More Information

(Friday 9/8/06)

Well, I'm getting information little by little.

Today I got my travel orders and itinerary for next week. I am traveling on Monday (9/11, kind of cool) and spend Tuesday at Ft. Snelling, MN. That is for an "SRP", which is a kind of records review to see if all my stuff is together. After they pronounce me ready to be mobilized, I can get my actual orders and be off. I come home from there on Tuesday evening.

I talked to my gaining unit today about the process once I'm mobilized, and what I'm likely to be doing. Once I get there (Ft. McPherson, GA - in Atlanta), they process me into their unit (3rd Army), and then take me to Ft. Benning to go through my mobilization processing. That's where I draw all my cool high-speed Army stuff like new uniforms, boots, body armor, Camelbak, $200 sunglasses (Soldier's Lexan Impact Resistant Protective Eyewear, a.k.a. SLIRPE), weapon, mask, etc etc. Then I go back up to Ft. McPherson a few days later. That's where they cut my orders to send me to Kuwait. It's pretty certain that's where I'm going. At least, that's where they need someone with my qualifications, until something changes.

(OK, I confess, I made up the acronym for the glasses...) ;-)

They asked me how much time I needed to get ready to leave. They really want me to come right away, because the unit has already been mobilized since August 9th. But I wanted to stay here long enough to visit everyone before I go, so I told them 9/29. That is the date for which they will cut my travel orders. I'll go down Friday, probably head for Ft. Benning Sunday, and begin the process on Monday 10/2.

The mobilization is for 480 days, so I'll be gone through about next December. (They're not sure whether my clock will start ticking when my orders are cut, or if they'll go by when the unit was first mobilized).

If they send me where they currently think they are going to send me, I will be a facilities engineer on the largest logistics base in Kuwait. Like I told Anna, it sounds boring and safe. I guess we'll see. It's probably not a bad thing that I won't be riding horses around the mountains of Afghanistan, since I have to finish my internet-based Army school by the end of this deployment or else risk not getting promoted to LTC. So most likely I'll sit in an air-conditioned office pushing paperwork trying not to be a REMF, and work on my Army education in my free time.

I suppose I'm a bit past the stage of chasing around in the mountains or kicking in doors in Baghdad, anyway...