Monterey

[anakarin]

So it is gorgeous here. My classes start June 7th, and when I mention that I'm getting Korean, the usual response is, "OOOH, Sorry." Several folks arrived from Ft. lost in the woods this weekend and are getting Russian. I found that they scored significantly lower on their DLABs than did the folks slotted for Korean. Now I kinda wish I'd blown

Comments

[atomicsappertom]

Ah, already married; I thought you might be but couldn't remember.

Which MOS did you get? 98? 97?

That giant sucking sound you hear is indeed the black hole-like gravitational pull of the personnel sump that is Iraq. Chances are good you'll get there sooner rather than later; it's the reality of military service at the moment and in no way should be mistaken for a death sentence or something.

The numbers tell us (as numbers often will) that Vietnam was a much more dangerous place to be.

I'm re-reading Cryptonomicon (read it during a ghastly hot/humid Annual Training at Fort Gordon back around 2000) at present. It's a good beach read due to how broken up the narrative is as it jumps back and forth between "present" and WW2.

A friend and colleague of mine from Frankfurt is going to Seoul for his next (second) FS assignment. He's also an OIF1 vet and remains a reserve civil affairs (former nuke artillery) officer. Oddly, in about six months I'll be getting a second tour vice consul coming from Seoul as a replacement at my next post. Which will be in Belize.

Have you gotten any of the CD's that come out in some Baen hardbacks?

[anakarin]

98G hopefully, unless I wash out of the language then I'll be a 98C...I think. I'd love to be a 97E, but they weren't offering a language with your first tour when I signed up...so off to windowless buildings and headsets, or at least that's what I understand.

I expected to be deployed soon after my AIT was complete, however I was expecting Iraq, not Korea where I can be deployed for 12 months, then get the "2nd ID is going to Iraq for 15mos, and you're going with them" speech, my drills have seen it happen. Its not so much fear for my physical wellbeing so much as fear for my family life, or lack thereof in the next several years :(

What is Cryptonomicon? Anything like Necronomicon?

I generally don't buy hard covers, just because they're so much more expensive and don't store on nice even shelves like paperback, so no baen cd's, though when I get my laptop i'll probably go to the local library and check out a baen book which has the cd and burn it...maybe.

I'm thinking of looking into a switch to Civil Affairs at my re-up time, since right now my long term goal is to be an FSO, that seems to be a better preperatory step than MI, though MI is usefull in other ways to the State Dept.....

Enjoy Belize, I hear it's absolutely gorgeous, and you don't have to learn another language...

Anna

[atomicsappertom]

Well, they keep reformatting the different MI specialties, so you never know what you'll be in just a few years. I had four different MOSs, although only one was MI and that was for around 15+ years.

Family life is important. You may have heard the one about how nobody says, on their deathbed, how they wished they'd spent more time at the office?

Cryptonomicon is a book, nothing like Necronomicon although I think the origin of the name is a nod thereto.

If you'd like, I can probably burn (it's allowed) copies of some of the CDs and send them. Or, if you ask nicely at Baen's Bar, someone will be happy to do the same for you as a serviceperson.

Of the several prior military FSOs I've met, they come from all sorts of different specialties. I couldn't say that the specialty makes a difference in the selection process, although that may change as they go to a somewhat different testing format (to be unveiled this year).

I already have a working understanding of Jamaican patois, which is similar to Belizean kreole; can't speak it but I savvy some of the words/expressions. I have a dim recollection of h.s. Spanish, which will come in handy, plus the dirty words I learned in the military and working in a restaurant.