Army: Because Life Gives You Lemons...

So, if you've never been in the Army, you've probably never known what it is like to have everything about your job change drastically, with only a few words from your boss.  Now, I am not talking about job security, I am talking about the where are you going, what are you doing, and when are you doing it, etc.

In the past couple of weeks, our deployment location has changed and changed back more times than I know what to do with.  We are either going to Bagram, or Kandahar. In fact, some of us may go to Bagram and some of us may go to Kandahar.   Only in the Army...

But the more fun portion is my job change.  I used to work in current operations for our battalion.  I was involved in all of the planning craziness as our staff could barely get their heads above water.  Mostly, because any time we tried to plan into the future, our brigade would ignore our plan and throw stuff at us anyway.  When I first got to our staff section, I worked in future operations.  I hated it.  Everyone was so busy handling the current stuff that no one could give me any direction for our future ops.  I basically watched everyone else be busy and run around and had little to nothing to do myself... part of this was I hadn't proved I could handle anything yet.  But then something came up so I had to handle being in charge of our whole section while we were on a Field Training Exercise.  It was truly a trial by fire.  But after that (and then running our section for a time in garrison- our normal- environment) I was ready.  And so I told my boss I wanted to be moved to current operations and he agreed.  We were getting a new lieutenant, who is higher ranking than me, and he is about to make captain, but this was ignored and I was given the harder job because I had proved I could handle it.

Now, as my boss is getting closer to his promotion, we are starting to prepare for a new boss.  Part of this preparation has me switching jobs back to future operations.  This is because my boss' boss wants us to start focusing farther out and getting our heads above water, and part of this is because my coworker is about to make Captain and it would reflect very poorly on him to have the "easier" job.  But the problem is, I have to start everything from scratch and I am not really focused on the future.  It means I am doing both jobs in this transition, and truth be told, the other guy is doing neither.  He is a very approachable guy who likes to tease and make fun and I keep teasing him that he can't tease me about anything in our job until he actually does some work around the office.  He was tasked with an investigation when he first got to our section that had him running around for the battalion commander (all of us officers get tasked to handle various investigations for our commanders), so he was busy with that while I handled a lot of the work around the office.  The problem is, I am a self-starter and willing to ask questions and help out.

So now, I find myself tasked with everything current (finishing our Mission Readiness Exercise as well as planning and preparing for NTC) and everything future, that is, more than 30 days out, (planning casing ceremonies for 3 companies, planning all necessary training for various positions during the deployment, as well as making sure we get everything on the calendar for everything we have to do in order to deploy).  Its been a bit of a nightmare and I find myself with a very long list of things to do and plan.  And of course, in the mean time, I get to meet with my boss (my OIC, officer in charge), and his boss, (my battalion commander) on Monday morning to find out what else needs to go on my planning plate so I can start planning it.  Fun fun!

I love planning and I truly enjoy my job, even if it may seem like I don't.  I'm not trying to complain or whine; I just figured I should give some insight into my job and what I am doing.  I will try to keep updating what I am doing, where I am going and when as things change.  

Introduction: A little bit about me

So,

I have thought about writing a blog many times, and with some encouragement from my friend Sam, (http://madmedmommy.blogspot.com/) and reassurance from my husband, Kevin (http://newrealestateinvestors.blogspot.com/) I figured I would go for it. But as my husband pointed out, I needed to find a topic.

So here it is: life.  Specifically mine.  I will write about what is important to me.  So here are some things you should know about me.  I am a Christian, I am a wife, and I am an Army Officer. Thus my posts will likely be about my work in the Army, being a wife, preparing for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan and before that a National Training Center rotation.  I also will likely post some recipes and favorite meals.  Occasionally, I may post a political opinion or two.  To remain positive, I will not post anything I am against, only what I am for.  I was a political science major at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign and am considering running for Congress someday.  I also may occasionally write about my faith and what I believe and why.  Also, I may post about my new experiences in home buying, life plans and goals, my experiences with alternative medicines (like acupuncture, Chiropractor, trigger point massage therapy and yoga). And, of course, I reserve the write to post about whatever else is on my mind.

So I guess I will start with my work.  I am a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.  I am a Quartermaster Officer (which basically means I focus on supplying the Army with the things it needs like food and subsistence).   I am currently stationed at Fort Carson, CO and am in a Combat Sustainment Support Battalion (CSSB).  I currently work in our Operations section which means my focus is to plan basic training and operations for our battalion.  Our battalion has somewhere near 1,500 Soldiers in it and we are the only CSSB directly supporting Fort Carson.  We are fairly removed from the battlefield because our job is to provide direct sustainment support (food, clothing, equipment, maintenance support, HET support, etc.) to units who may be otherwise incapable of providing that service to themselves.  This means our battalion takes on many tasks directly supporting the 4th Infantry Division.  My job, is to help coordinate this support as well as coordinating training for the seven companies in my battalion.

It is an unusual job for someone of my rank. I currently am filling a job two ranks above my pay grade.   This leads to unusual situations when I have to tell company commanders (rank of Captain and two pay grades above me) what they need to do.

My big project for this week is to create a training exercise for two of our companies rear detachments (a small portion of the unit that stays behind when the rest of the unit deploys).  It is called a mission readiness exercise.  The jist of what I am doing is coordinating with many agencies on post to create a training scenario where we tell the unit that several Soldiers from their unit down range (or deployed) were either killed in action or wounded in action and they need to plan notional memorial services and notify the families of the hard ship.  We also call on our GO teams and Care teams (predetermined persons, normally spouses, who have volunteered to help the family after notification and will go into the home, if requested, to help take care of the Spouse and family).  It is a good way to judge if the companies are prepared to handle such a thing, because you don't want to find out you are ill-equipped to handle something when it is actually happening.  (If you are in the Army and trying to create a similar training exercise for your unit, please feel free to leave me a comment with either your AKO or global email address and I can give you more details.)  So that is what I will be working on all next week so we are ready to run the training exercise the following week.

Recreationally, my husband an I like to get outdoors with our dog, Hoeffer, and either hike, play disc golf, climb mountains, ski or just whatever.  It's great living in a place like Colorado where there is so much to do outside, though being in the Army, it is not always easy to find the time.  But, when I get the chance, I will post pictures from our escapades, especially of the beautiful scenery.

As for now, I think that this post if quite long enough and I am going to have many chances to reveal even more of my life in the coming future.