Mobilized again! (and again, and....?)

When I first got back into the Army Reserve in January, I was a part of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). I did not join a unit at first. I clicked the "volunteer" button on the Army Human Resources Command website, expecting that I would be mobilized for contingency operations. After all, that's what it's for. Nothing came of it, even after several months. It wasn't until after I joined a unit and made it known to the unit's mobilization officer that I was interested in an active duty tour that they called me to mobilize in response to a tasking they had received from DA.

So what's suddenly different?

Within the past three days I have been called twice by different Army Reserve units, asking me if I was available to mobilize with them. They said they had seen me listed in the IRR database as being an available volunteer for contingency operations. (One of them even said I was listed as a captain. I have no idea how that is possible, since I have been a major for years). They both expressed great surprise that I had been "out there" for that long and hadn't been called already. One of them was even with a unit I tried to join a few months ago, but decided not to because they wanted me to jump through too many hoops.

I know for a fact that at least one person in the unit I just left who had the same military background as I do was involuntarily mobilized and sent to Iraq during that time. I suppose it's just a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, which is understandable in a large organization like this. Still, it seems kind of lame that I was listed as available for all those months and never got a call, when people who didn't want to go were snatched up and sent off on short notice involuntarily.

Oh, well - I'm on my way now.

Making Progress

Well, I am slowly whittling down my "to-do" list. The problem is that as I go through it and get things accomplished, I think of new things. So the list keeps growing longer!

Yesterday I treated myself to new towels (tan, naturally!) and a small rug. Even though it will probably be very hot, I still think it will be nice to have a rug between my bare feet and the concrete floor when I sit up in my bed. (Of course, that's assuming I have a bed and a concrete floor!). But it would be fine on a wooden floor, or even on bare ground. Come to think of it, the rug doesn't have a rubber bottom, so I guess I wasn't really thinking of bare ground....just added a new line to my to-do list: "74) exchange rug". It's been a long time since I went to the field with the Army, and I'm remembering things as I go.

Today I bought a supply of my various vitamins and nutritional supplements sufficient to last me for about six months. That will be enough time to figure out if I can get what I need over there, and if not, to arrange for someone to send me refills.

I just got my official mobilization orders and made my travel arrangements for 9/29.

About half of my "to-do's" are of the "get or prepare this thing to take along" type, and about half are of the "make this arrangement" type (e.g. cancel the newspaper, etc.). So I'll continue to work through the list, and hope that eventually I get to where I'm crossing things off faster than I am adding them!

The Mall of America and the SRP

I just returned from my SRP (Soldier Readiness Processing). It was conducted at Ft Snelling, MN, which is in the Minneapolis area. I flew in on Monday 9/11, and they put me up at a Ramada Inn near the airport. I arrived and got settled well before noon. Right across from the hotel was the Mall of America. It was only about a two block walk over there, and since I didn't have anything to do until Tuesday morning, I walked over and spent the afternoon at the mall. The Mall of America is a large indoor mall that was constructed with much hoopla in the early 1990's. I think it was supposed to be the largest indoor mall in the world. It's certainly large, and has quite a variety of stores. It is three stories in height, and consists of four "markets" (North, South, East, and West) arrayed around a central square which is open from floor to ceiling and contains an amusement park with various rides. I don't know exactly what I expected, but it didn't really seem all that huge. Perhaps I had envisioned more open space. The surrounding "markets" were really exactly like any other mall, just that there were more stores. They lined both sides of a walkway on each floor, in a square around the middle. The open area in the middle with the amusement park was interesting but geared for small children. I walked through it once, just to get to a restaurant on the other side, but didn't feel that it held much attraction for me as an adult. So on balance, since I spent most of my time walking around the stores, it felt just about like any other mall. But it *was* pretty big - one lady at mall information told me that it's about a mile around. Since I walked all around each floor once, and twice around one of them, plus there and back, I think I walked between four and five miles that afternoon. I had done PT in the morning but not gone for my walk, so this made up for it! I wasn't shopping for anything in particular, although I did stop into the Apple store and talk to them about power supplies. I learned that I don't need a transformer for my iPod - just an adapter. Same for my computer, as I learned the other day. So if my battery charger will work on 220V, I can ditch the transformer entirely - everything else I have works on AA batteries. The variety of stores was impressive. I enjoyed simply walking around, looking at all the stores and just sort of taking it in. It was hard to avoid the "I won't be seeing anything like this for awhile" mindset. But I suppose it's true. It may be due to my unusual frame of mind, but it seemed appropriate somehow to be in the "Mall of America" as I prepared to begin my mobilization processing. The SRP was about what I expected. I went over there with one other soldier, a sergeant that I met at breakfast. He was from the Upper Peninsula, and was being deployed for the second time. He had hoped to be an MP when he enlisted, but they made him a truck driver instead. He gave me some helpful hints about things to take and what to expect when I get there. I ask everyone I meet who's already been there for tips and suggestions about what they would take if they went again. Interestingly, he had done the same thing I almost did - he had both of his personal duffel bags, fully packed. So I guess it wasn't only my unit that didn't understand the SRP. You'd think they'd have this process down to a science by now, at least to the point where a person mobilized would know he didn't have to drag all his stuff along on the first trip. Actually, it was pretty organized, and they took good care of us. I had a form (DA Form 7425) that had roughly 50-60 lines that needed to be checked off, and they walked us through the various staff sections going over our records. Personnel information, emergency contacts, insurance, will, dependent ID's, etc. were all checked, updated and verified. I got a good idea in finance what to expect in the way of pay, and it's a pretty good deal. Not only is the military paying pretty well these days, but in a combat zone the pay is tax free. That's like receiving a giant pay raise in and of itself. I read an article the other day about tax strategies for retirement, and comparing Roth IRA's with conventional IRA's. With a conventional IRA, your contributions are tax-free and grow tax-free, but you are taxed at your current rate upon withdrawal. With a Roth IRA, your contributions are taxed at your current tax rate but grow tax free and are tax free at withdrawal. Once I saw the numbers, I decided to immediately open a Roth IRA and contribute the maximum amount while over there. Since my tax rate while contributing will be zero, it will be a completely tax-free retirement plan. That's hard to argue with! There's also a special savings plan for soldiers that you can only start once you get over there. It guarantees a 10% return, so that's hard to argue with, too. So If possible I'll do both. My medical records were a pretty quick exercise, since there basically aren't any, just my physical from the reappointment process. I'll have to get a filling or two once I get to Ft. Benning, but I already knew that. The medical guy was pretty impressed that I still had my original shot record, and that it was still in its original plastic case. Not that it did me any good - the only one still current is polio, and all the rest will have to be redone. So I'll have to get a bunch of shots. Maybe I'll get to run the gauntlet again, just like basic training, where they lined us up like cattle and hit us with multiple pneumatic injections in both arms simultaneously as we walked between two lines of medical personnel. That made pushups painful for a couple of days! Somehow I doubt it, though. Going through this process as an individual is much different than doing it as a unit. We got a lot of personal attention and people went out of their way to help us. I saw the schedule, and they had 1-2 people scheduled to come through every day this week. They do get surges when entire units come through, and then they do the cattle-call style processing. But this was not bad. The very last person to process me was a crusty old Chief Warrant Officer from Ottumwa, Iowa. His job was quality control. He found a couple of things wrong with my paperwork and I had to go around and get them fixed . The funny thing about this whole process is that they do it all over again once I get to my mobe station. So this was a pre-check, and everything will be checked all over again down there. At one level you could look at it as a wasted trip, since they could just check it all at once and be done with it. But they must have figured out that it's cheaper or more efficient to do it this way. The Army would *never* do anything redundant or unnecessary.... (!) They cut my orders transferring me from 8th Army to 3rd Army, effective today. So now I'm in Patton's old outfit! They got me out of there by about 3:00, and I was at the airport by 3:30. I managed to get on an earlier flight so I left an hour earlier than I was expecting. This was the first time I'd flown in uniform since getting back into the Army this year. I was a bit self-conscious at first, but not for long. There are enough people traveling in uniform now that it's a pretty common sight in the airport and I don't think I really stood out too much. So - the SRP is done, and I'm deployable. Now I have a long list of to-do's over the next couple of weeks, as I get ready to head for Ft. McPherson for the real deal. Mood: Tired Music: Silence

Pogues, REMFs, and 9/11

I told a friend that it looked like I was going to be a pogue, but I'd try not to be a REMF. She had no idea what I was talking about, so I thought I'd explain here.

A pogue (or pogie, or pogey) is someone who works in the rear area, out of harm's way. "Pogie bait" is a common military term for candy, snacks, etc., and is the most common reference to this word that you hear on a regular basis.

It seems that nobody knows for sure where the term came from, but I have read speculation that it's from the Tagalog term for "prostitute", hence "pogie bait". I have also read that it's from "Persons Other than Grunts". Who knows where it really came from, but people in the Army know what you mean when you say it.

REMF = "Rear Echelon M..F...", someone who is basically a bureaucrat with a safe job who doesn't care about the troops up front and just makes life harder for them.

I don't want to be either a pogue or a REMF, but I may not have a choice about the first.

Wow - it wasn't until I took a look at the date on this post that I noticed it's 9/11. Five years later. I suppose I should say something meaningful, but I don't feel especially voluble right now.

I remember exactly where I was that day - I was sitting in the County Gun Board meeting waiting for my hearing to get my permit to carry a concealed weapon. We had worked for years to get the law in Michigan changed from "may issue" to "shall issue", and I was finally going to get my permit under the new law.

Someone came into the room and whispered in the deputy sheriff's ear during the hearings, and a moment later he made an announcement that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Like everyone else, we thought it was an accident. My turn came, and I had my hearing. While I was sitting there in front of the board, someone came in and whispered to the deputy again, and they made the announcement that a second plane had impacted, and also that the Pentagon had been hit. That was when there began to be a buzz of concern in the air. The police and sheriff's departments were being put on some sort of alert. They finished my hearing, and I left as the meeting was dissolving in some confusion.

It felt very strange driving back to work. Sitting in my office in a high-rise building, I kept looking out the window and thinking of what was going on in New York. We didn't have a radio or anything, and I felt very cut off, and, frankly, vulnerable. I remember wondering what was going on with my kids, and whether they knew, and what they were being told. Since I couldn't really concentrate on work, I decided to go home.

On my way home, I passed under a bridge on the interstate, and there was a person standing in the middle of the bridge waving an American flag at passing traffic. I understood perfectly - I also felt the urge to *do something*, anything to assert some control and create some sense that we weren't just passive victims.

The next day I went down to the National Guard armory to volunteer to return to my old unit, but it was too soon and they weren't prepared to take anyone (at least not anyone my age). Nobody really knew what was going to happen. Then with all the changes in my life, it took me until last year to really wake up and jump through the hoops to get back into the service.

We've come a long way since 9/11/01, but there's a long way to go. I would like to hope that a substantial part of our population has begun to realize that we are at war with radical Islam. More correctly, *they* are at war with *us*, and if we do not take active measures for our defense they will just keep attacking us. They want to wipe out our civilization, and if we don't wake up they will succeed. They have already succeeded in curtailing some of our freedoms - it was a long, thirsty flight to Korea last month. Talk about the tail wagging the dog...

I suppose that's enough for now. I'm learning more and more about Islam and its teachings, as well as the history of conflict between Islam and the West (formerly known as "Christendom"). It's disturbing in many ways. I'll have more to say about that subject later.

I'm not superstitious and I don't believe in fate or anything like that, but it does seem especially appropriate that I am getting on a plane on 9/11 five years later, starting on my process of mobilization to go do my part in the war. I guess it's relative to your point of view - the job they assign me may make me a "pogue" in military parlance, but I'll still feel a whole lot more involved than I have felt for the past few years, watching from the sidelines.

I liked the feature in Livejournal where you could indicate your mood and what music you were listening to. This blogging tool doesn't have that feature, but I think I'll add it in on my own:

Mood: Serious
Music: Darryl Worley - Have You Forgotten