Stupid paperwork...
So - I put in an AIP (Army Incentive Program) request in February... the outcome of this should have been to extend my tour in Korea by 1 year. The problem is, my time remaining in the Army after my original Korean tour was only 9 months, and that left me 3 months short on my contract. This shouldn't be a problem - I should be able to simply request a 3 month extension and drive on. Please note - I said I started this process in FEBRUARY - and what's the current month? That's right - July. I am p/o'd.
I was informed today that while my AIP has been approved for the second time - my extension has not been, and will not be approved because I'm in my window for re-enlistment... What that means is - because the Army has offered to allow me to sign a whole new contract for a longer period of time, they will not allow me to extend my tour of service for any shorter period than 2 additional years... NOT HAPPENING. In addition, I've now wasted 5 months of time during which I should have been arranging my next duty station, getting orders settled, preparing to move stateside, etc. - and because I was told flat out that my AIP request was good to go, I have done NONE of those things...
End result: I may have to move stateside in 6 weeks. I don't know what unit. I don't know what post. I don't even know what #$*&ing STATE I'd be going to, and because I'm now 6 weeks out from that situation's arrival, I have no time whatsoever to arrange it and get what I want - I will, instead, have to simply take whatever I get.
I do, however, have one saving grace possibility. I may be able to take an extension of a different kind... this, however, would put me out of Korea in early June of 2007 rather than September of 2007... which, in some regards, is actually pretty nice. It isn't exactly what I wanted, and it's certainly not what I planned for... and I don't get an extra $300.00 a month for doing it... but - I don't have to move to a new place, only to move to another new place 9 months after. I also don't risk hitting a stateside unit right before they deploy and wind up having to go back to Iraq for a year - at which point rather than getting out of Active Duty when I'm trying to, I'd be extended involuntarily for another year and a half or so.
*sigh*
All of this just so that I can control the smallest, tiny bit of my career or my job and go where I'm trying to go. ... Maybe I'll just go back to the states and roll my dice... my boss suggests that it might give me more opportunity to do some networking with the units there and arrange an AGR slot for myself. :\ That would rock. We'll see... I'll have to make some decisions tomorrow. Wish me luck making the right ones.
I was informed today that while my AIP has been approved for the second time - my extension has not been, and will not be approved because I'm in my window for re-enlistment... What that means is - because the Army has offered to allow me to sign a whole new contract for a longer period of time, they will not allow me to extend my tour of service for any shorter period than 2 additional years... NOT HAPPENING. In addition, I've now wasted 5 months of time during which I should have been arranging my next duty station, getting orders settled, preparing to move stateside, etc. - and because I was told flat out that my AIP request was good to go, I have done NONE of those things...
End result: I may have to move stateside in 6 weeks. I don't know what unit. I don't know what post. I don't even know what #$*&ing STATE I'd be going to, and because I'm now 6 weeks out from that situation's arrival, I have no time whatsoever to arrange it and get what I want - I will, instead, have to simply take whatever I get.
I do, however, have one saving grace possibility. I may be able to take an extension of a different kind... this, however, would put me out of Korea in early June of 2007 rather than September of 2007... which, in some regards, is actually pretty nice. It isn't exactly what I wanted, and it's certainly not what I planned for... and I don't get an extra $300.00 a month for doing it... but - I don't have to move to a new place, only to move to another new place 9 months after. I also don't risk hitting a stateside unit right before they deploy and wind up having to go back to Iraq for a year - at which point rather than getting out of Active Duty when I'm trying to, I'd be extended involuntarily for another year and a half or so.
*sigh*
All of this just so that I can control the smallest, tiny bit of my career or my job and go where I'm trying to go. ... Maybe I'll just go back to the states and roll my dice... my boss suggests that it might give me more opportunity to do some networking with the units there and arrange an AGR slot for myself. :\ That would rock. We'll see... I'll have to make some decisions tomorrow. Wish me luck making the right ones.