Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Up and Down the Chain of Command

Those of you who read this blog while I was in Iraq will remember that my move from the motor pool to battalion headquarters came when Command Sergeant Major Christine came to me and said, "Do you want to do the newsletter full time?"  I said I did.  Next day I was in the Battalion HQ.

On Saturday (see yesterday's post) the CSM had a plan. On Sunday it went from idea to plans and reality.  At 8am I was on a Chinook flying to Boalsburg to take pictures at the annual 28th Division Memorial Day Celebration.  This year Gov. Tom Corbett was the speaker.  If you are curious, 147 photos here.

The Battalion Commander flew the Governor and The Adjutant General to the ceremony in a Blackhawk.  While the BC was waiting to take off we had a chance to talk about the deployment.  He and the CSM had talked and he would do his best to make it happen.

His aircraft was the first to take off from the ceremony.  The Chinook I was riding in left an hour later.  When we got back, I walked through the flight facility--they have the best coffee within ten miles of Fort Indiantown Gap.  One of the pilots saw me and said, "You're going Dude."  When I got back to the armory, the admin officer and NCO both said "We're going to find you a slot."

I walked outside with the CSM.  He said, "Tell your family.  You're going."


Monday, May 21, 2012

Going to Afghanistan

After Saturday's drill the Sergeant Major laid out for me how I could go on the deployment and spend time with each of the three Aviation units going.  "Keep a rucksack packed and fly from place to place" is the plan.  All three units form a task force, so I would just have to be sure I was part of the troop count in each location:  The BOG report or Boots on Ground.

He asked if I was ready to go and wanted to go. I said I was.  He said he would clear it with the commander.  That's the topic of the next post.

Wow.

In the morning of this drill day, I got to fire an M240B door gun on a 300-800 meter pop-up target range.  My spotter, Staff Sergeant Blake Andrews, said he thought I knocked down the 800-meter target.  I definitely hit the 600-meter target.  Lots of fun!!!!  Here's a video of another soldier firing, Sgt. Mike Machinist, a Chinook flight engineer.



Sunday, May 13, 2012

Twas the Night Before Basic. . .

. . .and in a Kenmore Square bar,
I drank way too much
And Frank drove my car.

This long-haired drunk smoking a cigarette is me, just forty years and a few months ago.  I've been so focused on getting an extension to stay in the Army, I forgot that Feb 1 was the 40th anniversary of my initial enlistment.

On that auspicious evening, my best friend Frank Capuano, my sister Jean and others I cannot remember took me to a basement bar in Kenmore Square, Boston, for pitchers of beer before I left for basic.  In Boston in 1972, 3.2% beer was legal for 18 year olds.  

So we drove to Boston and I drank way too much--something that has always been easy for me.  I can get drunk on three beers.  I got really drunk.  Enough that I fell off my chair onto the sawdust-covered floor.  One of the bouncers decided I had enough and carried me up the stairs over his shoulder.  The bouncers wore vertical-stripe red and white shirts.  Looking at the shirt and bouncing caused me to throw up on the bouncer.  He tossed me into the alley.  

I was up at 6am to go to Logan Airport for the flight to basic.  Not a great beginning.  But it turned out OK.

By the way, we tried to get in the Ratskellar across the street.  Aerosmith--a local bar band at the time, was playing at the Rat.  But they wouldn't let us in.  So we settled for K-K-Katy's.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thanks to Everyone Who Voted

"Home from Iraq" is a finalist for the 6th Annual Milbloggie Awards this weekend in at the Military Blogging Conference Alexandria VA. I won't be able to attend because I have a big weekend with the boys.  

Now that I got the extension, I guess I can enter the contest for two more years.

Thanks to all of you who voted, especially to Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority at the University of Richmond--my daughter Lisa is a member and asked her sisters to vote for her Dad.
 

Monday, April 30, 2012

Veteran Event at Richmond Intl. Raceway



My sons and I went to a veteran event at Richmond Intl. Raceway.  We got to see a great race, meet drivers, and eat lots of food.  The event was courtesy of driver Brad Keselowski.  Report is here.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Planning for a Very Odd Future

Now that my extension through May 2015 is all done except the confirmation paperwork, I can start making more concrete plans about the future.

Or not.

I will be 62 in May of 2015 and hope to spend part of the 2015-2016 academic year in Rwanda with my wife and three or four sons.  I want them to live in a black-majority culture to experience how different that is--especially for their white parents.  And Rwanda has the advantages of being among the poorest and at the same time most bicycle crazy countries on the planet.  The country is healing from the mid-90s genocide through both sides--Hutus and Tutsis--cheering for the national bicycle racing team and their international bike race, The Tour of Rwanda.

If all goes well, we will go there for a semester.  My wife will lecture on math at the University of Kigali, my sons will do there best to attend high school Kigali, the capital, and I will teach English as a Second Language with a definite emphasis on bicycle vocabulary.  Rwanda has great roads that are keep smooth from lack of heavy vehicle traffic.  Thousands of young men build their racing muscles dragging heavy loads behind and on their bicycles.  For these young men to become racers they have to be literate and learn both the bike and the complex tactics of racing.  Hopefully, I can help.

If it turns out I go to Afghanistan before I get out, I will have just that much more experience in a poor culture.

Since I will be some form of retired by then, it is good to know that the cost of living in Rwanda is very low.




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I GOT THE FULL 2-YEAR EXTENSION!!!!

The battalion Command Sergeant Major called me today and left a message saying, "I have good news, call me back."

He did have good news.  The Pennsylvania Adjutant General signed a two-year extension of my enlistment.  My new discharge date is 30 May 2015, just after my 62nd birthday.  So I now have three years and a month before I will officially be a civilian again.


Monday, April 16, 2012

Days Like These are Why I Want to Stay In!!!!

Friday night I got a text message from our operations officer:
0730 at west field for first CH movement.
That was all the info I had.

I drove to West Field arriving at 0720. When I arrived two Chinooks sat in the middle of a large field.  Along the north edge in front of the tree line were more than 200 soldiers lining up in groups getting ready to fly to hill tops on the ridges on the north side of Fort Indiantown Gap.

As the infantry lined up, Chief Witmer put me on the second aircraft so I could take a picture of the first aircraft landing and the troops running off. The plan did not work out--at least for pictures.  The first aircraft was so fast it was flying away from the landing zone before we arrived.

So I did not get the pictures, but for the first time I had the experience of landing on top of a cliff in a Chinook with the tail wheels on the cliff and the nose wheels off the edge while 30 infantrymen ran out the back of the aircraft.  The landing was very smooth and so was the hover while the infantrymen ran down the ramp and off the aircraft, but I could look out the forward door gunner's window and down the side of the cliff.

It was very cool.

The two Chinooks flew several more sorties ferrying tropps up to Media Ridge.  I recently exchanged my cracked Blackberry for an iPhone so I took movies of some of the landings and takeoffs.  I will post them later this week.  I climbed on the last flight returning from Medina Ridge.  The troop exercise was over by 11 am.  But the days excitement wasn't over.




Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Still Getting Good Stuff While I Am In

My oldest daughter just called to tell me she could get tickets for the Richmond NASCAR race for my three sons and I (next son moves in tomorrow).  It is a night race at the end of April on a 3/4-mile oval and arguably one of the best tracks in NASCAR.  The tickets are for Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans.

If my extension does not go through, I will have just one more year to score this kind of swag for currently serving veterans.  Chalid, our new son, said he would like to go to a race.  I did not know when we could go, but free tickets made the planning much easier!


Monday, April 2, 2012

Lost Paperwork at Higher Headquarters, Starting Again

I got an email this morning from my CSM saying that higher HQ did not have my request paperwork.  he asked for some info I sent him in January so he could start the process over again.  Although my discharge is not for another 13 months, the CSM said in December I had better get started now.  He has 34 years of service and knows what can happen to paperwork.  Good thing he is looking out for young guys like me.  (Even if he is 7 years younger than I am.)


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Survey of Veterans

Interesting survey of veterans reported by Jim Dao on the NY times "At War" blog.  Veterans care most about jobs and want to work for the government.  And he reports real joblessness among veterans is double the national average.

Monday, March 26, 2012

First Time I Missed a Drill Weekend

I am sick.  Right now I am getting better, but Friday morning I got a flu that came in stages.  Friday I was throwing up.  Saturday morning I felt OK.  I really felt good mid-day and went to drill.  Saturday evening I was bad again--at the other end.  All night I made a dozen trips to the bathroom and spent most of Sunday in bed.

This morning I ate a little and feel better.  At this point I have lost ten pounds in four days.  Like my other diets, I do not recommend it.


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Ran NYC Half Marathon--Right Through Times Square

Twice a year Times Square gets closed to traffic:  on New Year's Eve for the ball drop and party and  on the Sunday nearest St. Patricks Day for the NYC Half Marathon.

I ran the race this year with 25,000 of my closest friends.  More entered but there was a lottery to get in.  The BEST part of the whole event was running out of Central Park straight down 7th Avenue through Times Square--it is really cool to run down the middle of 7th Ave. but not a good idea most of the time.

Here's what the Ave looks like with nothing but runners.  I am in the middle acting like I won, but there are 12000 people ahead of me and six miles to go!

Newsletter or Facebook Page

Last summer I started a Facebook page for my unit.  But last drill, a couple of people asked about when I was going to do another newsletter.  I wrote weekly newsletters in Iraq, monthly after we got back to America, and stopped once we had a Facebook page.

But new media does not quite replace old media--at least not for everybody.  That newsletter was a lot of work.  The Facebook page is easier because it can be done in little pieces.  Doing both is more than I could ever have time for.

Let me know if you think one is better than the other--assuming I could choose between the two.

And, of course, if you are on Facebook, please "Like" our page!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Liberal Advice from a Conservative

Yesterday I went to a lunch for consultants and industry executives in New York City.  One of the men at the lunch knows I am a soldier and was giving me advice--on how to get all the money I can from the government.

He is a very Conservative guy.  He does not like President Obama particularly for the way he spends tax money.  Having made his Conservative credentials clear, he then said he was really pissed at Obama   because "Obama makes us pay a $200 co-pay for [Army medical coverage]."  This man is a retired colonel, owns a successful business and is eligible for Medicare.  He has private medical insurance plus Tri-Care (Army) and Medicare.

Then he asked how much of a disability payment I was receiving.  

I said "None."

He was shocked.  "You should be getting disability payments.  You deserve it."  

I explained there is nothing wrong with me.  

He said, "It might take two or three physicals, but you should at least get 20 to 40 percent."  

He does.

I know there are real Conservatives who actually don't want to take government money.  But this guy was clearly like the pork-barrel senator who campaigns as a fiscal conservative and votes for every bit of spending he can bring home to his own state.  Like the Amtrak riders who want a "Quiet-Except-for-Me" car on the train.  This guy is a "Stop-Government-Spending-Except-on-Me" Conservative.




Baby Killers


In December of 1973, I came home on leave shortly after being injured in a missile explosion in Utah.  I landed at Logan Airport wearing my Air Force uniform and bandages on my right hand and right eye.  I heard "Baby Killer" as I walked through the terminal.  The Mei Lai Massacre was how many people looked at soldiers at the end of Viet Nam War.

I went to dinner last night with a friend who is not military, but very pro military.  He brought up the Army sergeant who killed 16 Afghans.  He said it was a shame.  I said I was amazed it took ten years for it to happen--especially with Americans getting killed by the Afghans they are training.

Our soldiers, like our politicians are us.  Soldiers are not beamed in from a good planet and politicians from a bad one--which is how many people talk.  We have leaders whom we elect.  We have soldiers who go to our schools and live in our neighborhoods.  Politicians, soldiers, police, teachers and all of the rest of us who take responsibility for some aspect of public life bring humanity to that job--good and bad.  The soldier who turned his weapon on civilians was on his fourth combat deployment and was diagnosed with PTSD.  His fellow soldiers get killed and maimed by people who pretend to be civilians.

The dumbest thing I heard so far was from columnist and commentator Mike Barnicle.  He said "This is a failure of the chain of command from top to bottom."  As far as I could find, Barnicle has never been a link in any chain of command.  If any of his knowledge of the military was first hand, he would know how much everyone has to trust one another and that the men in his chain of command are not jailers.

American NCOs have traditionally had more responsibility and ability to take initiative than other armies. Of course freedom can allow people to do wrong, but that is one of the costs of freedom.  Our military patrols and protects the world with less than two million soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen--including active duty, national guard and all reserves.  Soldiers with real responsibility and superior technology are the reasons we can do this.  Barnicle would have some sort of Soviet-style army where even the generals have no latitude.

I wonder if Barnicle could last through four combat tours, see his friends killed and maimed by terrorists and maintain his sanity.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

200 Moms and Babies and Five Soldiers

In 1977, I flew home on leave from Germany on a long-body Douglas DC-8.  These planes were passing out commercial use, replaced by wide-body aircraft, but charter companies still flew these long, narrow planes with more than 40 rows of seats--no first class.

In the 70s when one million Americans lived in Germany (250,000 soldiers and airmen) the passengers on the cheap charters were Army wives and their kids.  In the 70s when our unit got a replacement soldier, I would assume he was 19, from the South and his 17-year-old wife was pregnant with their second child.  He needed a job with benefits.

I was on an eight-hour flight with maybe 230 wives and kids and five soldiers.  From boarding to landing this long, narrow plane echoed with 100+ kids taking crying--sometimes all at once, sometimes in a crescendo that moved from the back to the front of the plane, getting louder then growing softer as the kids got tired.

I was a pack-a-day smoker then.  Probably half the adults on the plane were in the "smoking area" in the back.  You couldn't see the front of the plane when a bunch of us lit up.  In fact, it blurred the definition of second-hand smoke when there was that much smoke in a confined space.

I thought of this flight today because a toddler was howling five rows back.  I thought 'This is SOOO much nicer than 100 kids crying.

The kid is quiet.  Quiet never happened on that charter flight.  Ahhhhhhh!!!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Wearing Uniform--First Class Idea

Today I am flying to Orlando, Florida, for three days for a scientific instruments conference.  Since I now know that in 400 days I will be a civilian again I decided to wear my uniform whenever I could.  Flying is always a good place to have a uniform.  Today I took the AirTran direct flight to Orlando from Harrisburg.  At check-in my bag was free.  The security line is so short at Harrisburg it was only quick to get through security anyway.  I had an aisle seat near the middle of the plane and AirTran boards by rows, so I waited until everyone was almost through the cold Jetway before I boarded.

As I got on the plane, the flight attendant put me in the last seat in First Class.  It's not too big of a deal, but I am writing this post with enough leg room to stretch my legs.  My wife and I ran six miles this morning so it's nice to stretch.

I fly back on Tuesday and go straight to NYC for a black tie dinner at the Waldorf.  I am wearing the Class A Dress uniform with the bow tie.  I go to two or three black tie events a year for work, why not wear green.


Marines New Ad Campaign--TRUTH from a Recruiter!!!

The phrase "My recruiter lied to me!" must go back at least to Sparta. Leonidas probably said, "We'll be home from Thermopolay next month."

But not the US Marines!!  Their new add campaign says the world is messed up and we'll be there!

THAT is truth in advertising.

Heres the story from Jim Dao at the NY Times:


Ad Campaign for Marines Cites Chaos as a Job Perk
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The war in Iraq is over, the troop reduction in Afghanistan is under way and America's next war front is far from clear. If you are a military recruiter, how do market your product?
The Marine Corps thinks it has the answer: focus on something the world has in endless supply -- chaos.
On Saturday, the Marine Corps will open its latest marketing campaign, "Toward the Sound of Chaos," which will use social media, television commercials and print ads to underscore two points: That while no one knows where the next global hot spot will be, the Marines are ready to charge there.
"Even though we're ramping down from the 10 years of Iraq and Afghanistan, we're going to have a chaotic future in front of us, which also portends a potentially busy time for the Marine Corps," said Brig. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman, commanding general for Marine Corps recruiting command.
The new campaign will also include much information, and dramatic footage of Marines delivering humanitarian aid to nations beleaguered by war, famine or natural disaster, like Haiti, where 2,200 Marines provided medical supplies, food and security after the 2010 earthquake.
The new emphasis is partly the result of a national online survey conducted by JWT, the marketing firm, showing that many young adults consider "helping people in need, wherever they may live," an important component of good citizenship.
"There is a subset of millennials who believe that the military is an avenue of service to others," General Osterman said. "Not only in our nation, but also in others faced with tyranny and injustice."
But, General Osterman said, the Marine Corps remained an expeditionary, combat-oriented force. Post-Afghanistan, it will probably return to its traditional role of attacking mainly from the sea, he added. "Are we getting soft?" he asked. "The answer is no."
The campaign's inaugural television commercial opens with scenes of a smoke-draped horizon and the sounds of gunfire and people screaming in the distance. The terrain is vaguely desertlike, but there are no geographic landmarks -- not even a hill -- to pin down the location. It could be Africa, Central Asia or Kansas.
Marines then sprint into the picture and toward the smoke, F/A-18 fighter jets screaming overhead. Before the minute-long ad is over, virtually every form of Marine war-fighting hardware -- the much-critiqued V-22 Osprey, Cobra attack helicopters, amphibious assault vehicles and a hovercraft -- make guest appearances.
"Most people hear the sounds of chaos and run in the opposite direction," the baritone-voiced narrator says. "But there are a few who listen intently for these sounds, not in the hopes of hearing them, but to help rid the world of them."
The spot ends with a provocative tagline: "Which way would you run?"
The Marine Corps has always been adept at maximizing buzz around its marketing campaigns, and this one -- estimated to cost more than $3 million -- was no different. The television spot leaked onto YouTube on Wednesday and then on Thursday the Marines released Web-only videos on Facebook. The first television commercial will air on ESPN during the Big 12 basketball championship game on Saturday night.
The new Marine Corps campaign echoes in some ways the Navy's current campaign, titled "A Global Force for Good." The Air Force's latest campaign, "It's Not Science Fiction. It's What We Do Every Day," also includes humanitarian themes woven into commercials depicting a vaguely dystopian future.
The Army, which often competes with the Marine Corps for recruits, is evaluating recent survey data to decide whether to revamp its current marketing campaign, "Symbol of Strength," a reference to the Army uniform as a symbol of personal and military strength.

Not So Supreme: A Conference about the Constitution, the Courts and Justice

Hannah Arendt At the end of the first week in March, I went to a conference at Bard College titled: Between Power and Authority: Arendt on t...