The Waiting Place

One of the books I got for the kids through the USO's reading program was Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go!. I know it's something you typically give for someone's graduation, but hey, I figured, why not...

There's a passage that I particularly like:

You can get so confused that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place....

It's an appropriate label for this coming year because there are so many things that I'd like to be doing, but can't -- I have to wait.

I've served as a platoon leader for two and a half years in both garrison and downrange environments. Although -- yes -- there is more I can learn, it doesn't compare with the amount of stuff I could be learning from another position.

Before deploying I had applied to be a general's aide, but a recently-returned-from-deployment lieutenant was chosen for that. Something like that would be awesome, but division commanders don't typically work according to my schedule.

I wouldn't mind taking a battalion staff position, but my battalion has no open positions right now. And since other companies are in pretty much the same position as mine, I can't find a XO (executive officer) position anywhere else.

I can't schedule my captain's career course since I've not yet been designated as "promotable" (something that will happen this summer).

And though my own company's executive officer (having already made captain) is vacating his spot, my commander chose the lieutenant with prior service to fill his spot. I was disappointed with that: neither of the two lieutenants who've spent the past two and a half years in the company -- those who've been our commander's clay to shape, so to speak -- are not the best candidates to move up.

(True, the guy's a better candidate, but I'm still upset about it.)

There's a Foreign Service Officer written test coming up in February, but even assuming I pass, there's no telling how long that process would take.

At the moment, I don't mind -- it's the holiday season and I can focus on studying Japanese -- but I hope this doesn't last too long.

But for now, I'm just waiting in that most useless place.

This product contains one unit?

I was at Walmart the other day shopping for fabric softener dryer sheets and trying to compare prices. This just irritated me.

There are 160 dryer sheets in there for $3.98. I want to know the price per sheet so I can compare, but Mr. Price Sticker Person didn't do that.

I had to take out my phone and use the calculator. $0.024875 per sheet's better than $.026, so I went with the pink ones.

Review: Return of Depression Economics

While looking through my computer for something to fill my time, I came across an audio book of The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008. Paul Krugman wrote the first edition of his book following the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998; he updated it in 2008 to include the events of the following ten years. This update not only gives his original history of the crises of the 1990s (including the Savings and Loan Scandal, Japan’s “Lost Decade,” and the Latin American currency crises), it chronicles the dot.com bust, the Fed’s interest rate decisions, the shift to real estate mania, and the troubles in the U.S. financial system. However, it’s not just a history lesson of what everyone did to mess themselves up – Krugman explains how each nation dealt with their crises and the new problems those responses created. For example, Argentina introduced a currency board to tame its hyperinflation problem, only to find in 2002 that this left its system vulnerable to a bank run. There are three lessons from all this. First is that economic recessions are caused by fear, whether justified by economic imbalances or self-induced panic. The key is flicking the right switch. The true cause of the Great Depression was not the stock market crash – it was bank failures. Had the banking system not collapsed, it’s possible markets could have recovered within just a few years. First is that recessions are normal economic events that happen to economies without regard to particular characteristics. They don’t happen as a result of cronyism or too many state-owned enterprises (though those weaknesses can contribute to the severity of the eventual decline). The key is finding the right switch. Second, we are at the end of the rope in terms of Keynesian solutions. Since Black Friday of 1987, the Federal Reserve’s textbook response to a crisis has been to lower interest rates. Unfortunately, the U.S. has become stuck in a liquidity trap of the sort that affected Japan in the 1990s – near zero interest rates but a persistently sluggish economy. Not even stimulus packages are working. We need new thinking to solve this kind of problem. Lastly, we need to spend more time and energy studying the economics of recessions. It’s a field of study that has been widely ignored in favor of other, more “upbeat” subjects, yet is crucial to finding a wise course of action. Krugman provides a lot of insight into the inner workings of economics on the largest scale; this is a great book to read (or listen to) for an understanding of our current mess. The downside is that – having been written in 2008 – it doesn’t provide an explanation as to why our recovery continues to be weak, and it can’t evaluate the success of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a good introduction to understanding financial crises, this is a great one, and I’d definitely recommend this before either of the other economic books I’ve recently reviewed -- Andrew Sorkin's Too Big to Fail and Gregory Zuckerman's Greatest Trade Ever.

Overnight at BLORA

Although we planned on a one-night get away to the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area (BLORA) yesterday, things didn't work out quite the way we planned.

We got there on Saturday afternoon, checked out a cabin, and got set up. The cabins were really well furnished in my opinion -- plush furniture, TVs with cable, etc.

After the kids played outside a bit, we had a cookout dinner with our church and saw the lights.

The setup wasn't perfect, though. First, SY didn't like the concrete flooring. Second, we were expected to clean up after ourselves (despite the $50 rental fee). Finally, we didn't bring something for C to sleep in.

After careful consideration, we decided to just go back home for the night and come back the next day for church. So much for the getaway...

:-)

Four generations

With my father and grandfather having come down to Texas for my arrival, it was the first time all four of us were in the same place.

Special moment.

Shopping with Dad

From Home Depot

Reverse Soldier Readiness Program

Having returned from Afghanistan, we have to do the SRP process all over again. We got hearing, eye, and blood tests; immunizations; paycheck adjustments; and verified next of kin paperwork.

The worst line was the medical interview. Everyone talked about Kandahar's poo pond so that -- if we have respiratory problems somewhere down the line -- we might one day be compensated for it. I think at one point there was almost 100 people waiting in line for that station -- more than a three hour wait. (The 50 or so people before me took two and a half hours.)

Nevertheless, by the end of the day I was finished and on my first four-day weekend in a very long time.

Piece of shrapnel

This piece of shrapnel came from one of the rockets that hit in Tarin Kowt. Now that I'm back in the U.S., I can feel free to post it without my family worrying.

Your war is over

Remember that old Nintendo game "Defender of the Crown"?

I do. The ending was pretty short, but there was a line that has stayed with me all these intervening years:
And now, even in its most literal sense, it's true.

5 month's worth of recycling

That's what I found in the garage when I came home.

First of three loads....

Bishkek-Bucharest-Leipzip-Shannon

We finally arrived home. What an ordeal.

We started going through customs at noon on the 13th (Kyrgyzstan time), then loaded up the plane ourselves (I was in charge of the baggage crew) and left at about 6:00 in the evening. On board with us were about 100 Romanians.

So our first stop was Bucharest, a five and a half hour flight from Bishkek.

From there we continued two hours to Leipzig, Germany, so we could change planes. Unfortunately, changing planes also meant we had to switch out all our bags in below-freezing weather. Thumbs down.

It also meant having to pack in like sardines. While the first plane would have been big enough to spread out, this one had almost no spare seats.

And because our second plane was smaller than the first -- too small, in fact, to make the trans-Atlantic trip without a few other stops -- we had to stop in Shannon, Ireland. After refueling, we set out for Bangor, Maine. By then it was about 7:00am on the 14th. Here a picture of Pushaw Lake as we came in for arrival.


I think that flight was about five hours, too, but after roughly 24 hours of traveling I stopped keeping track. In any case, it looked like we would be home in time for dinner.

That's when I found out our plane had a mechanical problem. We sat there -- delayed -- for about another five hours. The worst part was when the plane we first got on in Bishkek -- the one we left behind in Germany -- arrived from Aviano, Italy with less than 100 Air Force personnel on it. After they spent just an hour or two on ground, we watched them take off for South Carolina.


:-(

We finally left Bangor at about 5:00 in the evening for our final leg to Killeen, Texas, and arrived in Texas Around 10:00. After turning in our weapons, we were bussed over to the post, where our new battalion commander greeted us with a (mercifully) brief speech before releasing us. After more than 40 hours, we were finally home.

Lobster roll

With the layover in Bangor, Maine, I just had to have one of these, even though it was a whopping $12 combo meal. It's basically chopped lobster in a sauce on a hot dog bun.

I figured, hey, how often am I in Maine?

On another note, the retirees that greeted us in the airport were really nice.

The Bangor Airport was not necessarily on my list of places to visit before I die, but because of them I'll never forget it.

Waiting...

Since leaving Kandahar on the 8th, we've been hanging out at the U.S. base adjacent the Manas airport near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

I'm not sure why we're waiting, but our departing flight keeps getting pushed back. I wouldn't mind so much -- my deployment was already already short than others in the company -- except that my father and grandfather flew down to Texas and have been waiting for me to arrive since the 8th.

At this point, it looks like they'll have to reschedule their return dates (and pay penalties) if they still want to be around. That bugs me.

Ho hum....

We don't get Veteran's Day

I feel bad for my unit. Today marks the third Veteran's Day in a row that we've had to work.

In 2009, we had to make the preparations for the memorial service following the 5 November attacks. I 2010, the unit had already deployed before the 11th. This year, we missed out because we've been stuck in Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

Thumbs down.

Chilling [literally] in Kyrgyzstan

Our flight from Kandahar was pushed back from the 5th to the 8th, just in time for a cold wave and snowstorm to hit the country. Fortunately, the tents were really warm and the shower facilities were like saunas.

I was able to find the tent I stayed in on Google Maps. The coordinates are 43° 2'58.02"N, 74°27'41.99"E.

The toilet facilities were a little different, though -- distinctly Army issue.


Although permanent party servicemembers are allowed off-post into Bishkek, we transients are not. We are, however, to allowed access Pete's Place, the on-post bar.

Here they have "Russian-style" Black Russians -- cognac with cherry and almond flavors -- along with a slew of other drinks for about $2 each.

We're allowed 2 per 20 hour period, at least until someone messes it up for us.

Pentagon "mentors" all but gone

Last year, a retiring general or admiral -- after 30 years of service and a pension set at 75% of one's base pay -- could look forward to a new role as a "Pentagon mentor."

Not anymore. Of the 355 mentors serving in 2010, only four remain. Requirements to disclose their business ties, a $180,000 cap on pay (an hourly rate of only a third of what they used to make), and limits on working in private sector were cited as reasons for quitting the program [Source].

Celebrate the "glare of public scrutiny" worked this time. In truth, these retirees were not "mentors" in the tradtitional sense, but promoters of weapons systems made by their consulting clients.

I'm glad to see democracy and a free press working for the public good this time.

Counterfeit parts

Counterfeit circuitry made in China, used in U.S. military equipment.
[Source]

One of the reasons why the U.S. is loathe to risk military confrontation with china.

End of Tour awards

You don't get a bonus if you do a good job in the Army -- you get an award. It costs taxpayers less and you get to put it on your dress uniform.

Today we did a combined transfer of authority and end of tour awards ceremony. Though the former was fairly short, doling out awards to 85% of the company was a bit like a graduation ceremony -- formal and somniferously long.

I was really looking forward to it, though -- for the first time since basic training ended three years ago, I got some new awards to wear: the overseas service bar (for having completed an overseas tour), the Afghan Campaign Medal (with two campaign stars for having served during "Consolidation III" and "Transition I"), and the NATO award (for service in the International Security Assistance Forces).

Best of all, I got a Bronze Star. Not for valor, though -- I didn't get get into a single firefight, let alone save somebody's life -- but for merit, the more common reason. (And considering what this Marine went through to get his, I'm happy with what I got.)

Yeah, I know -- there's a certain trade-off between rank and performance required for this award, but it still means something to me. It basically says I performed my responsibilities with some measure of competence and succeeded in not embarrassing myself.

And I didn't have to wait 66 years to get it.

Yay for me.

Awesomest hat ever

I doubt Daniel Boone ever had one of these:

Some sort of fox-lookin' thing with sequins for eyes and paws still attached. It even drapes over your neck to prevent sunburn.

I was tempted to buy it just for the silliness, but for $45? No.

Massive reenlistment

This morning my company did a big reenlistment. In part, it was so that soldiers could have a bit more freedom in determining what they wanted to do next (by reenlisting while deployed).

Besides that, though, it was so that we could have a massive formation that attracted a lot of attention. The battalion commander did the honor of leading the group in the oath of enlistment.

To many, we come off as a good unit that so many are willing to commit a few more years to the Army. I however, have come to the conclusion that such numbers are not so indicative.

Economy of force

Here's a story of a successful counter-insurgency effort: a small unit engaged with a local community.

I can identify with their experience. A half-platoon sized element working outside its job description with little support from higher on a "figure it out" mission.

Their experience seems to be going all right so far. Interestingly, this is the kind of engagement that author Max Boot described in his book, The Savage Wars of Peace as a way GEN Westmoreland could have won the Vietnam War.

Let's hope we keep doing it right this time.