A Brief Introduction to My Military Service
uisinger commented on my last second to last entry and wanted to know about my military service. So, here we go.
I spent about 7 and a half years in the Army National Guard, most of it in Virginia but with a small stint in the Florida Guard. To help with the math you may be doing in your head, I'll tell you that I signed up between my junior and senior years of high school. I was originally going to be in Communications but when I went to do my paperwork and medical testing, I received conclusive proof that I'm color blind (which I knew but had never really taken any sort of test for). Not having normal color vision really limits your choice of jobs in the military, which seems strange to me, seeing as how it's so common in males. Anyway. Since I was color blind, my recruiter (booooooo!) had to scramble around to find me another job. He fed me some line about the only slot he had left open for someone who is color blind was Food Service Specialist - fancy name for a cook. Since I was still too introverted to object or try to back out, I signed the paper.
Now, I kind of like cooking. What I don't like is cooking breakfast for a hundred and fifty people and having to get up at 4:00 in the morning to start doing it. I really didn't enjoy being a cook. Combine that with the aforementioned introversion (is that a word?) and the depression with which I was barely managing to cope, and you've got a recipe for disaster. I didn't enjoy my early years in the Guard at all.
Fast foreward a few years. I've just come back to Virginia from Florida and need to find a new unit. One of the interesting things about interstate transfers is that it gives you the opportunity to pick a new job. I didn't want to be a cook anymore, and my color blindness again pared down the choices until just two were left: MP or Heavy Equipment Operator. Well, I didn't really want to be an MP (one reason for which is the location of this unit would have made getting there on a Friday for drill a nightmare of a drive), so I went to C Co 276 Engineer Battalion and joined the ranks of the Combat Engineers as a Heavy Equipment Operator.
I never actually got any training on heavy equipment though. I spent a little time learning to drive Army Trucks but beyond that, I didn't do much. About the time of our Annual Training (the two weeks part of "One weekend a month, two weeks a year!") we started hearing rumors of a possible activation and deployment. Nothing was said with any definitiveness but my Platoon Sergeant told us to be ready in case it happened.
It happened.
In November 2003, I was at work, still settling into the promotion I'd received a month before, when I got a call saying that we'd been called up for Active Duty service. I don't think we knew right away it was for Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan or the Phillipines), and Operation Noble Eagle (I think that's what it was; Homeland Defense) were the three possibilities. Looking back now, Iraq would be the only real choice, but back then, we were all hopeful that it would be Afghanistan or, hope of hopes, Homeland Defense. How naïve I seem to myself. (Er... yeah.)
Now, since I didn't have any actual training as a Heavy Equipment Operator, and there were not going to be any schools for that before we left, I was given a choice: switch to Combat Engineer and go to West Virginia for two weeks or go back to being a cook and transfer to Headquarters Company. It took me all of 2 seconds to decide. Thus, I was shipped off to a National Guard/Reserve training camp in West Virginia for two weeks - two weeks out of the little bit of time left with my family before I left - to learn to ways of the Combat Engineer. Which is to say, I was taught how to blow shit up.
A few days into the new year I was shipped to Ft. Dix, New Jersey (The Land That God Forgot™) for training and in late February or early March (I'm really bad at remembering dates) I flew halfway across the world to begin what would become the best and worst experience of my life.
But that's a story for another day.
I spent about 7 and a half years in the Army National Guard, most of it in Virginia but with a small stint in the Florida Guard. To help with the math you may be doing in your head, I'll tell you that I signed up between my junior and senior years of high school. I was originally going to be in Communications but when I went to do my paperwork and medical testing, I received conclusive proof that I'm color blind (which I knew but had never really taken any sort of test for). Not having normal color vision really limits your choice of jobs in the military, which seems strange to me, seeing as how it's so common in males. Anyway. Since I was color blind, my recruiter (booooooo!) had to scramble around to find me another job. He fed me some line about the only slot he had left open for someone who is color blind was Food Service Specialist - fancy name for a cook. Since I was still too introverted to object or try to back out, I signed the paper.
Now, I kind of like cooking. What I don't like is cooking breakfast for a hundred and fifty people and having to get up at 4:00 in the morning to start doing it. I really didn't enjoy being a cook. Combine that with the aforementioned introversion (is that a word?) and the depression with which I was barely managing to cope, and you've got a recipe for disaster. I didn't enjoy my early years in the Guard at all.
Fast foreward a few years. I've just come back to Virginia from Florida and need to find a new unit. One of the interesting things about interstate transfers is that it gives you the opportunity to pick a new job. I didn't want to be a cook anymore, and my color blindness again pared down the choices until just two were left: MP or Heavy Equipment Operator. Well, I didn't really want to be an MP (one reason for which is the location of this unit would have made getting there on a Friday for drill a nightmare of a drive), so I went to C Co 276 Engineer Battalion and joined the ranks of the Combat Engineers as a Heavy Equipment Operator.
I never actually got any training on heavy equipment though. I spent a little time learning to drive Army Trucks but beyond that, I didn't do much. About the time of our Annual Training (the two weeks part of "One weekend a month, two weeks a year!") we started hearing rumors of a possible activation and deployment. Nothing was said with any definitiveness but my Platoon Sergeant told us to be ready in case it happened.
It happened.
In November 2003, I was at work, still settling into the promotion I'd received a month before, when I got a call saying that we'd been called up for Active Duty service. I don't think we knew right away it was for Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan or the Phillipines), and Operation Noble Eagle (I think that's what it was; Homeland Defense) were the three possibilities. Looking back now, Iraq would be the only real choice, but back then, we were all hopeful that it would be Afghanistan or, hope of hopes, Homeland Defense. How naïve I seem to myself. (Er... yeah.)
Now, since I didn't have any actual training as a Heavy Equipment Operator, and there were not going to be any schools for that before we left, I was given a choice: switch to Combat Engineer and go to West Virginia for two weeks or go back to being a cook and transfer to Headquarters Company. It took me all of 2 seconds to decide. Thus, I was shipped off to a National Guard/Reserve training camp in West Virginia for two weeks - two weeks out of the little bit of time left with my family before I left - to learn to ways of the Combat Engineer. Which is to say, I was taught how to blow shit up.
A few days into the new year I was shipped to Ft. Dix, New Jersey (The Land That God Forgot™) for training and in late February or early March (I'm really bad at remembering dates) I flew halfway across the world to begin what would become the best and worst experience of my life.
But that's a story for another day.