Reassignment drama

In the Army, staff officers typically change assignments every year. And since I've been in the division headquarters for one year now, it's time to move on. And the rumor had it that I was going to move outside the division.

This was odd, because *nobody* -- least of all a logistician -- moves outside the division. We're understrength in logisticians. How did that happen?

As it turns out, it wasn't me. We just got in a new guy -- the guy originally scheduled to go the unit I'm now going to -- and I learned that it's because the bosses made a trade. New guy had only one year in command before he went to the career course, and wanted to get another one. He wasn't going to get it in the other unit, so he came to this division.

In return, the other unit wanted someone, so the powers-that-be picked someone who came to the island already command-complete and has at least one year left. That would be me.

So back on March 10th, I got an email from my new boss welcoming me to the unit, with the reporting orders set for March 23rd. That was a bit odd especially since we have a big exercise planned for next month and everyone's been telling me I'll be staying for it.

When I called new boss on the evening of the 10th, he assured me there would be no such delay. New guy had arrived to replace me, he said, so there was no reason to delay things. “We'll see you on the 23rd.” It sounded strange, so I sent my orders to my boss and the deputy of my section asking if there was some other, superseding document.

The following week, in conversation, I mentioned to my boss that I got my DA Form 4187 reassignment to the new unit for 23 March, but he told me that they were 'wrong.' He didn't have anything different to go by, but certainly, I thought, someone will tell me if there's another document that says anything different.

One week later, on the 18th, I followed up with the deputy, and asked if there were any other orders that had come in. 'No,' they said, 'but you'll be here through Warfighter.' This person sounded just as certain as my boss, but things were starting to make me nervous.

On Monday the 20th, I again talked to my boss about the transfer, and he said not to worry, that 'Everyone's working on it.' By this point, though, things were getting too weird. I decided to start investigating for myself what's going on. Every conversation I was having with my current section was saying everything's fine, but every conversation with the new unit was saying we'll see you on the 23rd.

So I called the headquarters that issued the orders. The person who signed them said that in order to change them, both sides have to agree on a new report date, and that hadn't happened. Plus, the officer assignment person in HR said that while there had been a lot of email traffic about the issue, there was no resolution. The report date remained March 23rd.

Finally, I spoke to the Legal section. And just like I thought, they said the 4187 trumps anything my boss was telling me. And given the disconnect between the senior people I was talking to, it was the most reliable thing to go by.

But then, in the last conversation I had at work today, the head of my section directly told me not to call the new unit and not to report. So what did I do? Naturally, I called the new boss, who -- of course -- told me I still had to report.

Tomorrow's going to be an interesting day.