Army, which was denied. I went and talked to the Branch Manager for Public Affairs, who was great help, yet he was still unable to get approval for class dates. During this time, my retention NCO also had a family member in the hospital, which meant he was very difficult to get a hold of when I really needed him, and my NCO was always saying, "Just wait and see. Don't worry about it." So it was me against the Army.

Then back in mid February, the Army put out a message saying that everyone in my MOS had to request a volunteer to reclass [they really pushed the other signal MOS's, but you can reclass for anything that you qualify for]. I was given 90 days to volunteer and if the Army did not meet their quota for volunteers, then it would start directing MOS reclassifications based on needs of the Army. Well I wasn't having any of that. My last attempt, before I went to Plan B, came from one of the civilians who works in the Public Affairs Office. He put me in touch with a civilian with USAREUR Public Affairs, who worked with the Sergeant Major there and was going to see what they could do. That was when I made some waves in my unit.

Before I even got in touch with this civilian, I made sure I told my first line supervisor, who had me inform my First Sergeant, who was SUPPOSED to tell my Sergeant Major. Well, when I went to my First Sergeant he was telling me how he was ok with it. Asked for the email so he could take it to the Sergeant Major. A couple hours passed and I had my NCO look into the situation to see it was clear to email this civilian who wanted to know what was going on. Well, it turned out that they didn't want me contacting anybody because they didn't want it to look like they were unable to help their Soldier. Eventually, they agreed that they would contact this civilian. When they did, he gave them the Sergeant Major's phone number, and that is where they left it. They were too afraid that their image would be tarnished to help me out. It still really, really pisses me off. For NCOs to be in the Army sixteen plus years and still be afraid to seek help and advice is just plain-fucking-ridiculous. So I was left with Plan B.

Plan B involved me reenlisting for the MOS 25B. This was only a stall tactic though, as I would not have to reenlist for thirty days, buying me time to see if seats for Public Affairs would open up. If not, I would reenlist for 25B. Then something mysterious happened. When the retention NCO [by this time, I had three retention NCOs working me, to get me what I wanted] went to plug me in to reenlist, the system wouldn't allow him. Why? Well it turns out, my branch manager put me on orders for Fort Bliss, Texas.

Really?!?! [I actually have a print out of my Assignment Instructions posted on the wall in my office with "Really?!?!" written on it. I wasn't allowed to put, "Well fuck me, right?"]

So, I went and got a hold of my branch manager to have him cancel the orders. My old branch manager did this for me back in November so I was able to take my testing for the Public Affairs MOS. This new guy is a dick though and fed me some bullshit about Priority Assignment [although he couldn't tell me what unit I was pinpointed to]. FNG.

So my crack team of retention NCOs from around Germany assembled at a conference call with my branch manager yesterday. After about a half hour conversation, my NCO gave me the news. I had three choices; A) Go to Ft. Bliss and try to reenlist there, B) Pick an MOS from a list of 6 MOS, the Army's most critical including Infantry, Truck Driver, and Glorified Secretary [25B was not an option], or C) Have my team of retention NCOs continue to fight the good fight for me, but if they were still unable to get results, I would be off to Ft. Bliss.

Now I had been trying to reenlist for Public Affairs since November 2007 and trying to reenlist since September 2007. This whole reenlistment issue, along with work, added with trying to learn everything I could about Public Affairs and Journalism, on top of that, closing down a military community. I was just tired of fighting, I couldn't do it anymore. So I waved my white flag and let the Army have its way. So I looked at my Sergeant and replied, "Tell all the retention NCOs I really appreciate everything they have done for me. I will go to Fort Bliss."

So now I have a report date of 10 May 2007 to Fort Bliss, but I have to be out of Germany by 4 April 2007. So now I start the process of clearing and heading off to Mexico [Fort Bliss is seven miles for the US - Mexican Boarder]. I will be coming home though. I will fly on the fourth to El Paso where I will stay the night then fly in the morning to Pittsburgh and stay until about the 21st of April.

As for what will happen to me once I report to my unit. Who knows. I am done trying to take control of my career. Right now I know I will not be seeing a promotion to Sergeant since the points are almost maxed out. Most likely I will be stuck sitting around, trying to tell myself that I am in the Army and that I am doing something that I not only enjoy, but helps make the world a better place. Oh, and I will be all up on that Rainbow Six Vegas 2.