Hello to all! Sorry I haven't updated the site in several weeks but they've been keeping me pretty busy. I just returned from a two week training exercise in Virginia and spent the weeks before the exercise preparing for the event. We have had some very long days and very short nights, especially over the last 4-5 days. I can't complain because the days go by quickly! I can't believe it has been over a month since I re-entered full time military life.
Please check back soon as I hope to post several updates in the coming days/week when I will be on a slightly lighter schedule. Here's a preview of the posts I'm working on and their current titles:
1. Not Your Father's (or Mother's) Army: a good news story about how my unit is being equipped to go to war.
2. Semper Gumby: change and "flexibility" are always with us.
3. It Takes All Kinds: a look at some of the great folks I work with.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 8, 2007
The Road to Mobilization
Just how in the world did I end up getting mobilized for Iraq?
As you may have seen in the "About Me" blurb, I've spent nearly 18 years in uniform since being commissioned in 1989. I've had the dubious distinction of having spent time in nearly every "component" of the Army: Regular Army, Individual Ready Reserve, Individual Mobilization Augmentee, National Guard and now Army Reserve. Until now, I've never been asked to serve in a wartime assignment. Operations Just Cause (Panama) and Desert Shield/Desert Storm (Gulf War 1) happened while I was young lieutenant in the active Army, stationed at a small base in western Maryland. As fate would have it, our unit's stateside mission (guarding the underground backup to the Pentagon) was considered too important to allow any of us to volunteer or be transferred to those operations.
Most of my years in the Reserve and National Guard were quiet. I enjoyed the usual "one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer" and even had the opportunity for overseas missions in Panama and Germany. By August 2001, I was assigned to a small organization that served as technical advisors to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Our job was to assist FEMA in the use of the military during disasters as well as help train active Army units in the art of supporting civilian authorities during a domestic emergency.
My world began to change dramatically on September 11, 2001. By late that day, I had already been alerted to report to my FEMA assignment immediately. I spent the next few days supporting the response to the Pentagon attack until being released from active duty. Our small unit's mission took on a whole new importance and I found myself spending the next few years spending a lot more time than just one weekend a month performing my Reserve duties. In 2003, the Army Reserve began looking for soldiers to fill understaffed units, a process called "cross-leveling." Because of our homeland security duties, our team was specifically exempt from being cross-leveled into other units. Meanwhile, a number of my friends and military colleagues were soon serving in Iraq or Afghanistan and I wondered when and if I would be asked to join them.
In early late 2005, I learned that members of our team (and others like it) were now eligible to be placed in other units. This came as no surprise to me since large numbers of Guard and Reserve soldiers had been mobilized and it was obvious that more would be needed to sustain a protracted campaign. I knew it would only be a matter of time until I was called.
In September 2006, I was notified that I was being involuntarily transferred into a new unit that was being formed to manage high-level logistics. At that moment, I knew that the chances that I would be mobilized were increasing with each passing week. Toward the end of the year, my suspicions were confirmed and I was told that I would be called to active duty in April 2007.
The news was not a shock and I was rather grateful to have been given so much advance notice. As time went on, I began to learn more about my job and became better acquainted with my new colleagues. In early February, I was told that my mobilization date had been accelerated and that I was to report for active duty on March 1. That was earlier than I had expected, but I still felt that a month was plenty of time to get ready. After a few last days of chasing around, I packed up the car and headed off to join my unit at its home base in Pennsylvania.
I'm proud to be able to serve my country, just as I was proud to serve after the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Isabel, the 2004 hurricanes in the Southeastern US and Hurricane Katrina. I'm not looking forward to being away from loved ones and my civilian job for 16 months but that's a sacrifice that comes with being in the Reserves.
As you may have seen in the "About Me" blurb, I've spent nearly 18 years in uniform since being commissioned in 1989. I've had the dubious distinction of having spent time in nearly every "component" of the Army: Regular Army, Individual Ready Reserve, Individual Mobilization Augmentee, National Guard and now Army Reserve. Until now, I've never been asked to serve in a wartime assignment. Operations Just Cause (Panama) and Desert Shield/Desert Storm (Gulf War 1) happened while I was young lieutenant in the active Army, stationed at a small base in western Maryland. As fate would have it, our unit's stateside mission (guarding the underground backup to the Pentagon) was considered too important to allow any of us to volunteer or be transferred to those operations.
Most of my years in the Reserve and National Guard were quiet. I enjoyed the usual "one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer" and even had the opportunity for overseas missions in Panama and Germany. By August 2001, I was assigned to a small organization that served as technical advisors to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Our job was to assist FEMA in the use of the military during disasters as well as help train active Army units in the art of supporting civilian authorities during a domestic emergency.
My world began to change dramatically on September 11, 2001. By late that day, I had already been alerted to report to my FEMA assignment immediately. I spent the next few days supporting the response to the Pentagon attack until being released from active duty. Our small unit's mission took on a whole new importance and I found myself spending the next few years spending a lot more time than just one weekend a month performing my Reserve duties. In 2003, the Army Reserve began looking for soldiers to fill understaffed units, a process called "cross-leveling." Because of our homeland security duties, our team was specifically exempt from being cross-leveled into other units. Meanwhile, a number of my friends and military colleagues were soon serving in Iraq or Afghanistan and I wondered when and if I would be asked to join them.
In early late 2005, I learned that members of our team (and others like it) were now eligible to be placed in other units. This came as no surprise to me since large numbers of Guard and Reserve soldiers had been mobilized and it was obvious that more would be needed to sustain a protracted campaign. I knew it would only be a matter of time until I was called.
In September 2006, I was notified that I was being involuntarily transferred into a new unit that was being formed to manage high-level logistics. At that moment, I knew that the chances that I would be mobilized were increasing with each passing week. Toward the end of the year, my suspicions were confirmed and I was told that I would be called to active duty in April 2007.
The news was not a shock and I was rather grateful to have been given so much advance notice. As time went on, I began to learn more about my job and became better acquainted with my new colleagues. In early February, I was told that my mobilization date had been accelerated and that I was to report for active duty on March 1. That was earlier than I had expected, but I still felt that a month was plenty of time to get ready. After a few last days of chasing around, I packed up the car and headed off to join my unit at its home base in Pennsylvania.
I'm proud to be able to serve my country, just as I was proud to serve after the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Isabel, the 2004 hurricanes in the Southeastern US and Hurricane Katrina. I'm not looking forward to being away from loved ones and my civilian job for 16 months but that's a sacrifice that comes with being in the Reserves.
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