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[panic_azimuth]

I'm finally back on an internet connection that doesn't block the word "Update" in URLs, so I can once again spew my thoughts out onto teh interwebs. I'm working on month eleven of this deployment, which is nice, cause I've finally passed up the two-thirds mark. In addition to this good news, next month (actually in about three weeks,) I'll be

Comments

[coercedbynutmeg]

Ah see, this is how the food companies get new customers. Give them delicious candy while they are scared or agitated and they'll be yours for life.

And you're right, more than a year is absolutely ridiculous to spend at war at a time, and a three-week R&R doesn't count as off time.

[panic_azimuth]

Yeah, they don't even manage three full weeks. It's just 18 days. They used to count the first and last days as full leave days, even though it's when you flew...now at least they give us those as travel days. The current thought is "Here, soldiers, spend THREE EXTRA MONTHS gettng rocketed at every goddamn day, and in return we'll give you three extra days of leave and make a bunch of promises about extra leave and pay you'll never see." Great. Then they wonder why junior officers are positively FLEEING the Army, and offer bizarre incentives such as "We'll send you to grad school for ONE YEAR(?!?!?!) in exchange for four more years of service!" Wow, $35,000 worth of grad school for an ENORMOUS extension. I'll have an MBA and hopefully make twice what I do now inside of that four years if I just get out instead. I know I'm ranting, but it drives me nuts. They ask a fucking lot of the military these days and don't seem to get why people don't want to spend five extra years in, with three deployments on top of the two I already

[coercedbynutmeg]

Yeah, I hear this a lot from people in other branches (esp Marines, around here). You get one year's worth of base pay as a bonus for signing on for several more years. It would be a good deal if it were a normal-hour working job, but this 18-hours-a-day everyday thing is ridiculous. Jason was ready to throw in the towel after his last sea command, but he stuck it out because he can't get out until the end of this year anyway.

Of course his assignment will run until 2010 and this one is practically a 9-5 job (actually 730-1600), so he'll forget how crappy life on a ship can be and we'll go to another one! I suppose while under fire in Afghanistan you don't forget how grueling it is.

[panic_azimuth]

Yeah, the hours are definitely the worst part. The worst was garrison, before deployment...we'd work from 0430-2000 routinely, which was just utterly insane, considering we weren't doing anything productive half the time. Dinner was like a half-way point in the day. That just solidified my desire to get out...I NEVER saw Lizz and half the times I'd get home at a decent time I would just get called back in to work at 2000 or 2030. We both have vivid memories of the night I got home, started making dinner (at 2100) and got called back in, and was there for two more hours for some moronic paperwork thing that wasn't a priority at all. I'm totally done with the military, it's time for an end to the bullshit.

[coercedbynutmeg]

A lot of the junior enlisted are smart enough not to pick up their phones after hours. I remember one night when we were living in VA, someone called our house in blind panic around 7PM and needed Jason to come in. We thought it was an emergency, but when he had the person explain the problem, they said they needed to get into the ship's store to get a souvenir baseball cap for an admiral who was coming to visit the next day (mid-day, NOT 0500). They called the guy with the key but he didn't answer (smart guy!), so they called my husband, but he didn't have a key, so he had to go down there and be a witness while they BROKE IN to the store to get a $3.00 hat. Then of course they had to replace glass and locks and whatever else. It was the damned stupidest thing I ever saw.

[panic_azimuth]

Hahaha, yeah, they flip the fuck out over VIPs....I always maintained that if I was a VIP I wouldn't give a flying fuck whether the trash can was completely empty with a brand new bag in it when I came to visit a FOB, but sure enough, last time we got a general we were forbidden from using the TOC trashcans that day because an apple-core at the bottom of a twenty gallon trash bag might convince the general that we are not winning the war. Madness. You'd think it would stop when you're out on a FOB in the middle of nowhere FIGHTING THE WAR but in a lot of ways it only gets worse.