Preparing to leave

Before this week is out, my family will be in Korea and I will finally be deployed.

I'm a bit anxious about it all, but most of the time I'm just focused on what has to happen next. On Monday I drew some more equipment so that I have the required gear to get on the connecting flight. My original stuff had gone with the company back in November.

The toughest part will be the transition -- spending a few days in limbo, not being able to unpack or know when I'll be able to wash my clothes. Right now I only have two sets of uniforms to work with. It will be nice to get settled.

For now I'm trying to eat up all the food in the house so that it doesn't go bad. It's a tough job, but I'm sure I can do it.

MyCAA to be assessed; outlook not good...

According to the January 17 issue of Army Times,

Pentagon officials will assess the costs of providing education opportunities for military spouses as an incentive to retain service members, compared with the costs of recruiting and training new service members.

What they're referring to is the My Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA) that started in 2009, which paid for a spouse's education toward a "mobile career." In February 2010, because of a flood of applications, the Department of Defense abruptly shut down the program "because a flood of applications threatened to drain its funding. " [page 9]

In October, DOD reinstated the program, but with a few modifications. First, the maximum award was lowered from $6,000 to $4,000. Second, it was only open to spouses of enlisted soldiers E-1 through E-5, the two lowest grades of warrant officers, and commissioned officers O-1 and O-2.

I think it's that second modification that will cause the Pentagon to kill the program. I can understand why DOD made the limitation -- generally the other grades get paid more -- but as a retention incentive it's a non-issue.

The grades to which the program has been limited are typically still under service obligations. An OCS lieutenant like me is obligated for three years; by the time I finish with that, I'm an O-3 captain, and thus ineligible. Junior enlisted soldiers are in similar situations. They're only eligible when they're already stuck.

As a retention tool, then, MyCAA is pretty much worthless. Although I love the idea and my wife will take advantage of it this coming summer, she'll use up that $4,000 long before I have to make a decision on how long I want to stay in.

I don't expect it to last much longer.

Why our best officers are leaving: a response

Tim Kane of The Atlantic wrote an article about why the best Army officers are leaving the military. According to his survey, 93 percent of West Point veterans and active-duty officers believe half or more of "the best officers leave the military early rather than serving a full career." [Source] As a result, the Army is "losing its vaunted ability to cultivate entrepreneurs in uniform."

The biggest frustration, according to the survey, is with the military bureaucracy. With promotions limited by time-in grade requirements, merit is irrelevant. At best, a captain can get promoted to major one year earlier than his peers, but at best that's still at least eight years into his career.

Ironically, officer promotions are less competitive than enlisted -- you pretty much have to do something criminal not to make captain, and no matter what your evaluations say you're set for at least the next five years.

Yet I wonder how far down the "market forces" road we can go. In 1973 the Army moved to an all-volunteer force, which opened up recruitment and retention to the law of supply and demand. Better pay, better housing, and better treatment followed, and enlistment bonuses are continually adjusted to provide a steady stream of recruits.

Virtually everyone says that has been a good move, but it came with a price: a higher defense budget. What would the Army have to sacrifice in order to move forward?

In the survey, 90 percent agreed that the Army should allow for greater specialization. As the article explains,

Under the current system, company and platoon commanders are often “promoted” to staff jobs—that is, transferred from commanding troops in battle to working behind a desk on a general’s staff—even if they’d prefer to specialize in a lower-ranking position they enjoy. Rather than take an advancement they don’t want, many quit the Army altogether.

"Letting people stay in the positions they want" sounds nice, but think of the consequences. As it is now, everyone wants to be a company commander because command time is valued more highly than staff jobs. So in order to "branch qualify" as many captains as possible, company level leadership is rotated around, giving everyone an equal chance to prove themselves in the various battalion-level positions.

Let's say, in this new system, you have to pick who will be the next battalion commander. Given the choice between a person who sat in his company command and has loads of real leadership experience and someone who got stuck in staff jobs because there wasn't anything available, who would you go with?

Specialization sounds good, but grooming leaders requires a broader experience, and leadership is what officers are supposed to be for. I understand people don't like staff jobs (people don't typically join they Army because they want to work in an office), but I think an internal job market would cause greater turnover in the long run because the more desirable positions would be locked in, and everyone else locked out. Would the Army be willing to give officers retention bonuses for those less-desired jobs?

Bear in mind who the guys pushing for meritocracy are -- West Pointers. They're supposedly the cream of the crop. If there's going to be any bias in hiring, it'd probably be in their favor, so it's no wonder they'd prefer the Army to be more of a meritocracy. As an OCS accession, I'll stick with the more level playing field.

Would the Army work well with the human resource practices of the knowledge-based economy? Perhaps. But there's a character to the Army that comes with the structure, and I don't think that's worth sacrificing.

So, yes. Maybe the Army is an industrial-era bureaucracy where the truly innovative are stifled, but any change to its practices would require sacrifices. Without knowing what those would be beforehand, I can't say I'd endorse bringing the Army into the 21st Century.

Missing deployment

Because of my wife's illness, I wasn't able to deploy with my unit. I feel kind of guilty about this -- not that it was my fault, but while I'm still here, taking care of my family, my guys are off in another country risking their lives.

In the beginning, I was really out of sorts because I was so focused on deploying that the last minute change in plans really threw me off. I had arranged everything I could think of for SY's planned trip to Korea and my own six-month absence, so not leaving left me in a lurch.

I sent out all the birthday presents that would be due through the end of the year, ate all the stuff in the refrigerator, suspended my phone line, sent out our holiday greeting cards, got a back up drive for my computer, used up all my lunch coupons, finished all the home repairs, and arranged for lawn & garden care. I got everything ready for my wife and said goodbye to everyone at church.

All that changed in a day.

By now, though, I'm pretty well settled in. My schedule is fairly predictable now that I'm watching the kids during the evening. I wake up with the kids at 7:30 to feed them and change diapers. Every other day I give them baths before I leave them with somebody, be it Child & Youth Services on post or with friends of ours. Those few days when SY was in the regular care ward, I would take them to visit her, something which she really looked forward to (or, to avoid ending the sentence with a preposition, "something to which she really looked forward").

After that, I bring them home for naps, followed by dinner and some TV time. I then put them to sleep at 9:00 and spend the rest of my evening studying.

I'm also trying to make the best of things outside the house. On Veteran's Day, I snuck away from the hospital at around midnight to visit Applebees and get my free dinner (I got the steak). Even though I ordered a couple of drinks, the gift card I bought last year still had enough to cover the difference. That made me feel pretty smart.

Now that the Cowboys have are winning, I'm free to take advantage of Papa John's victory specials. This is cool not because I like the Cowboys -- but because you can get an XL pizza with as many toppings as the Cowboys score touchdowns for $8.99.

Yet there's still a gnawing consciousness in the back of my mind that I'm here on borrowed time, that I'm not pulling enough of my own weight. I wouldn't have guessed it, but I kind of miss deployment.

Unit Deployment Video

It fell to me to come up with the video for today's deployment ceremony. Voilà.

I regret I couldn't get more stuff in there, but I'm still proud of the result.

French DLPT

I took the DLPT for Korean back in August; today I took the test for French.

I did pretty well; I got a 2 in listening (limited professional proficiency) and -- check this -- a 3 in reading (general professional proficiency). In my mind that's not bad for someone who hasn't done anything in the past ten years except some self study through the GLOSS website.

Like Korean, French is considered a "Class A" language, but only people in "language specific MOSs" get paid Foreign Language Proficiency Pay for it. For example, cryptologic linguists and Foreign Area Officers are eligible, but not transportation lieutenants. :-(

Oh well. It's satisfying enough to know that there's at least one language in which I can reach a level 3. Moreover, I can pad my OER with the results before applying for the Olmsted Scholars program.

When I take it again, I'll be sure to practice the higher level listening exercises well beforehand. I'm particularly weak in areas like news reports on crimes and natural disasters.

My high school French didn't really emphasize those areas.

Porta Potti Wadi

The National Training Center makes a distinct effort to give place names a sense of "in-theater realism," if you can call it that.

Inside "The Box," as the NTC training area is called, you have main supply routes (MSRs), various forward operating bases (FOBs), and a variety of geographic features. a few of them reflect the Army's sense of humor.

One of them is in the eastern part, near FOB "Miami."

Mandatory fun day

Next week, the company starts two weeks of block leave. Although leave (a.k.a. "vacation") is usually regulated to maintain personnel strength, block leave is a time where there are no such limitations. Suffice to say, pretty much everyone is gone.

So for the last day before the big vacation time, the company is having mandatory fun time down in Austin at a place called Austin's Park.

Though I chafe at the idea of hanging out with coworkers obligatorily (I got enough of that in Korea), I have to say it was a fun time. Admission was free for us soldiers, the kids got in free, the pizza buffet was free, and all the arcade games were free. The only thing we had to pay for was SY's admission, and that was less than $10.

The only thing that really got to me was the safety brief at the end of the day. I don't know if it's an Army regulation or what, but before anyone can go anywhere for the weekend they have to have get the official lecture on how to be safe.

So we all had to form up outside and wait to get officially lectured on how to be safe. Of course, this was completely foreign to all the other guests who had no idea what was going on. One guy came up to me and asked if the our formation was for everybody. I looked at him for a second, and had to think before I could explain that no, there was no fire, we're just in the Army. Little embarrassing...

As the safety brief began, I thought that we could get by without bringing up the typical topics of how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, how to report sexual assault, etc. We were, after all, in public, at an establishment that caters to kids and teens, and with our families. But no, all that stuff got mentioned, too, much to my chagrine.

But from that point we were free for the next two weeks, so I didn't focus on that too much. I just made a mental note that one day, when faced with a similar situation, I'll make a different decision.

NTC Day 25 - Headed Home

In the morning we went about our normal business, then hung out until 3 in the afternoon.

Once our two coaches arrived we headed of to Victorville. It was a fun drive -- we managed to squeeze all of Ironman 2 into the trip.

We had to make a stop along the way -- it's custom to paint a rock when you finish with a training exercise at NTC. It was done by the time we got there, so all we had to do was take the picture and let the battalion leaderhip get in some gladhanding time.

We had to wait a little while for our flight, but we departed at 1030 and arrived at 0130 at Fort Hood. The flight was fun, too -- the crew let us have all the in-flight movies for free (normally, it's a pay-per-view thing). Plus, they let our baggage handling team sit in first-class.

After getting back to the company area and turned in all our weapons, we had a quick formation. There we got some great news -- not only would we have the rest of Veteran's Day off, but also the following day. Sweet!

So the formation was over by 0245 and I got home by 0300. After a quick talk with the spouse, I was asleep by 0400.

My time at the National Training Center was finished.

NTC Day 24

Just about the entire company missed chow this morning. Yesterday, it started at 0700, so we all figured it would be the same today. However, that was not the case. For some reason, it was from 0530to 0700, though nobody told us . I got there just as they had closed up shop; I didn't get anything hot, but they'd still had the oatmeal packets, bananas, and cereal out, so I was all right.

Whatever HMMWVs that were not already washed down and turned in were taken care of, followed by a rah-rah formation at 0800. Keeping-busy time came after that.

For lunch I had Burger King, which was really crowded now that the other units came back from the Box. I was 19th in line when I came in at 1100, but there were 36 people in line by the time I got my order and sat down.

This Burger King, by the way, has got to have the sweetest work hours anywhere. Check this out:

I assume their lease stipulates that they can be open only for lunch (breakfast and dinner being provided by the dining facilities). Just the same, they rake it in...

In the evening, we had an "Officer's Call," a quasi-social function where the officers from around the battalion gathered around to eat chow together, swap stories from the past weeks, and drink non-alcoholic beer (which tasted horrible, by the way). Those who were so inclined brought cigars to smoke, too (though not me).

Afterward, my buddy and I got some goodies from one of the umpteen-bazillion gut trucks around and hung out a bit. It was a pleasant end to things.

Tomorrow, we're going home.

NTC Day 23

Today we did After Action Reviews (AARs) on our experience here at NTC. The process was exhausting (unnecessarily so), but cathartic. First we got together with our platoons, then as a company leaders group, then with the battalion leaders.

There's too much to go into here, but suffice to say we came up with whole pages of stuff that could have been done better. On the "sustain" side, though, I'd have to say my platoon held up well despite all the junk we were put through.

And there were a couple things we got to do here that wouldn't have been possible at Fort Hood: we got to work with other companies, and (I say this tongue-in-cheek) we got to work the worst case scenario in terms of battalion leadership. In theater, it can only get better.

Oh, and I got caught up on sleep.

NTC Day 22

From this point, we'll have no more missions -- woohoo! We'll start turning stuff in and getting ready to go.

Not a moment too soon.

Here are 42,768 Gatorades stacked outside the DFAC. That's 24 bottles per case, 9 cases per layer, 6 layers per pallet, and 33 pallets. That'll quench some thirst....

NTC Day 21

For our mission this morning we went to FOB Miami again. We dropped off some HETs and picked up a trailer, all without incident.

After getting back at about 1000, I got something to eat, showered, shaved, and then snoozed a very little bit until a 1300 promotion ceremony for two of my soldiers. It ended at 1400 due to poor coordination, and I slept until 1830.

Dinner was meatloaf, which I skipped, choosing instead the accompanying potatoes, corn, salad, cookie, milk, and pink lemonade.

Earlier in the day I got a call from CYS on Fort Hood regarding P. (Since my phone is the primary contact, they call me whenever there's an issue.) They said P had been crying since SY checked him in, something that made me very sad. I can't wait to get home.

Civil-military disconnect

I spoke with my sister yesterday, and it became apparent to me just how wide the gulf is between the military and civilian worlds. She wasn't aware, for example, that deployments are typically one year long, and expressed her surprise with a brief, "Wow, that sucks!"

I was kind of shocked -- like, "where have you been these past nine years? You didn't know this before?" I thought everyone knew most deployments were for a year. But the door swings both ways.

Even in the military, there's a big difference in behavior between those who come in when they're 18 and those that come in later. Those who've never known any other job tend to curse a lot, something that you just don't see too often in the civilian world.

In a sense, it's a shame that so many people say, "We support our troops," but don't spend more than a moment on a sympathetic thought or try to understand the experience. It reminds me of a short story I remember from high school: "The ones who walk away form Omelas."

Though we in the military pay the physical and mental price for your peace of mind, relatively few are troubled enough to sacrifice their comfort to learn about that exact cost. Our society seems profoundly uninterested in such drama.

NTC Day 20

In a sign that things are starting to wind down, today's biggest task was figuring out how to mail a letter (which I accomplished).

In the afternoon, there was a "cultural awareness class" from 3:00 to 5:00, which addressed the need for junior leaders to act a bit more like diplomats. I found this interesting.

Our next mission is 0400 tomorrow, so I tried to sleep right after dinner, but it didn't work out too well.

NTC Day 19

The convoy last night went fine, but I'm curious why we never get "attacked." I thought the whole point to us being here was to train us for action in theater, but I'm getting the impression it's really just to provide logistical support (i.e. delivering food) for the National Guard unit in the box.

As a recovery day from last night's mission, nothing much happened. I ate, slept, and generally took it easy. One exception is that I had to do up some paperwork for some simulated casualties from a simulated attack.

These days it gets kind of chilly at night; kind of a surpise considering how hot it was when we first got here.

NTC Day 18

I woke up after breakfast had ended, so I had to forage a bit to get something to eat. I grabbed a cup of Total from near the command post, and found a carton of milk near the MKT. I brought them back to the tent, where I managed to keep a plastic spoon from some time ago -- good to go.

Being on reverse cycle (working nights, sleeping days) isn't great -- I'd rather be able to get both my free meals -- but I was proud of myself for managing this one.

Several things worked together to befuddle my attempt at a smooth convoy command.

Starting today, we now have to take a HIIDES biometric camera on mission. These things are usually used by infantry patrols to record and track detainees' information, but are essentially uselss on convoys. When would we ever delay our mission by getting out of our trucks to chase down somebody on foot, capture them, and record their data? Just plain dumb....

Plus, as convoy commander on today's mission, I was given a new form for our convoy manifest (a roster of every person and sensitive item that goes on the mission) just hours before we were supposed to go out. Having to retype the whole thing in this new form was such a pain in the neck.

Finally, while I was doing the convoy brief, the first sergeant insisted on doing his own pre-combat inspection apart from the one we did; that seemed like a subversion of our authority. He also interrupted my brief to correct our official convoy speed (which I said would be 15 to 20 mph), resetting it as 10 to 15mph.

*sigh*

At least we still have ice cream trucks.

NTC Day 17

I don't know what my problem is, but I keep leaving my soap in the shower. I don't know how many times I've done that, but I think I'm coming up on half a dozen.

Not that it's breaking the bank, mind you. A new bar of soap and a soap saver together is about $1.25, but it's the annoyance of it all -- and I don't usually realize it until the next day while I'm standing in the locker room. Grr.

The convoy we ran was nearly perfect, aside from last minute manifest changes coming down from higher and the now normal string of ridiculosities (and yes, that is a word).

NTC Day 16

We were supposed to run two convoys to the same location today; instead, it was switched up to one, with my platoon providing our HMMWVs to various other exercises. We'll go ahead with our convoy tomorrow night.

It actually rained today -- rain in the high desert.

How about that.

Rock "or something"

Army terms can be a bit strange sometimes. We call ear plugs "ear pro," (short for "ear protection"), but why not just call them ear plugs? It's much simpler.

But here's one example in the other direction, found on the heaters used in MREs:

What's funny is that I can't think of anything that gets the message across in a more efficiently way.

"Just lean it up against a rock or something." Oh, OK. That works....