Class A Inspection Part 2

I got the Class A (dress green) uniform back from the tailor the day before the drill. I bought the last of the ribbons and badges I needed at 0715 for an 8 am inspection. I was getting dressed in the locker room and just before formation asked a young guy from another unit to make sure my collar brass was straight. I helped him with a sling--he had an injured shoulder--then we both went to our inspections. An hour later I saw him in the hallway and he asked where I was stationed "back in the day." I told him I was in armor in Germany between 1976 and 79. It turns out this young soldier had enlisted a few months before after graduating high school in 2007. His Dad did the same and was assigned to a tank unit in Germany from 1984 to 1986 near my old base. He thought it was pretty funny that his Dad is ten years younger than I am.

Class A Inspection

Saturday morning, January 5, our company will have its annual Class A (dress uniform) Inspection at morning formation. At the end of last drill my squadleader said not to worry about the inspection for the very good reason that my Class A uniform pants are on backorder. We made all the obligatory jokes about me getting inspected without pants. But I found you can buy ANYTHING for an Army uniform (of many armies for that matter) on line. So I bought Class A pants from a North Carolina on line store.

I got the pants and jacket tailored at the men's shop where I get all my suits for work. I had a nice conversation with a guy who works there about why I joined. And it turned out he was in Germany as a student when I was there in the Army in the 70s.

Lisa and Nigel Help Clean Up

In the morning before the holiday party, a half-dozen of us set up additional tables and chairs and put nuts and mints on the all of the 59 tables set up for the Christmas lunch. After lunch, the 23 tables and 184 chairs we added to the usual set up had to be put away again. Lisa and Nigel helped pick up trash and stack chairs for an hour after the party ended. Because we were cleaning up Lisa took leftover fruit and salad home with us. She brought "Army salad" for lunch. I can say confidently she is the only kid in her high school having Army food for lunch today. Nigel's best moment was when a young enlisted man decided to push a cart with 10 eight-foot tables stacked on it. He was having a lot of trouble getting it moving, so Nigel ran over and started pushing. Nigel helped the soldier push the 200-pound load the length of the mess hall and was very pleased to have helped an "Army man" push the tables.

Brigade Christmas Party

On Sunday beginning at noon, members of our brigade on drill this weekend had a Christmas party, complete with Santa and an Army Christmas dinner. This is the first time my family went to any official Army event. Nigel loved the food. At dinner he asked if we could put gravy on the shopping list--lunch included turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes, all with gravy. Lisa, now in her sixth month as a Vegan, at the salad, fresh fruit and dinner rolls that were part of lunch. Although this was Annalisa's first step into Army culture, she did meet an old friend. Our battalion chaplain was for six years in the 1990s assistant chaplain at Franklin and Marshall College. He is Greek Orthodox and when he was at F&M had a full beard, so even though I had seen him a couple of times in the past few months, I did not recognize him without the beard. He went to Afghanistan in 2004 and seems excited to deploy again.

Warning Order for Deployment

This morning at a battalion formation our commander told us we now have a warning order for deployment. If all proceeds according to current plans, we will move to Fort Sill OK on January 20, 2009, and be deployed two months later.

Sept. Sunday News Link is Down--Here's the Story

He's (back) in the Army now at 54!
Executive joins Guard, hopes to use his knowledge of chemicals

By JON RUTTER, Staff writer
Sunday News Published: Sep 02, 2007 12:17 AM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Fifty-four-year-old Neil Gussman is in the Army now.
Actually, he's in it for the second time.
He originally joined back in 1972, when the draft and the Vietnam War were still on.
Gussman had just graduated from high school in Boston. He enlisted to get money for college. He was, by his own admission, clueless.
"I had no political opinion. ... I don't think I had a view on the war, positive or negative."
Thirty-five years later, Gussman lives in Lancaster with his wife and four children. He travels the world as a corporate executive. He's a self-described "token Democrat" at his church, Wheatland Presbyterian.
He isn't out to spill blood. "I'm 54 years old," he reiterated. "I didn't join the Army now to kick down doors in Tikrit or anything."
So, then, why?
Why forfeit a weekend a month and two weeks each summer to serve in Echo Company, 104th Aviation Battalion, in the Pennsylvania National Guard?
Somebody has to do it, Gussman reasons, and he's eager to give back.
He expects his helicopter-maintenance-unit job at Fort Indiantown Gap to lead to a slot as a chemical-weapons specialist.
Chemical weaponry is cumbersome and unpredictable, Gussman acknowledged. Strategically, it's dead. But it's tailor made for terrorists, and thus remains a critical threat to the modern world.
"My intention is to get training [in detection] and then later join the unit that goes out and looks for this kind of thing."
Red scare
Gussman knows chemicals.
He's a communication manager for The Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia.
"I've been writing a lot about chemical weapons" for work, noted Gussman, who also focused on that subject as a sergeant in an Army tank unit in 1976.
"Once a month, I would teach people how to survive" chemical weapons and nuclear attacks. "We were stationed in Germany and waiting for World War III to start."
The Communist onslaught failed to materialize, and Gussman eventually returned to the States. He married Annalisa Crannell, a mathematics professor at his alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College.
Crannell's altruistic spirit has led her to volunteer for Hospice of Lancaster County and other causes, Gussman said. Five years ago, she donated a kidney to an ailing co-worker.
He, too, yearned to make a difference, he said, but his type-A personality has never quite fit the charity mold. "I believe the same things she does, but I don't really do anything."
Of course, Gussman has been doing something.
He's an avid bicycle racer who competed in 50 events to celebrate his 50th year, among other feats.
While descending Turkey Hill at 50 mph during a training ride in May, he recalled, his front wheel kissed the derailleur of another bike; the crash flipped Gussman onto the pavement, knocking him out and breaking 10 bones.
The accident has not dampened his enthusiasm for riding. But it deepened his conviction to risk his neck for a worthier cause than simply "flying around in Spandex."
He said he first thought of re-enlisting last fall after researching an article on weapons of mass destruction.
About a month before the cycling accident, he'd rung up Kevin Askew, a Pennsylvania National Guard recruiter at Fort Indiantown Gap.
It turned out that chemical-weaponry specialists were in demand. Askew said the Gap's chemical-disaster team especially welcomes knowledgeable people such as Gussman.
"Neil's experience is going to put him on a track to be able to work with those guys," Askew said.
There was one other hurdle besides the bike wreck: Gussman exceeded the maximum enlistment age by a dozen years.
Congress raised the cutoff for all branches from 35 to 42 in 2006. But there is a caveat.
The military subtracts one year from a person's chronological age for each year he or she has served previously.
"It's Army math," said Askew, who entered the service when he was 18, in 1989. "It's not supposed to make sense."
With 11 years under his belt, Gussman was close enough to get in on a waiver. He drove to the Gap a week ago to pick up his green-and-brown-patterned uniform and lunch with his new "homies."
A handful of Gussman's "older than dirt" peers clustered at one end of the table. The guys at the other end had not yet been born when he left the service the first time, in 1984.
"I get the idea there's not a whole lot of people doing this at my age," Gussman cracked.
Fort Indiantown Gap had no available age-specific data on recruits. However, according to Sgt. 1st Class Gino Burns, the Gap recruited 701 individuals with prior military experience and 1,419 with no service experience through July this year.
Shocking episode
Graybeard or no, there are bright spots.
Gussman said he enjoys the camaraderie of military life. He's looking forward to flying around in helicopters.
Plus, he said, "I can still keep my job" and stay close to wife and son, Nigel, 7; stepdaughter, Iolanthe, 17; and daughters, Lisa, 16, and Lauren, 18.
They're conditioned to a crazy, bike-racing dad, he added, so they're OK with this latest venture. "So far, my kids think it's really cool."
His biking roadies are perplexed.
Scott Haverstick said he supports Gussman in this latest "shocking episode" of his life.
"Honestly, to his credit, this is all about service. I've got a lot of respect for him." On the other hand, pondered the self-proclaimed "old '60s lefty" from Washington Boro, "What in the hell is he doing?"
Gussman's peleton assumed his age would disqualify him, Haverstick said. Then came the horrific crash, which Haverstick witnessed, and which he initially thought had killed his friend.
Gussman, bleeding profusely and spitting teeth, was medevaced from the scene. He came back with fused vertebrae.
The military accepted him anyway, said Haverstick, who remains incredulous that injury and age seem to pose no barrier. "I'm 60. I'm going to start slinking around for fear they'll get their hooks in me."
Gussman, meanwhile, has been running to prepare for his physical fitness test, coming up in October.
He said he started running when he was still in a cervical collar.
"I think I won't be the slowest guy in the fitness test," predicted Gussman, who must complete a two-mile run in 19 minutes and 30 seconds, among other challenges.
An Army training course will update him on detection equipment, which has gone digital since the days when experts sniffed out chemical contaminants with litmus paper.
Gussman will not likely be going to Baghdad. But nobody can predict what dangers lie ahead.
Dispatched to the Utah desert during the Vietnam War, Gussman recalled being temporarily blinded by munitions test shrapnel.
His buddies who were deployed to the war zone returned without incident. "I was the only one who came home in bandages."
Such sacrifices remain necessary, according to Gussman, who said he is frustrated by what he calls "the complete failure of conservatives" in Iraq.
"The war is a fact now. Whether you support the war or not, somebody's got to go."
 Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com .

School Catch 22

Last month, I decided to sign up for the on-line version of 63J (chemical weapons dectection equipment maintenance) training so I could get started now rather than waiting till next year for a resident school slot to open up. The 63J non-resident program is several hundred hours ofd on-line training followed by two weeks at Aberdeen. I am scheduled for the two weeks at Aberdeen, but I am on a WAIT list. Because I am on a wait list, I have not received the the authorization code to start taking the 63J course. Until I get off the wait list, I can't start the on line course. In the meantime, I am taking a chemical weapons on-line course that I can sign up for as additional training. It turns out that I can't take the mandatory job rtraining course without formal authorization, but I can take a course that has the same content but is not job training on the same subject. Computers have not changed the Army when it comes to approving paperwork.