Do the Right Thing

OK, I haven't posted in a few days. It's amazing how even when things are slow you can still lose track of time. I guess nothing either I could blog about or worth blogging about happened. Maybe I was just distracted. I don't know. But today was one my ice cream days so all is well in the world.

Unfortunately making things all right in the world isn't always fun. One of the NCOs here had to step up and explain to a couple of different ranking officers why the proposed changes to his job would be wrong and bad for the mission. He did this even though the proposed changes would have made his life a lot more fun. It just would have created some dangerous gaps.

I've had a few not so fun moments too. I had to essentially fire someone, and work to arrange for them to be swapped out with someone else. No fun for all involved, but mission needs require it.

I also have to deal with an awards issue. Apparently the command wants to restore some sanity and objectivity to how they give out awards. Great. But when checking on the awards status for the last weather team I noticed that the awards for me and my partner have been downgraded. I asked about it, and was told a new time limit for eligibility was established for the higher award, and we won't mee it.

It's not like we get a free toaster once we earn enough Joint Commendation Medals. So I'm not trying to collect the award just to collect it. I'm not doing anything here for the medals.

However, I also don't want the NCO I work with to have to explain to his home unit why the last guy to work this desk got a higher award than he did. It looks bad. If we did something wrong, downgrade us or don't give us anything. But don't mess with our records over some arbitrarily instituted new standard. So I get to fight that silly fight.

I guess some of the silliness is a result of the war winding down. We can't get complacent, but at the same time it is much slower and much different here than it was even a few months ago. This gives commands time to look for things get involved with, which probably leads to the medal issues. It has given me time, while stuck as a staff officer at a command (an officer being good and understanding the staff process is another do the right thing issue... it sucks, we'd all rather be out with our team and doing the mission but officers hiding from and not knowing staff functions are what put the NCO mentioned above in a position he should not have been in) to come up with projects.

Some of my projects have dead ended, but were good for my education. Others are moving slowly forward. A little patients and taking time to ask the right questions means they will happen more gradually than I'd like, but will be done right because they were staffed properly across various commands.

I would love to just kit up, jump in a helicopter, and get it all done. But I need to ensure the proper logistics and long term issues are resolved for all of my initiatives.

Sadly, this means some one else will likely get to do the fun part of "doing."

At least it'll get done.

Special Forces and SEAL officers get stuck doing staff work too. It's just a little frustrating that while they have the ODA or Platoon time built into their career path to get actual tactical experience, our operational window is much narrower. I'm too senior to have any fun.


I'm also doing some more document review for my Guard unit back home in conjunction with the folks up at the National Guard Bureau. Hopefully it'll make things better for the guys we do send forward.

As I've said before, I'm also using the spare time to pick up various other certifications. Admittedly, I probably won't get to employ the remote weapons system I'm going to get trained up on this week, but I'll be familiar with the system and able to direct training and exercises using it in the future.

To work out the stress at work I bought my own Captain of Crush grippers. My buddy who owned the ones I'd been using went home and took his toys with him. They came in a few days ago. Just be careful shaking my hand when I get home. I won't know my own strength.

I'm also reading a book called 1491 about Native Americans before Columbus as part of our little book club here. Really interesting. It's just as much about the development of new theories among historians/anthropologists/archeologists as it is about the actual history.

We also stay entertained telling old stories and complaining to each other. I've learned a lot about other people's jobs. I've learned what happens when you let Marines get bored. I know one guy has a theory that when he comes to Iraq the best way to adjust is to drink a bottle of tap water real fast... after that first week there are no more digestive issues.