Still Waiting for Orders

1 August 2008
1930

My current mobilization orders end next Thursday, and I am still waiting for my new orders. To those not familiar with how the military does things, this may not seem like much. But in the military, orders are everything. Ever heard the saying “nature abhors a vacuum”? Well, the Army abhors a soldier without orders. Everything depends on them. If you have orders, you belong someplace, and they can take care of you. Without orders, you can’t do anything and it’s hard for people to do things for you.

Everywhere you go, people want to see your orders. If you are getting some kind of service (such as a plane flight), you often have to give them one or more copies or your orders. It’s like having a passport when you travel. Soldiers in transit usually have a folder with multiple copies of their orders. You need three copies here, six copies there, etc., depending on what you are doing and where you are going. I have a copy of my current mobilization orders folded up in my wallet and on me at all times.

Without orders I literally can’t be here. I won’t get paid, can’t eat in the mess hall, can’t travel, etc. The command will undoubtedly take care of me in the long run, but in the short run it could be inconvenient.

The reason for this situation is that normally you are supposed to request new orders 60 days in advance. Since I was scheduled to demobilize and just volunteered for this tour less than a month ago, everything had to be rushed. The orders come from HRC (Human Resources Command) in St. Louis. Once I submitted my paperwork, it had to be processed by USARCENT at Ft. McPherson, GA, and then transmitted to HRC for action. There is an online personnel system they can check to see the status of the request, and it is still in process.

It sounds like just a paperwork drill but the real world effect is that I can’t tell anybody when I’m leaving, where I’m going next, or when exactly I’ll be home. So we can’t make any definite plans. It’s kind of a pain.

Naturally, the military has an acronym for everything. The kind of orders I am waiting for are called CO-ADOS. That means “Contingency Operations – Active Duty Operational Support”. In MILspeak, “contingency” means wartime-type activities. Once my CO-ADOS orders come through, I can stay in theater, go directly to Qatar next week, in-process at Camp As Sayliyah, and then go on leave from there.

You can also get just plain ADOS orders, but you aren’t supposed to be over here unless you are CO-ADOS. So the backup plan is that if I don’t get CO-ADOS orders in time, they will fly me back to Atlanta, issue ADOS orders, and send me on leave from there. When my CO-ADOS orders come, they will amend the dates to take me off ADOS and put me on CO-ADOS status.

Right now I am pretty much ready to go, even though I’m hoping to stay a few more days to help with the transition. I could be trying to get on a plane to Atlanta on Monday or I could be going to Qatar on Thursday. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Mood: Impatient
Music: Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World