2015

So as 2015 began, I was still in the one man armory. Things were going well, but as said in the last post, I wanted a change, both for the reasons I listed, and because I had an 8 and a 6 year old, and I wanted to be closer to my family in case of emergency, not to mention, to be closer to them in general, we have a close relationship.

In February, even though we have our own annual trainings to go to with our respective units, all of the Company AGR's within the Battalion were required to go to the Battalion HQ's annual training. No one in HQ is required to go with any of the other companies to their respective annual trainings. This really set a lot of people off, and spoke volumes about the AO (area officer in charge) and his lack of understanding about what is important to the Soldier.

While on that annual training, I interviewed to come back to the previous position I had, teaching for the 88M MOS school at the state regimental training institute. I did the interview by telephone, and found out about a week later that I got the job. So back to the side of the state that I came from!

I luckily was able to find a house to purchase rather quickly in the same area we had lived in before, but I still had to drive back and forth for about 45 days because we couldn't close and move in until May 15th. So got a storage unit, and each day brought back a load of stuff in my little Chevy Cruze and put it into the storage unit.

Come May 15th, the kids and I came back together in a large truck we borrowed, did a ditty PCS move, and got everything into the house. Had to buy a new air conditioner right away, but oh well, those things happen. The house was really nice, a little smaller than the one we lived in when I was married, but we actually in some ways like this house better.

Not a lot changed at my old job, except now instead of being ADOS I was AGR. One new guy there, "SG" we'll call him. The job I took was for another guy who had been there long term, "BA", he took an E7 position with another unit and moved on. One noticeable factor about this particular unit, teaching this school, is that people rarely leave, and given the opportunity, if they get a chance, they come back to this unit. That speaks volumes for, not only the job itself being a great job, but also the atmosphere and people who we work with there.

Now, that being said, the E8 (Master Sergeant) in charge of the section was not the greatest. Found out shortly after coming back that they were getting set to shut our school down. And worse, it appeared that he (the E8) let's call him "ND" had done very little to promote or save the school with the powers that be. It felt, at the time, like the Commander had also really done very little to try and save the school. That was all due to change shortly... more on that in 2016.

Unfortunately, one of the instructors was non-retained during the quality retention board, and I had known him since he joined us around 2009/2010 time frame. Losing him stunk, but that's what the QRB does once in awhile, you can't really predict how the outcomes will be. Thankfully we picked up a pretty good guy who had also taught with us before to replace him.

I pretty much picked up where I left off as far as instructing, not too much had changed, a few upgrades to equipment, but everything came back to me relatively quickly. As 2015 got close to an end, I started hearing our E8 "ND" rumbling about how he'd "been in this came position for too long" and complaining about how he hadn't been promoted or moved anywhere. That culminated in him ending up being laterally moved to another E8 position, and they brought in a different E8, "WJ". WJ ended up being fantastic. He also noticed that the school was on the chopping block, and immediately set to work to try and save it.

That was pretty much where we ended up in December 2015.

2014

So let's just take this year by year.  In 2014 I was in my "one man armory".  I had started there in August of 2012.  Normal situations for the Army National Guard have 3 full timers in an armory:  A readiness NCO, a training NCO, and a supply NCO.  Because our unit was a detachment to a larger unit, I was the only full timer in the armory.

When I took the position it was a way to get my foot in the door on the Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) program, which is a very good program, especially if you have children, for health care, benefits, and retirement.  I probably didn't know exactly what I was getting into, because it was drinking hard core from the firehose, so much information coming at me.

Basically you are in charge of anywhere from 14 million to 18 million in facilities and equipment (depending on whose value sheet you are looking at), and 60 Soldiers who drill there once a month, and two weeks during the summer.  The facility itself consisted of the armory building, maintenance building, cold storage building, fenced in motor pool, along with parking lots, sidewalks, the usual. 

In the motor pool were 30 trucks with trailers, and another set of 30 trailers (the "B" trailers as they are called) in a location 50 miles from us.  The trucks were M1088 field tractors, and the trailers were M871 field trailers.  They give you a maintenance guy, which in my case was a 65 year old who didn't mind cleaning inside or riding on the mower, but you couldn't get him to weed wack if his life depended on it.

Now you may think that being in a one man armory would be boring, or ideal, but it was not either.  You basically had about 6 bosses.   You had  the readiness NCO at the larger unit who was your actual boss on paper, and wrote your evaluation reports (90 miles away), the supply sergeant who provided you with the equipment and gear for your building, vehicles, and Soldiers, you had the company clerk, who in this case was an E7 who outranked me, you had the area officer who was responsible for ALL the full timers in 5 companies for the battalion (who would lean heavily on your readiness NCO to put things in your evaluation report), you had "facilities", who you answered to for repair and upkeep of the entire area, and you had the vehicle maintenance shop foreman, who you had to answer to for all your truck issues.

On top of that, there were different groups within the Guard who would inspect the armory or request info, often times unannounced.  Environmental, physical security, asset management, even the adjutant general and his command sergeant major, all would visit from time to time.  In the building itself there was the unit recruiter, and our building also had the 1SG for recruiting for our quadrant, because he lived in the town.  But recruiting didn't interact  much with the unit itself, aside from new Soldiers, so I didn't see them much.  Often times you had one boss/group wanting you to do something, while 2 or 3 others (or more) expected you to be doing something else.  It often times was simply ridiculous. 

Personal life at the time obviously wasn't ideal, and contributed to stress, but the kids and I did well regardless.  The town itself was great.  Good farming community, the type of people I grew up around in my own hometown.  One interesting factor about the town was that there were three Subway (sandwich franchise) stores... for 6000 people.  Not sure how that works out, but they did it.

The Soldiers in the unit were great guys, especially the upper NCO's.  Our platoon sergeant was the stand-in "1st SGT", and even though 60 Soldiers would generally be the size of two platoons, he was responsible for one large platoon. He was great though, the kind of guy that could step into a room of angry people and calm everyone down to get them focused on what needed to be done. 

In a "line MTOE unit" that has regular drills/AT's, everything works in cycles.  The monthly cycle revolves around the weekend in which you have drill.  The week leading up to drill you are moving and working at about 200%, trying to get food ready, prepping for pay, trucks ready, classes and who will teach them, on and on and on.  Often times you are there till 1800.  Drill weekend itself gets even crazier, trying to fix everyone's problems all while reporting back to the larger unit. 

First one in the building an hour before anyone arrives at drill, then on Sunday  night, leaving often times 2 hours after everyone else is gone.  That's the life in a one man armory.  The 2-3 days following drill are still pretty hectic, but not near as bad the week before and drill itself.  Reports being completed, AWOL notices mailed out, setting up make up drill for those who were excused, etc. 

Then you have about 2 and a half weeks where the job is really not bad at all, in fact quite easy.  This particular armory had a very good reputation with the town, especially with our recruiter AND the 1st SGT of recruiting both being in the armory.  We had a lot of events, probably averaged between 2 and 3 a month, where the armory would be rented out. 

While I was there I also rented out a house directly behind our armory, just across the street. So that was pretty awesome, although I'd have to drop the kids off at school and/or daycare every day so I'd drive anyway.  Living that close though meant that if there were any emergencies, I was right there to handle them.  That's actually a pretty convenient thing, because, as I stated, one man armory, you are responsible for  most everything that happens there. 

By the end of 2014, I was ready for a change and started paying attention to job postings.  I stayed dedicated to my job, but knew that if the right position opened up, I would be moving on.

The Elephant In The Room

“What about the last five years man?”  I’ll get to that in future posts, maybe try a year by year basis for posting, we’ll see.  For now, I think it would be prudent to address this in as delicate a fashion as I can, mostly because a lot of online friends I’ve had over the years ask the same questions within a short period of time if I haven’t talked to them in quite a while…

"You aren't married???" No. I am single.  I have been so for 4 years (really 7+ years if I’m being realistic).  I really don’t want to dig into the entire situation.  Ending things was not my idea, and more to the point, I was blind sided when it happened in 2011.  I did not really discuss it online because at the time it did not seem appropriate.  I imagine I could blame it on “the other guy”, or how easy Facebook makes it to contact someone you shouldn’t, but those are only symptoms of a bigger issue:  Never get with someone with the idea that you can somehow save them or make them happy.  The reality is that an unhappy person who does not address their own problems WILL find a way to make their own misery your fault, and make you miserable in the process of doing so. 

"Do you guys still talk?"  No, we don’t really talk now.  Well, aside from the obvious, having two children together requires a certain amount of communication, but it is generally kept to texting, emails, and Google Calendar.  No, I am not bitter, in fact, very much the opposite.  I’m doing and feeling better than I’ve been since 2002.   I would honestly say thank you… you can align yourself with those who are anchors or sails in your life, and I didn’t realize just how stuck I was.  When you end up with someone who actually appreciates you as a person, and genuinely loves you and supports you, it is relatively easy to look back and see how one sided your previous relationship had been.  And when you look at the track record another person has after your affiliation with them has ended, and it really just reaffirms how much better off you are without them. I am polite as I would be in a business agreement with someone I have to do business with, but that I would rather have nothing to do with. Make no mistake, if it weren't for the children, I would never communicate with her. 

"What about the little ones?" I have primary custody of my two children, and they are the single most important aspect of my life.  Everything I do revolves around ensuring they feel loved, safe, and receive a quality upbringing.  Each summer we take a vacation now, about which I’ll be posting later.  

“Regrets?”  Only one.  I owe but one apology, to one person who I treated very poorly, what seems like so many years ago.  Although I somehow doubt things would have ended up working out between us, there are mature and sensible ways to find that out, that would have been far better than the flippant and foolish way I went about it.  You showed me love, I reciprocated by stabbing you in the back.  You deserved better, and thankfully it appears you ended up better.  And although you may never see this, I am sorry.  I spent a lot of time in 2011 apologizing to someone who did NOT deserve ANY apology, perhaps that was karma.  In the end you were right, just as you were so long ago. I can't go back and change anything, nor would I. I have two amazing reminders that, in spite of how crummy things were, beauty can be wrought from any situation. 

"You take no responsibility in how things ended up?"  It may be easy to see things like this, but that's not the case.  I take my responsibility for being one person in a normal marriage where two people have normal issues that nearly everyone in such a relationship deals with.  I take ZERO responsibility for torpedoing that marriage over the course of two years and then walking out on your family.  This may seem like a brutal take on this, but a long time ago I spent two years being a blubbering shell of a man, taking on fault, listening to bad counsel, and looking back, well, hindsight IS 20/20.  Not my idea, not my pursuit, not my responsibility. The most brutal truth is this:  No  matter who she was with, she would have done this.  End of story.

So, maybe answered your questions, maybe didn’t, but that’s all I have to say about it.

Greetings!

Soooo, how about that awkward intro, when you haven’t been around in just over 5 years?  It’s hard to say goodbye, right?  It is a little weird to say hello after this long too!

But, here we go, HELLO!

Oh where to begin?  When last we met I was attending a Training NCO course at PEC in Arkansas.  Well, I’m currently on another trip.  This time I’m a little further east, in ALABAMA (read that as though Forrest Gump is yelling it).  Why is this die-hard Husker fan down in such established enemy territory?  Well, I’m here for a 6 week Ground Officer Safety Course.  The flight down was interesting.  Two connecting flights, never had that on a stateside flight before.  In Washington D.C., we got stuck for about 4 hours waiting for Atlanta on a weather delay.  When we finally landed in Atlanta, I had roughly 12 minutes to make my connecting flight… from terminal A, gate 14, all the way to terminal D, gate 46 (last gate on that line).  Needless to say I ran my ass off and made it, they closed the doors 3 minutes after I boarded.  I found it humorous that the next day, I got an email reminder that my “new flight” would be at 1600 (that day), apparently they thought I hadn’t made the flight the night before.  I was really worried that my luggage did not make the flight.

On the puddle jumper we took for the roughly half hour flight to Dothan, Alabama, I noticed that Alamo was going to be closed when we arrived, leaving me to believe that I’d have no transportation to Ft. Rucker.  As we got off the flight, it was a relief to see they were still open (2 hours late, and looking rather disheveled).  I was upgraded to a blue Nissan Rogue: 

This is usually because, as the last people getting vehicles on a particular day, often times they have no economy or compacts left.  In some ways, a smaller vehicle is a little nicer for getting around in areas you haven’t driven or parking where you haven’t been, but a larger vehicle is safer and more comfortable.  At Ft. Rucker, I’m staying in a Holiday Inn Express. 

Obviously my main reason for being here is to pass this course, and it’s supposed to be relatively difficult.  With weekends off, it might be a little boring, but I can focus on the second most important reason I’m here, and that is to whip myself back into shape.  Unfortunately, Alabama ranks second to last in the nation in the “fitness” area, and looking for a running trail certainly showed that.  I had to drive 35 minutes to find a decent one yesterday.  Ended up being a dirt packed mountain bike type trail, owned by the city of Dothan.  It was a pleasant hour long run on uneven trails with lots of curves and mild elevation changes. 

“Why aren’t you running on post?”  Well, Ft. Rucker is THE safety center for the U.S. Army, and as such, the rules are absolutely stifling when it comes to doing ANYTHING here.  To run on the roads during certain hours, you must be in Army PT uniform, you must have the PT belt worn facing the correct direction across the waist, unless you have the PT jacket on, then you must wear it across your chest diagonally, if you are an officer your PT belt must be blue, if you are an NCO it must be green, if you are this, that, there…. bla bla bla… you can see how it gets rather overbearing in a hurry, I would rather just be somewhere and run on my own without  worrying that my shoes might be laced in the wrong direction, or that someone will yell at me for not wearing a traffic cone on top of my head. 

Obviously the other important part of getting back into shape is avoiding one of the main pitfalls of being away from home:  eating out.  So I spent a good amount of money on a lot of veggies and good food that I’m storing in my room.  So far so good, I have yet to eat out, sticking to the food in the room only.  I’m within just a couple hours of Pensacola, Panama Beach, Tallahassee, a lot of really cool places, so I’ve really got to be vigilant if I want to continue getting into shape.  I do want to visit some of these places but I’ll likely pack my meals to again, avoid fast food.