The Last Week in Yuma

Well, someone "fucked up" and the phrase of SNAFU comes to mind. The crappy schedule I had when I first got here is back. Oh, and my renter, he just turned my landlord experience into FUBAR. He pissed off the neighbors and they called the county, which in turn puts me in a violation that if not fixed shortly will cost me a $10,000.00 a day fine until fixed. Hopefully, this will be taken care of before I leave the states.
The whole part that really chaps my ass is that the person who turned in the individual that did the wrong should have taken care of the Marine instead of fucking him and everyone else. This statement would not have been foreign 5 to 10 years ago nor would it be when my father or anyone else's family was in the military. The situation did not harm anyone and the violation was not a major one. I am not saying to break the rules, the rules are there for a reason. All I am saying is this Marine just needed to be looked after for about twenty feet and all would have been fine.
What is the one thing that Marines do the other services do not do or do not take pride in?

Well, the answer is history if this truly is the "new" Marine Corps.

The good is part is a friend is visiting me for the last few days. I hope the best for that.

T minus 281 : Day 84 : Rotation Time Minus 11

I can not wait until this detail (exercise) is over. I like the area, but I am truly hating this job I am doing here.

One of the good points of being here is I have an awesome renter. He is actually taking care of my house. (Saving me a dime or two.)

When I do return, I will be going to the ball "stag." If that is a surprise then you haven't been reading.

I did receive a few awesome presents from some really cool people. Definitely, this is year has been a banner one.

Nothing Special

This post is nothing special.
I do not have time to post anything of any real value.
I barely have enough time to type this message.
This thought process is a complete waste of time.
You have just wasted your time by reading this.
You and I can not feel any smarter or wiser by reading this.
In fact, you are probably wondering, why I would do this?
I do not know.

A Good Analogy to Share

From a person who's there, in the midst..........

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war...My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation. My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window.

He said "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this, son... .what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I'd call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call. They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"

"Dad.......... but the police are supposed to! help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?"

Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the! man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"Daddy.."

"WHAT DO YOU DO?"

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him.

"Why?"

"Because Daddy.....the police are sup posed to help people who needs them...and they won't help.... You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these ! terrible things and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds.... so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's questions and he says...
"Son"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door... "WHAT DO YOU DO?"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY S ISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says... "It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have s! topped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before its too late." my husband whispers. THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen son, THAT is the greatest atrocities in the world won't affect him. "YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS..."

(name withheld)
CMSgt 332 ELRS/Vehicle Management
Flight Balad Air Base, Iraq

Friends and Enemies

Since being back have run into many people that I have known before. The vast majority are good friends, but on occasion there are those people that I wish to have been run over instead of seeing them again.

I would like to think that most people I encounter view me as a friend, but I think that would be over stepping my boundaries. I admit it, when I meet someone that I don't like I tend to let them know about it. {There are exceptions to the rule.}

Some of the people who obviously do not like me have been avoiding me. I know this because I keep running into their coworkers. A little odd. Some of you know this person or people and I do find it quite odd.

The funny part is, I am not looking to pick a fight, have an argument, or have a run in with anyone while I am here. I feel that I can hold my own and be the bigger person.

Correction

I am truly on day 66. For some reason my math went to crap and no one noticed. If fact, I believe that maybe when you all say you read these posts, you actually don't think about the posts.

A horse by any other color. ~ A bird in the hand as luck would have it.

T minus 301: Day 54: Rotation Time Minus 34

My being chaste has not faltered.

My opinions have been muted.

My time is being restricted.

My A/C is not working.

I found myself in love with the world so there was only one thing that i could do was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long

Opinions

Everyone has one.

Mine tend to make my life harder.

It is times like these that maybe it is a tell tale sign that I need to transition to the civilian world.

Family Circus

>Click on "files" then September 9th, 2005.<

My mother sent me something very special. Instead of scanning the picture and posting it which will slow your computer down I thought this would be easier.

It made my day, maybe it will make yours.

I see a Finger and Thumb in a Shape of an "L" on People's Foreheads

In MARADMIN 428/05, my name is clearly not listed. I am not going to be promoted.
I know and fear my suspicions were right and the reason seems to point to my PME.
I wasn't really happy about the fact I was told by a person I despise, respect, but despise.

My options are:
1) Receive the training I am missing and kiss a lot of ass.
2) Prepare for the civilian world.
3) Be disgruntled, and piss everyone off.
4) Or go see the "doc" for all those "things" that I have been "sucking up" with for the last decade.

Currently, I feeling that option 1 is the best course of action.

T minus 315 : Day 40 : Rotation Time minus 48

I survived the "typhoon." I deployed to the states. I have slept an eradicated schedule. I have a stomach virus. I have been SIQ (sick in quarters) for the last few days. I am still living in a icebox in the middle of the desert. Oh, and I have a head cold.

All in all, not bad. Not bad at all. Could be worse... Right?

I personally wish to have deployed to the Middle East, then at least my crappy sleep/work schedule would not bother me as much.

I just read an article about the diversity on the social order of America and the military. I agree with the author. There is no point in going into specifics. The military is a scapegoat for the rational teenager and rational parent to have. We do our job, and they go to soccer games and PTA meetings and have coffee and cookies. I am paraphrasing here but I think you get the drift.

Even though I am in the good ol' US of A, the time here counts as if I were still overseas. That is the reason for the title of this post.

The good part of being sick is the fact I am getting lots of sleep. The bad part of being sick is I am getting lots of sleep.

Have you ever read the "Lockhorns?" It is a comic strip. When you have the opportunity you should. My life is similar. I am just missing the wife part right now.

I am been chaste or pure as of late. I don't know how becoming that will be.

September Stress

-The constant change in my venue has reminded me of what being a Marine is all about. I have mentioned this before in a previous post.

-The "per diem" that I am supposed to receive for being here, has not been received. And as my current rank I am not authorized to drive a non government vehicle. The cab fare for 4 miles is 8 dollars. I don't know how many of you have been to Yuma, but everything is at least 4 miles away, probably more like 10 to 15 miles.

-The real stress in my life seems to be that message I have waiting for. You know, the one that says whether I will get that promotion or not. I know of few things I could have done to make myself look better on paper. My excuse was the job tempo of my previous command. (Everyone has an excuse, I am not the exclusion.) In fact, I was denied Professional Military Education (PME) twice due to this operation tempo. Of course, none of that is documented. So, if I don't get the promotion and the reason is my PME, I will definitely not be a happy camper.

Working In The Coal Mine

This is the new me. I am hoping it doesn't last that long.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

This is me.

Yuma

I just received word that I will be returning to Yuma on a ....Deployment!
The thing is that I actually wanted to go back. I will receive a dislocation allowance while there. This is commonly referred to as "per diem."
So, hopefully, I should make up for the losses I had during my February disaster with my house.

Time Off

Apparently, no remembers whether or not we, the military, have holidays. I write this because I have received several inquiries about the Labor Day weekend. So I have decided to share this link with you all.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/holidays.html

As far as how much actual time off we receive that depends on duty status and how the Commanding General feels he or she should give us. The most common is a 72 hour liberty, sometimes a 96 hour liberty is granted.

T minus 329: Day 26

Well, the people reading this today, should be aware of the "Super Typhoon" heading this way, by now. Yea.

I personally have survived a many hurricanes such as Fran and Bertha which were both class 4s and were back to back within 5 days of each other. Granted, this one is a class 5, but how much worse can it be?

Not too many trailers here.

The Sgt. Maj. is back. My first impression is a good one. It's kind of strange, but I can relate to this guy pretty well. I figure it is a good thing.

This is the first Saturday I haven't worked. It must have something to do with the typhoon thing or maybe it's because of Labor Day being on Monday. It doesn't really matter, I am happy either way.

Mail call didn't go on Friday, I am a little perturbed about that. There may have been a letter from someone who put smiley faces on the envelope.

For those people that have worked on a flight line or have been on ship know that your head is supposed to be on a swivel. (Meaning you should always be aware of your surroundings.) Well, last night I was sandwiched between two honchos(taxis) and my left calf muscle got the brunt of the force. Luckily, there is no visible damage. The Doc (corpsman, who lives next door) said I should just take note of my body and explained what I should look for in the next couple of days. Overall my legs are fine as long as I don't try to use them.

The main consensus here is this is a crappy place because of the command, meaning the higher ups make life hell for the juniors. Well, now that I have been here awhile, I may be one those people. I already started making changes, everybody hates changes. I am hoping that the few little tweaks here and there are going to make little better cohesion within my workcenter and moral will hopefully go up after some time.

One last thought, for those who know me, know that I have a hard time hearing things at times. I feel that I must have "Superman" hearing. Everyone here seems to be deaf. An example, would be the the other guy next door to me, he turns his TV up so loud that I can watch TV without having one. Which I don't. Think about this, I mean, how loud do you really need it in a room that is 10 feet by 15 feet.

Maybe I am getting old.

That can't be it. I like good sound vibrations too, but I ask the people around 1st if it is too loud. I have a surround sound system, my neighbor doesn't.

A note on my system, I broke out a compass and a measuring tape and calculated the best positions for the optimum sound in my given environment.

Promotions

Many of you are inquiring if I will receive a promotion or not. Well, the simple answer is, yes I anticipate a promotion. The complex answer is, I do not know whether I will be promoted or not.

The selection process is a once a year for each rank Staff Sergeant (SSgt. E-6) to General. 60 days prior to the selection board a message is released and it has a series of Military Occupational Specialties, MOS(jobs) listed by the corresponding number of who has promotion slots and who does not.

Some MOS' have several other MOS' "feeding" into other MOS. Such as, 6423, 6432, and 6433 feed into 6434.

The MOS' are listed by the feeder MOS and ones that stay the same in numerical order. In that list there will be several columns referring to the criteria for promotion. It is broken up into 3 sections, the above zone ( Marines who were in zone the year prior that did not promote), the zone (Marines who were not looked at the year prior), and the below zone (Marines that have not been in any zone thus far).

In each zone there is a column for Date of Rank (DOR - when promoted to present rank) and the Armed Forces Base Date (AFBD - when entered in military service). Usually, the above zone lists the AFBD as N/A, but this is not always the case.
45 days prior to the convening board, another message will come out with "tweaks" or changes in matters of number of allocations to date time frames that are eligible.

The board selection process is performed by higher ranking Marines with at least one officer for enlisted boards. Each board member receives a "jacket", which consists of Service Record Books (SRB) , Fitness Reports (FitRep), and any other information that the Marine sent to the board or is listed in other administrative records, for each Marine eligible for promotion. Each board member gives a brief (about 2 minutes) for each Marine's Jacket that he or she may possess. The board then takes that information and votes on who should be promoted.

In the case of the SSgt. promotion board, the board convenes in mid-July and the results are posted usually a few days prior to the first week of October. The list will state the names, MOS, and a number, which states the order in which the promotion will take place. The order is listed by the most senior Marines first and then descends to the most junior Marine. (Senority is time in grade (rank) then time in service.)

~~A side note~~

I may missed something here but all this information is available at the Marine Corps website.

http://www.usmc.mil/

~~

So back to the question at hand, Do I think I will be promoted?

I would like to think I am the best candidate for the next rank and will do the Marine Corps justice if given the opportunity to lead in the next rank.

Rain

If you did not know it, it rains here alot. So the effect of the rain on our metal containers that I work in, is rust.

This in turn means that we, myself and my fellow Marines, need to do corrosion control efforts whenever it does not rain.

Maintenance slows down to a crawl.

If we were at war with the rain, we would lose.

Complications, Part II

I have been told and retold enough times I felt I needed a second part to this. Apparently the consensus is 'I am too simple which makes me complicated.'

What is this supposed to mean to me?

It is definitely not the answer I was looking for. In fact, it kind of sounds like an answer I would give. If you didn't know, I tend to answer questions with more questions or say an abstract statement that could or could not answer whatever the question may have been.

Say it is the politics in me. The forever amount of red tape that I apparently absorbed somewhere down the line.

The way I look at this is, 'you the person reading this, is more complicated than I could ever be.'

Then again maybe I am misinterpreting this statement.