The Final Battle Roster

"As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." - Donald Rumsfeld

It's hard to believe that it has been over six weeks since I posted last. Just to catch up; five weeks ago I was still sitting behind a desk trying to anticipate the next issue while playing fireman to numerous little "fires" that break out and need putting out. Three weeks ago I took two whole weeks off of work to travel with my family all over the eastern seaboard. We hit Arapahoe, North Carolina; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and finally the west coast of Florida where my mother-in-law lives. For this past week I have been climbing out from underneath all the emails I ignored while I was away.


The Battle Roster for my company is published. A Battle Roster (BR) is the list of names of the Soldiers who are deploying. It lists their name, rank, job position and job competency, and what unit they are coming from (if not organic to my unit). Filling a Battle Roster is not as easy as it should be and has been the cause of many heated email exchanges and phone coversations.


In March, my BR was solid and I looked forward to taking a lot of the veterans on the roster so that they would mentor the new "kids". I needed officers, the one thing my company is serously lacking is commissioned officers within the ranks. I was relying on the the veterans who had two, three, up to five tours going back to 1990 to provide the initial leadership until we got going - collectively as one unit.


By May, reality set in. I lost two solid Non-commisioned officers to retirement. I lost another to age - he will turn 60 while we are deployed. I lost two more Soldiers to medical issues and a final Soldier decided not to re-enlist. Six gone before the summer started. Six to backfill, plus find over six officers.


These issues are not mine alone. I share this headache with a faceless Major S. at Ft. Bragg, NC, who sole job is to populate the vacancies on the BR. He shares his headache with Big Army, who has the responsibility to fill anything left over.


I back filled some of my vacancies in the junior enlisted positions with my own Soldiers. Young men and women who volunteered, even begged, to go with the company. This dedication amazes me every time I see it. I understand that some are just looking for the adventure and some are looking for a steady paycheck. However, there is a war on and Iraq is still a dangerous place to volunteer to go to.


From May until July back filling and filling my senior leadership positions was harder. I was given officers who I never met. I had one office who I knew volunteer to go but got tied up and lost in the bullshit bureaucracy that is Big Army. I was forced to push some NCOs outside of their comfort zone into positions of greater authority and responsibility.


Why does all of this cause me concern? The reason is that I believe in building strong units and teams prior to entering a hostile zone. That strength comes from working together over time. Since we are coming together for the first time in three weeks I have apprehesion over the performance of the teams as they start.

As we speak I am still trying to get to "final". I write this with the full knowledge that "no plan survives first contact" and that even as I will eventually leave the US with my teams set, that those will change again when we get into Theater.

Adult Supervision

"It's easy to be a clown until you're put in charge of the circus."

The unit is going through Annual Training. This is one week of briefings, classes, training, qualification, and personal file updates necessary before we mobilize. This training is more important than you realize as you go through it. To have someone sit down with you, one on one, and review your record and make updates as necessary gives you piece of mind when you are far away.

For instance, last time I went away I was engaged and had only one child. My life insurance and other legal paper work reflected that. Obviously, now that I am married and have two children this week allows me to change my insurance, update my will, and make sure that me and my family receive the benefits we deserve when I am away.

Due to turn over and the work load on the full time support at the unit, the plan went through one or two drafts before going "final". I helped plan and coordinate some of this training. Plans are good and necessary however, all plans require execution, and no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Today I found myself "executing" more than I thought I would. Maybe because I had to, or maybe because I can't not get involved. At the end of the day I found myself standing in front of twenty NCOs and officers conducting an "azimuth check", going over what we accomplished, and reviewing the plan for the next few days. And then I dismissed everyone.

WTF?! Since when did I get to be the one with the most brass?! When did I turn into the adult? - I hate adults! I used to be the smart ass LT sitting in the back of the room singing out of tune and now I'm leading the chorus? Who checks on this? Now, I know as I write this that I can think of one young Captain and one soon-to-be ex-Major who are asking the same thing. I'm sure there are others waiting to chime in.

After spending almost twenty years kvetching about how everyone else is doing it wrong its about time I "man up" and do it right.

Why I Love The Army. Reason #670

At 1700 (5:00pm to the civilians reading along) the official Army day is over the and the flag comes down from the one and only flagpole on the post. When that happens two bugle calls sound. The first is, Retreat, a signal that the flag is about to come down. The second is, To The Colors, the bugle sounds as the flag is actually coming down.

On Friday afternoon I was golfing nine holes on the Ft. Dix Golf Course with my friends Justin, Dennis, and Stacy when the five o'clock hour struck. With each bugle call there is a ceremony that is performed by every Soldier who can hear it. For Retreat you come to the position of attention and face towards the music. For To The Colors you salute if in uniform or remain at attention if not.

The four of us grumbled a little as Retreat sounded, but as a group, there on the eighth tee, we stood at attention. And as I quickly looked around the course I noticed the foursome in front of us stopped. As did the twosome on second tee. In fact, the whole course stood still until the Colors were down.

I love this organization that stands on its ceremonies and that those ceremonies are respected by everyone, even when no one is looking or its convenient to look the other way. We pass them on. We keep our standards high. And we keep our respect for who we are as Soldiers in check.

Back To School

Fort Dix, NJ in the late summer - how refreshing.

Yes, I am in Ft Dix, NJ attend the third phase of a military education course called ILE, Intermediate Level Education. The completion of this course (on Friday) is part of the boxes that need to be checked if I want to make the next rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I do.

The course material is good. The course load, managable. The first two phases were a lot of fun and I am fortunate to have some of those people here during this course. No, you don't go through all three phases with the same people. Its the luck of the draw with fellow students and instructors. This group is a little more work oriented than team building oriented. Ok, fine - at least there are some interesting folks and no know-it-all jerks. The days start at 0730 and runs to 1630ish with homework most nights.

To be honest, I just want it over with. This is basically a pass/fail course and there are no real recorded grades. In other words the super smart and the coat tail riders get the same certificate at the end. I am somewhere in between the smart and the riders - at the higher end of the bell curve.

I do most of my work as soon as I can fit it into my schedule in order to free up as much of the weekend that we have "off" in the middle of the two weeks here. My fellow students, many of them, are shocked to learn that my three page paper was 80% complete on Thursday night when it isn't due until Monday. I wanted my weekend off to go visit Pat, Amy, and Megan who live fifteen miles down the road. It's not that I'm an over achiever, it's just that I want to have fun without a deadline hanging over my head.

Visiting Pat and Amy is always relaxing. After 25 years of friendship its easy to chill out immediately upon entering the door, going to their fridge, and popping a beer. Today went to Six Flags Great Adventure and rode a bunch of rollercoasters until the heat drove us back to an air conditioned house.

This trip to Ft. Dix is a benefit in disguise because I am meeting after classroom hours with some of the people who occupy the offices and sections who will help us mobilize later in the summer. A dinner here, a bottle of Grey Goose vodka there - I am not opposed to greasing the skids to ensure a smooth training experience to keep the distracting bullshit to a minimum.

Taking personal charge of our mobilization has consumed more of my mental time than the course work. Maybe its a good thing the course is pass/fail.

On the unsettling side, TJ turned one year old while I was down here. The little guy isn't aware its his birthday, or that daddy and mommy were both working. However, he's a Rock Star and will get a Rock Star's party when I get home. I got him a Superman onesie with a red velcroed cape from Six Flags. I can't wait to see him in it. Also unsettling was that the tempature rose to the high 90s back home and Lisa had to call a friend of ours to put in the AC. Great, the hint of a year to come where I am too far away to be helpful.

On the good news side, I read where an old work buddy of mine just returned home safe and sound from 17 months in Iraq. Yea, Kurt! That reminds me...

I am also reading Malcom Gladwell's, The Tipping Point, just for kicks. Kurt gave it to me and I misplaced it. Yes, it's a very interesting book.

So that's it for now. Hope all is well where you are.

Full Time

It's been two and a half weeks since leaving my job at Cornell and working full time at the Reserve Center - and things have been moving at 100 mph.

For now I am an Army of One - to borrow our old recruiting slogan. I spent the first few days getting organized, getting connectivity to the internet, and working my notes from the last two months into something that I could work with. I made phone calls to the various chains of command that will support the units deployment, basically saying, "here I am, what can you do for me?" Despite the enormous bureaucracy that is the Army, there are many in it who were willing to help me get answers.

My "research" led me to Fort Dix, New Jersey, a likely location for the unit to mob (short for mobilize or mobilization). The MUIC (Mobilizing Unit Inprocessing Center) provided further contacts, information, and a lot of answers. Naturally, with the answers come more questions. As I provide answers to my bosses other people in this bureaucracy chime in with questions of me. It is a cycle that builds on itself and grows larger with each exchange.

Sorting and staying on top of everything has quickly become overwhelming. I didn't volunteer to do this because I wanted to be overwhelmed. I also didn't volunteer because I'm stupid, either. Rather than let this situation go too far I called for more help and within a week or two I will have a small staff working for me. And none too soon.

Do not feel sorry for me. I asked for this. In all honesty, I love being this busy and throwing myself full on into this.

It Begins with an Ending...and a Smash

To being my deployment I needed to end something first.

Last week was my last week at work and last Friday, I spent my last "official" day at the Cornell Army ROTC office in Barton Hall. I say "official" because I am actually on "vacation", and I say "vacation" because I am going to work at my Reserve unit starting tomorrow. I am on vacation with ROTC until mid-May and then paid by my unit for the remainder of the summer.

I had a great bunch of freshmen this year. They were young and smart and shared their classroom with about 7 "civilian" students who were taking my class as an elective. I see a lot of potential in this class, a solid core of about six or seven Cadets who will hit their stride in the program in the next two years and be phenomenal seniors and superb officers. There is always something exciting about watching a class bond, mature, and grow into leaders. My good-bye on Tuesday was less melodramatic than it could have been. I threatened them that if they didn't have a good sophomore year that I'd teach them again in their junior year - and beat them.

Thursday night I said good-bye to a bunch of great students from the MILR program where I have been taking a class here and there for the last three years. As a fellow student they absolutely welcomed me into their fold - even in uniform. I went to a couple of graduate student happy hours where I was a bit of a novelty. "What do you think about [something about the war]" would go the questions. And, no, I didn't mind at all. Being able to stretch my brain with people who were smarter than me is a good thing and I wish I could have shared more classes with them.

Friday, May 2nd, was Slope Day at Cornell; the last official day of classes and an organized, university sanctioned, drinking event. Cornell hires campus security guards from all over the state, puts up fencing all over the Libe slope, and sets up beer tents while up-and-coming bands play on a stage. Students, among the smartest in the nation, skip classes and start drinking as early as 9:00 am. (I know this because one of my students was in my office at 10:00 and already been drinking "jungle juice" for breakfast.)

I did not go to Slope Day. It's not that I'm a prude, its just that I have been to Slope Day when it was less regulated. And let's just say that drinking those days are past me and if I was going to go to Slope Day I was going to enjoy myself. Of course the other reason that I didn't go to Slope Day was that my wife was one of the Cornell staff overseeing the event - and that was a recipe for disaster.

My last day email was full of final exams and end term papers. Lots of reading. Lots of reading that I did not get to and will require me going back to work in the evenings to read and grade them. My last day I also ran into several students on their way to the Libe slope; a couple of my civilians who thanked me for a great class and wished me luck in the next year.

The office closed early and Byran Miller and I went golfing for nine holes. Again, no melodramatic good-byes because I'll see these people again before I go away. My desk and office were cleared of my pictures. I changed the pass word on the computer so that my replacement can get on. All in all, it was an anti-climatic but necessary step to focus on the tasks ahead. I love this job and look forward to coming back to it.

Playing golf was a joke because we both Bryan and I suck, and I mean s-u-c-k, but we had fun. After the course we stopped for some food before going separate ways. Bryan is a good officer who is going to miss having someone around to bust balls on in the office. For the most past I could take far more crap from him than he could from me. I could taunt him about his golf game and taking more swings at the ball than he actually took to hit it, but that would be mean.

Finally, on my way home I drove down a side street, not a mile from the house when I got hit by a truck who went through a stop sign. I saw him with just enough time to think, "oh, shit, he's a lot bigger than me," when the entire front of my car caved in. I stood on the brakes with just enough time to keep him from coming through my drivers side door. Yea, it was close. I got out of the car and immediately sat back down because I had hit my head on the door. It was just enough to get my bell rung and I wasn't sure if I was really hurt or not. Fortunately for me, the assistant fire chief lived on the corner and saw the accident. Within minutes ambulances, firetrucks and police were on the scene. a trip to the hospital, a CAT scan, some pain pills, and two hours later I was home with a slight concussion and a totaled car.

Great way to end the week.

Tomorrow I start at the Reserve Center. More to follow.

Cadence

There is an old marching tune that goes,

"Here we go again,
same old stuff again,
marching down the avenue
many more weeks and we'll be through."

As I start the process to mobilize for a second time that particular song runs in the back of my head.

I have been in an Army uniform now for over twenty years. I enlisted in January 1987. By May 1990, I was a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve. I served one weekend a month and two weeks every year until 2001 when everything changed for Reservists and Guardsmen. I deployed in 2004 after joining a unit I knew full well would be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. I wound up in Baghdad for 9 1/2 months. I kept a journal during that deployment as well.

In December 2007, I heard the first faint rumors of having to return again. It made sense. It had been four years since the last deployment and the Army went through a lot of Reservists to get to me and my unit again. Just to put this into perspective it was an election year back then too. By March I knew this was going to be a reality later in 2008. I have a good idea of where I am going, but "Mother Army" is notorious for changing her mind. For now I know I am returning to the CENTCOM region (read Southwest Asia). The other details will have to wait until I am there.

Friends, family, and others are asking me how and why we (Soldiers) do it. Why do we stay in the Army? How do we manage two, three, or more tours when we are just Citizen Soldiers? There is no answer that people can completely understand unless they have served. Duty is a word that means more than just doing our jobs.

We just do it. We might complain. We might worry. We might look forward to it. But, basically, we find that cadence and simply march along.