So much has been happening lately and hardly any of it good. I am not one to complain about the lot I am dealt in life if I can figure how I precipitated it. Good karma / Bad karma all should add up. But I tend to suffer a great imbalance. Take for example the fact thatI am still an E-4, by no fault, misdeed, or deficiency of my own. I am an E-4 simply and solely because a certain Platoon Sergeant in HHC, 17th Sig Bn decided that he never wanted to see me become a SGT. That was 2 years ago. he's done well with the shy smiles covering the purposeful mishaps that prevent my paperwork from crossing the hall to the right office. I know too many people and those people tell me what he has said to them about my promotion. Why a grudge against me? No valid reason; never refused a duty, always worked beyond the standard and the level of my peers; stood in for E-6 shop foremen when on leave, worked on an E-5 level the entire deployment to Iraq. Maybe I am just too white.
So how now does this apply? Well, in the process of "clearing" to leave and come back to the U.S. (I come kicking and screaming), I need to turn in all my issued military equipment. It is very important and if you are missing items, you are rtesponsible for them financially. I was scheduled to turn my stuff in Tuesday knowing that I was without a whole sleeping bag assembly which was lost on a mission in Iraq. When it was lost I did the correct thing and notified my Plt Sgt and my supply Sgt. Normally during an excercise or deployment when things are lost a memo is generated annotating a "field loss" and thus accounting for the missing item, relieving the financial responsibility from the soldier. My Plt Sgt stated that it wouldn't be necessary, that he would "take care of it" by doing inventories before redeploying back to Germany. He never turned the paperwork in during the required 90 days after return. So there I stand, unable to "clear" because this joker screwed me over again. I refuse to pay the $400 for a new assembly because, frankly, I am a freakin E-4 with 2 kids and will be losing my extra pay once I return to america. Asshole.
So, all it should now take is a memo from my Chain of Command stating that this is indeed what happened. I was told, "No, doing that memo would be too much trouble for us to do." Nice. I guess the upside is that I can't leave country until it is resolved.
Speaking of that, here's the whopper. During the clearing process, orders are produced to send you to the next duty station. This info includes dates, times, units, etc. Mine state clearly at the top that my Report Date to Ft. Gordon, GA, is 31 Aug 06. Everything has been based on that date. Yesterday i was offhandedly told that, "whoops, the orders are messed up. They say you have a school start date of 04 Aug 06. Don't know what you're gonna do."
Yep, I have a Leave form for most of the month of August in which I need to bring my 2 kids back, buy a car, look for housing in GA, and report to my new unit. Now, because people can't do their jobs with any kind of competency level, they are telling me that I fly on 02 Aug, arrive 03 Aug, and report for duty on 04 Aug. Wrong answer. Gotta make a few calls shortly because, you may have guessed, those with rank and responsibility don't want anything to do with it.
And the final nail is that in a few days I have to leave a wonderful woman behind because of the shit all these assholes have pulled.
Oh, and after this Friday, I will be out of contact for an unknown amount of time until I move to the states. I will be reachable by cell phone only after 01 Aug.
