What's taking so long?

It's been about two months now, and my change of command inventory still isn't completely done.

Normally, it wouldn't take longer than one month, but I lost two weeks because someone important didn't like the way I failed to include lunch breaks on the schedule. That pushed the actual start from mid-November to the beginning of December.

Since then we've had three four-day weekends, requiring an extension request. Adding to the difficulty is the fact my property book includes about 30 "sets, kits, and outfits" which take a LONG time to go through. These items, such as like the T24660 Tool Room, are comprised of up to 218 pages (with six items per page) of components and sub components.

Here's an example -- some flint tips for a blowtorch igniter. They constitute one line in about 150 pages of components, despite the fact the only time anyone ever touches them is when there's an inventory. Though it would probably make sense to get rid of them, they stay filed away in a drawer with the yellow tag on them the other 99.9% of the time.

Why? Because Army Regulation 710-2 §2-6 states "Commanders will ensure that equipment and components listed in the authorized column (of the MTOE and TDA) are on hand or on request." Since the end product -- the W32730 Common #2 Tool Room -- is a required item, I can't get rid of any part of it while it's still serviceable.

The real kicker is that the Common #2 Tool Room was deemed obsolete back in 2014, yet no one at a higher level seems to want to replace with more modern equipment. I guess that would cost money.

Here's another bundle of joy: my W89557 warehouse tractor. This thing was originally meant to shuttle around parts on luggage trailers, but is now also obsolete. It looks like it came straight out of the 1960s.

As the primary hand receipt holder, the way to fix it would be to submit changes to the authorization document, which I've done. I've submitted the required DA Form 4610-Rs to higher levels, but the impression I get is that it will take command channels to drive the change, and neither modernizing nor "right-sizing" equipment is really a high priority right now. The unit will be stuck with ridiculous levels of nearly useless stuff for the time being.

So here we are, mid-January, and we're almost -- but not quite -- done.

In the meantime I've nihilistically started collecting old stuff from first aid kits. Like the other things, these outdated items that are required as part of a vehicle's Basic Issue Items (BII) but would cost money to replace.

On my desk is a bottle of iodine that expired in 1991. I've also got some ammonia inhalants (like smelling salts) that expired in June 2004 -- still in their original plastic wrapping. How sad, right? But who knows -- like baseball cards, maybe one day they'll be worth some money.