Thursday, July 27, 2006

More

Just got a reply from the Signal Branch in reference to the screw up in my orders. Basically, I am told I am S.O.L. If I miss this school date then I have to wait until January or Feb. They suggest I put my kids somewhere and report on time. Ya, I go from Frankfurt to Philly to Augusta and report all in 48 sleepless hours. And I am supposed to get a flight booked like that this close to time? Right.

Back to considering dropping out and working in Germany. If anyone has any legit contacts for companies in Europe that hire veterans, please notify me immediately!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Updates

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.

Random Photo. Please visit my Photo Collection on Flickr.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Ethical Reasons

Shake off the brainwashing that the government and media have slowly imposed on you and watch some real provocative information about what your government has done. The "official story" has been repeated ad nauseum so that we forget what we ourselves saw on the TV during the event. Use your open minds on this.

Scientific Reasons

So many people have asked why I want to stay in Germany and never go back to the States. Just ran across some independent research that gives some insight....

"Italy came out best in 66th place, ahead of Germany (81), Japan (95), Britain (108), Canada (111), France (129), the United States (150) and Russia, in lowly 172nd place."

Monday, July 10, 2006

1461 Days More

Long story very short....

Because of my situation with the Army, due to some corrupt NCO's in the 17th Sig Bn Chain of Command, I have now accepted a top school back in Georgia and re-enlisted for 4 more years. In the picture are Sgt. Marcellus, Sadie, Cpt. Rodriguez (my convoy leader down-range), me, and Zak. The flag was our convoy team flag in Iraq. The long story is available upon request. Click image to view larger....

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Jingoism = Ignorance + Patriotism + Inaction