26 Day's
Staying on the Internet has been a problem latley with all of the storms. The whole County got a Gully Washing yesterday. Rosman, at the forks of the River got over 4 inches of rain. This may or may not get posted right away.
Monday I was given the message at work to call my Unit in the next morning. When I got home the message was on my recorder as well. I checked my Military E-Mail(Army Knowledge Online, AKO) and I had Orders for 26 day's at Ft. McClellan Alabama starting late in August. This was a little bit of a shock. I knew it wasn't that I was coming down on Cross Level again due to the nature of the message, that would be "RIGHT AWAY". But, the Orders where different than expected.
Last month while at Ft. Lewis I was training Reserve Officer Training Corps(ROTC) Cadets on Comabt Techniques. I'll not be too specific because I could make comments that would sting. While there a few things came down the pipe(Army speak for information dissimenation). The first was they needed trainers at Ft. McClellan to do basicaly the same thing. They didn't say who was being trained. The second thing was a select few were called out and informed that we had been selected for a School at Ft. McClellan in September. They needed us to attend Combat Life Saver and Drivers Training in preperation for our "possible" mission to Iraq. Obviously I was one of the select few.
Earlier I had placed myself as a "Maybe" for the Trainer Mission. "I'll have to see what my Employer has on the plate", I told them. Then two day's later the latter mission came down. All of this popped up quick, except I expected the Schools at some point or another. Then I received Orders and had the call. It took me several try's the next morning to get in contact with my Point Of Contact(POC). Then, when I did reach him I could tell by his voice he was multi tasking. He asked if I could go to a class on the 19th of this month on "Combatives". Just one day...that's it. Well, it's a slow time at my Civillian Job( almost the nature of my work, in a couple of weeks, we'll be pulling hairs). Going down for a day is no problem. Especialy if I am on Travel Orders, other wise, I'll break even as far as money goes. (For you Drive By Bloggers, my unit is a three hour drive away at a major Military Post) "What's this for?", I ask. "It has to do with Ft. McClellan". I then told him about my orders for 26 day's, was that the duration of the school? "No, I was told you could do the whole 26 day's". I then thought to myself, I can? I had just explained to my Plant Manager that I did not know if the 26 day's on my orders were a mistake or not and if so was mandatory, though I thought it would be.
Enter Delima: Well, it's slow here...The money will be good...and apparently we are needed, the Army is hard up you know... An Employer is only required to let you be gone for 14 day's, other than weekend drills. I have been gone 33 day's already. Now the Army needs me 26 more day's. My Civillian Employer is pretty cool about it, though I'm concerned that certain individuals see's it as temporary. I just don't want to put them in a bind, yet, I can't get a straight prediction about that time frame (14 day's would not be a big deal) I would stand to gain from 26 day's of Active Duty. Financialy, getting "more used" to being on Active Duty again and Retirment Points. One point for every day of duty, the more points, the bigger the retirment (I can almost garuntee 549 more points comng).
Who am we to train? Are we going to train fellow Reservist or are we going to see a bunch of dark haired, dark eyed people staring at us curiously? All of this is coming don pretty quick. This was nothing planned long term. I didn't press the guy on the phone as to the details. I would find out soon enough. So here I am...The life of an Army Reservist.
I have meant to post a thing or two latley. One was a post by Travlin Ed that I was impressed with. Earlier I read a Power Point Presentation worth looking at(Viable to Military and Civillian). Why are these important? Because they represent Common Sense and learning. I have warned you and will warn you again, 4th Generation Warfare WILL rock your world. What happened in London will become more common place. As a note to that, I have a Cousin living in Luton, England. 80% of the town is Muslim. I would not use the word "Multiculturaism" for the Brits in this article, I would use Cultural Marxism.*
* On page 15 of the Power Point is a picture of Bill Lind, a man I find myself agreeing with more than Neil Boortz.
OK Folks...enough for now.
Appalchian Intellectual
Monday I was given the message at work to call my Unit in the next morning. When I got home the message was on my recorder as well. I checked my Military E-Mail(Army Knowledge Online, AKO) and I had Orders for 26 day's at Ft. McClellan Alabama starting late in August. This was a little bit of a shock. I knew it wasn't that I was coming down on Cross Level again due to the nature of the message, that would be "RIGHT AWAY". But, the Orders where different than expected.
Last month while at Ft. Lewis I was training Reserve Officer Training Corps(ROTC) Cadets on Comabt Techniques. I'll not be too specific because I could make comments that would sting. While there a few things came down the pipe(Army speak for information dissimenation). The first was they needed trainers at Ft. McClellan to do basicaly the same thing. They didn't say who was being trained. The second thing was a select few were called out and informed that we had been selected for a School at Ft. McClellan in September. They needed us to attend Combat Life Saver and Drivers Training in preperation for our "possible" mission to Iraq. Obviously I was one of the select few.
Earlier I had placed myself as a "Maybe" for the Trainer Mission. "I'll have to see what my Employer has on the plate", I told them. Then two day's later the latter mission came down. All of this popped up quick, except I expected the Schools at some point or another. Then I received Orders and had the call. It took me several try's the next morning to get in contact with my Point Of Contact(POC). Then, when I did reach him I could tell by his voice he was multi tasking. He asked if I could go to a class on the 19th of this month on "Combatives". Just one day...that's it. Well, it's a slow time at my Civillian Job( almost the nature of my work, in a couple of weeks, we'll be pulling hairs). Going down for a day is no problem. Especialy if I am on Travel Orders, other wise, I'll break even as far as money goes. (For you Drive By Bloggers, my unit is a three hour drive away at a major Military Post) "What's this for?", I ask. "It has to do with Ft. McClellan". I then told him about my orders for 26 day's, was that the duration of the school? "No, I was told you could do the whole 26 day's". I then thought to myself, I can? I had just explained to my Plant Manager that I did not know if the 26 day's on my orders were a mistake or not and if so was mandatory, though I thought it would be.
Enter Delima: Well, it's slow here...The money will be good...and apparently we are needed, the Army is hard up you know... An Employer is only required to let you be gone for 14 day's, other than weekend drills. I have been gone 33 day's already. Now the Army needs me 26 more day's. My Civillian Employer is pretty cool about it, though I'm concerned that certain individuals see's it as temporary. I just don't want to put them in a bind, yet, I can't get a straight prediction about that time frame (14 day's would not be a big deal) I would stand to gain from 26 day's of Active Duty. Financialy, getting "more used" to being on Active Duty again and Retirment Points. One point for every day of duty, the more points, the bigger the retirment (I can almost garuntee 549 more points comng).
Who am we to train? Are we going to train fellow Reservist or are we going to see a bunch of dark haired, dark eyed people staring at us curiously? All of this is coming don pretty quick. This was nothing planned long term. I didn't press the guy on the phone as to the details. I would find out soon enough. So here I am...The life of an Army Reservist.
I have meant to post a thing or two latley. One was a post by Travlin Ed that I was impressed with. Earlier I read a Power Point Presentation worth looking at(Viable to Military and Civillian). Why are these important? Because they represent Common Sense and learning. I have warned you and will warn you again, 4th Generation Warfare WILL rock your world. What happened in London will become more common place. As a note to that, I have a Cousin living in Luton, England. 80% of the town is Muslim. I would not use the word "Multiculturaism" for the Brits in this article, I would use Cultural Marxism.*
* On page 15 of the Power Point is a picture of Bill Lind, a man I find myself agreeing with more than Neil Boortz.
OK Folks...enough for now.
Appalchian Intellectual
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Wednesday, July 13, 2005
4 Comments:
I believe I have some reading about "4GW". I took a quick peek at the site......and yikes, we have some scary times and DEFINING times ahead.
I suppose I should read through the post again...but it sounds like you have "choice"? with those days? I know I am not understanding your situation...but does this mean you won't deploy? I am extremely unschooled in Army ways...so lot's of what you wrote went way over this gals head... Its ok. You, I hope will let us all know when its time.
Here's to making good decisions.
4GW is already here. Whether its intensification will lead to a curtailing of civil liberties to the point where the fanatics win is another question altogether, I hope they don’t.
Good luck training cadets, I went through an ROTC training at Ft. Knox, after a nice vacation at Boot at Jackson, cadets can be umm, you ought to know…
Good post today. I like your pictures, but enjoy yur tales more.
Let us know more about what's going on with your 26 days of activation(? correct term ?).
Whatever the deal is, I hope it all works out for you. I respect the reserves and guard so much becase, unlike the regular troops, you guys have to juggle so much stuff. And still, you guys pull it off without complaint. A little griping, of course, but no complaints.
Ed
At this point in time I do have a choice. It's not "Activation", then there is no choice. Going to schol for 14 day's, being the nature of it, will be acceptable to my Employer. I don't know if they will understand about the entire mission. More than likley yes, they(some of the few) understand there is a war going on and adjustmnets are needed.
My posting has been slack. I try to do it on a schedule. It's not worked to well latley. I don't post for the sake of posting, but, there is alot I don't get to say that I want to say. If that makes sense.
Yeah, forget "4GW coming to a theatere near you", it's playing now!
The ROTC advance camp is now centralised at Ft. Lewis. Sir(enkitel must be a comissioned Officer I assume) you did it a better way. I beleive that all ROTC should go to Basic before Advanced Camp. I also beleive they should do two years Enlisted. The Army(and it's siblings)treat them as if they are more intelligent than those enter as Enlisted. This is not so. Across the board I don't beleive that they are. Though they may benefit from a College Education, it's experience that makes the differnce. We are in this war neck deep, and I beleive that we need to change to win it.
Thanks for stopping in.
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