11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fulda, Germany -- almost exactly 15 years ago, when I was but a young pup in this man's Army, I sat outside the office of my Regimental Commander, Colonel William Wallace. I was about to meet with destiny; I was asking Col. Wallace for a letter of recommendation for the Army's Officer Candidate School.
I was nervous, and my Captain didn't help much. He was a helicopter pilot (UH-60's), and had been enlisted and a warrant officer before going to OCS himself. As we were waiting to see the Colonel, I asked him which was worse -- Basic Training, Warrant Officer Candidate School, or OCS? He said OCS was far worse, because boot camp and WOCS had rules, things the drill instructors couldn't do to you; OCS didn't have those kind of rules. He didn't elaborate, but it sure made me wonder why I wanted to become an officer.
The interview, what I remember of it, was short. Col. Wallace already knew me from the chapel service Lori and I attended, and I had once briefed him on the Electronic Warfare system I operated. What I remember most about that day was my euphoria as I floated across Downs Barracks with a signed recommendation letter in my hand.
I was elated because for the first time in my short career, someone recognized potential in me as a soldier. Up to that point in my life, it was my greatest professional accomplishment. I attended and completed OCS some four years later, and the rest is history.
Today, I ate breakfast with now General William Wallace (that's 4 stars). I've known for several days he was coming, made sure I knew his itinerary, and cleared my surprise visit with my boss. (They don't let just anybody show up to talk to Generals, you know.) He shook my hand before we sat down, then the Colonels all entertained him with diatribes about our world of Information Technology. I thought I saw some flashes of recognition in his eyes -- so I patiently waited to get a word in edgewise, and when he got up to go out, I finally introduced myself as someone who worked for him in Fulda.
He put his arm around my shoulder and told me he thought he recognized me, then asked a few genuine questions about what I do now. When I reminded him that he gave me the letter, he smiled and said, "I did? How'd that work out for ya?" (I was in uniform!) With his entourage in tow we strolled outside the chow hall and chatted about Fulda for a minute, then he was off to his next briefing. As I saluted, I told him it was good to see him again.
Last night, I related to Lori how during my one-year tour to Korea in 2001, my Brigade chaplain was the same man who was my Squadron chaplain all those years ago in Germany. One day at Camp Hovey, I was getting on a shuttle bus and there sat Chaplain Ahl and his wife, who had come to visit him. She immediately recognized me, and even remembered Lori and the boys -- even though we had had no contact for 9 years.
It's good to know that people remember.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Back in the Saddle
Now that I'm back into a manageable routine in Kuwait, my blog will be here from now on...can't really stand MySpace anymore, and I can access this page at work. [grin]
I haven't posted anything in quite a while...I've been busy, OK?
First, I had a wonderful vacation at home with Lori and the kids. 20 days went by way too quickly, of course, but I did get to spend a lot of quality time with them, see a few friends, and accomplish most of my honey-do list.
After returning to Kuwait in early January, I was sent to Qatar for a few days, then Bahrain for a week. Both trips were fabulous, and now I can say I've been there, done that, got the T-shirts (no, really). I won't go into too many details, but I will say that while Qatar imposes a 3-drink limit, Bahrain does not. We stayed in a 5-star hotel in Bahrain, ate like kings, and I celebrated my birthday there.
Speaking of saddles, January also brought my debut as the Saturday night cycling class instructor at Camp Arifjan. More on that later, but I must take the time here to complain that our pool is now closed for renovations, so my triathlon training is somewhat curtailed for the next several weeks. I was so mad that on Sunday, the last day the pool was open, I went and swam 4600 yards. That'll show 'em!
Lori and the kids are fine at home. Christian is preparing to swim in the Oklahoma State championships next weekend, in the 100-fly, 100-back, and 4 x 100 free relay. He's ranked in the top 10 in the 100-fly, so we're excited for him! He recently won all three events at the Conference chamionships as well. Dallas is getting ready for high school graduation, and our little Abbi is playing basketball.
I posted some recent pics under the "some cool pics" section to the right, and will get more on there soon.
I haven't posted anything in quite a while...I've been busy, OK?
First, I had a wonderful vacation at home with Lori and the kids. 20 days went by way too quickly, of course, but I did get to spend a lot of quality time with them, see a few friends, and accomplish most of my honey-do list.
After returning to Kuwait in early January, I was sent to Qatar for a few days, then Bahrain for a week. Both trips were fabulous, and now I can say I've been there, done that, got the T-shirts (no, really). I won't go into too many details, but I will say that while Qatar imposes a 3-drink limit, Bahrain does not. We stayed in a 5-star hotel in Bahrain, ate like kings, and I celebrated my birthday there.
Speaking of saddles, January also brought my debut as the Saturday night cycling class instructor at Camp Arifjan. More on that later, but I must take the time here to complain that our pool is now closed for renovations, so my triathlon training is somewhat curtailed for the next several weeks. I was so mad that on Sunday, the last day the pool was open, I went and swam 4600 yards. That'll show 'em!
Lori and the kids are fine at home. Christian is preparing to swim in the Oklahoma State championships next weekend, in the 100-fly, 100-back, and 4 x 100 free relay. He's ranked in the top 10 in the 100-fly, so we're excited for him! He recently won all three events at the Conference chamionships as well. Dallas is getting ready for high school graduation, and our little Abbi is playing basketball.
I posted some recent pics under the "some cool pics" section to the right, and will get more on there soon.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
A Dilbertian conundrum
Earlier this summer, we had oversight of the expansion of a network in the southern part of Iraq. In order to accomodate this expansion, we tasked another unit to send some soldiers with radios into the Kuwaiti desert, near the border, in order to provide radio coverage for the other site. After two months, the expansion was complete.
So we asked the parent unit (in Baghdad) of the Task Force at the site, "your expansion is complete, so we can call those soldiers back to their base, right?" The response was, "no, the new network doesn't cover as much as we thought. Leave them where they are for another 19 days so we can do some testing." All along, the soldiers were not providing the type of network coverage the Task Force thought they were, only very limited radio coverage in the form of a relay point in case of an emergency. In fact, after the first mission was valianltly accomplished, the soldiers never received any more calls on their radios, since the units leaving the site used the new network that had been so nicely (and expensively) expanded.
So, after some considerable finagling, we finally convinced the Task Force's parent unit (located in Baghdad) that the site no longer needed the limited radio coverage that the soldiers were providing, since no one had called them in over three weeks. The commander of the soldiers' parent unit complained vehemently to all the other colonels around here, but to no avail. Our colonels complained vehemently to the appropriate colonels in Baghdad, but to no avail. The Task Force unit that runs the site still wasn't convinced that they didn't need the soldiers. In fact, the Task Force was convinced that they were using the soldiers' radio services far more than they actually were.
Then two weeks ago our two-star general told his staff to get the soldiers out of the desert site they were occupying, since their services were no longer needed or used because their mission was already accomplished. But the Task Force in Iraq still insisted that they still needed the soldiers' radio coverage as a "backup" in case they needed it -- even though their original mission had long since been so valiantly accomplished, and their limited services had not been used for quite some time. Our one-star general even called his counterpart one-star general in Baghdad. A week went by, and the soldiers were still out there, faithfully manning their silent radios in the desert heat.
And lo and behold, a colonel in another staff section decided to write decision papers requesting that the general order other staff colonels to order the soldiers to stand down. Unbeknownst to either of those colonels or the general, the parent unit of the soldiers learned that generals from both headquarters had agreed that the Task Force did not indeed need the services the soldiers provided, and had thusly decreed that the soldiers' mission was over. So, without informing the Task Force or the general, a major from that parent unit ordered the soldiers to turn off their radios, and stand down from the mission they had so valiantly accomplished.
Word quietly spread of this unofficial ending of the mission; first, it was whispered among some majors, then a few lieutenants colonel, and then a couple of colonels. Another week went by, and the soldiers were still "officially" on watch, or so thought the Task Force and the generals in Baghdad and Kuwait and most of the colonels. Communications tests were planned, and more decision papers were written even by colonels who knew because no one would dare tell the generals that the Task Force did not indeed have the capability that they thought they had, even though they never had the capability they thought in the first place. More colonels called us and wrote us emails, probing us with questions about what services the soldiers provided and how much those services were used and what was their mission in the first place. Even more colonels planned to brief our one-star general on the urgent need to release the soldiers from the desert radio-guarding mission they had already, long ago, so valiantly accomplished.
Then finally, during an afternoon briefing today related to the situation at hand, our two-star general once again decreed to "Pull those soldiers!" Curiously, he never asked why they were still there when he clearly gave the same order two weeks ago.
After the meeting, I called that major to tell him the "official" word had come down. He laughed.
So, to recap: a Task Force in southern Iraq made a group of soldiers they never met sit 25 miles away in the Kuwaiti desert for six extra weeks guarding radios, not providing a service the Task Force thought they were getting, even though they were heroically providing a service no one was using, and the during the entire last week the radios weren't on at all but the Task Force didn't complain because they didn't know.
I swear to God, Scot Adams works here somewhere.
So we asked the parent unit (in Baghdad) of the Task Force at the site, "your expansion is complete, so we can call those soldiers back to their base, right?" The response was, "no, the new network doesn't cover as much as we thought. Leave them where they are for another 19 days so we can do some testing." All along, the soldiers were not providing the type of network coverage the Task Force thought they were, only very limited radio coverage in the form of a relay point in case of an emergency. In fact, after the first mission was valianltly accomplished, the soldiers never received any more calls on their radios, since the units leaving the site used the new network that had been so nicely (and expensively) expanded.
So, after some considerable finagling, we finally convinced the Task Force's parent unit (located in Baghdad) that the site no longer needed the limited radio coverage that the soldiers were providing, since no one had called them in over three weeks. The commander of the soldiers' parent unit complained vehemently to all the other colonels around here, but to no avail. Our colonels complained vehemently to the appropriate colonels in Baghdad, but to no avail. The Task Force unit that runs the site still wasn't convinced that they didn't need the soldiers. In fact, the Task Force was convinced that they were using the soldiers' radio services far more than they actually were.
Then two weeks ago our two-star general told his staff to get the soldiers out of the desert site they were occupying, since their services were no longer needed or used because their mission was already accomplished. But the Task Force in Iraq still insisted that they still needed the soldiers' radio coverage as a "backup" in case they needed it -- even though their original mission had long since been so valiantly accomplished, and their limited services had not been used for quite some time. Our one-star general even called his counterpart one-star general in Baghdad. A week went by, and the soldiers were still out there, faithfully manning their silent radios in the desert heat.
And lo and behold, a colonel in another staff section decided to write decision papers requesting that the general order other staff colonels to order the soldiers to stand down. Unbeknownst to either of those colonels or the general, the parent unit of the soldiers learned that generals from both headquarters had agreed that the Task Force did not indeed need the services the soldiers provided, and had thusly decreed that the soldiers' mission was over. So, without informing the Task Force or the general, a major from that parent unit ordered the soldiers to turn off their radios, and stand down from the mission they had so valiantly accomplished.
Word quietly spread of this unofficial ending of the mission; first, it was whispered among some majors, then a few lieutenants colonel, and then a couple of colonels. Another week went by, and the soldiers were still "officially" on watch, or so thought the Task Force and the generals in Baghdad and Kuwait and most of the colonels. Communications tests were planned, and more decision papers were written even by colonels who knew because no one would dare tell the generals that the Task Force did not indeed have the capability that they thought they had, even though they never had the capability they thought in the first place. More colonels called us and wrote us emails, probing us with questions about what services the soldiers provided and how much those services were used and what was their mission in the first place. Even more colonels planned to brief our one-star general on the urgent need to release the soldiers from the desert radio-guarding mission they had already, long ago, so valiantly accomplished.
Then finally, during an afternoon briefing today related to the situation at hand, our two-star general once again decreed to "Pull those soldiers!" Curiously, he never asked why they were still there when he clearly gave the same order two weeks ago.
After the meeting, I called that major to tell him the "official" word had come down. He laughed.
So, to recap: a Task Force in southern Iraq made a group of soldiers they never met sit 25 miles away in the Kuwaiti desert for six extra weeks guarding radios, not providing a service the Task Force thought they were getting, even though they were heroically providing a service no one was using, and the during the entire last week the radios weren't on at all but the Task Force didn't complain because they didn't know.
I swear to God, Scot Adams works here somewhere.
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