Kannst Du Sprechen Deployment?

So at last we meet again for the first time for the last time. It’s been awhile since I blogged, so I thought I would come down from my lofty perch and speak to the mortals, if only to inform them of where we will be going in the future. Prepare yourselves to be amazed. Or bored, to tears, at least while I tell you what happens and how I get assigned where I do.

So here’s the long and short of it all…I am in the Signal Corps, and I am considered a junior captain, meaning I haven’t completed two years of either company command, or staff time as the battalion signal officer for one of the many- or few, depending on if you’re tagged for the deployment cycle or not- battalions in the Army. I actually do have almost a year of time as a battalion S-6, the staff officer job. I really have more than that, but they only count the time you were a captain, and I spent another year or so in the job as a first lieutenant. What that means is I need to get either one of those jobs to finish out my “key developmental position” as a signal captain so that in the future, should I choose to stay in that long, I can be promoted to major. It also means I can seek out another job should the opportunity arise. I kinda decided against seeking out a command just yet, since it is a big commitment both time and energy-wise, and with Luke being so young, I think I’d like to devote my time at home to him and Mindy. I’m not against a command, and might take it if a good one came along, but I just don’t feel like that’s what I need or really want right now. That left me looking for an S-6 job.

The way the assignments process works is like this: Signal Corps branch has a list of all the openings for signal officers, by rank, around the Army, and we have people who work at the main personnel headquarters whose specific job it is to find positions for each rank- in my case, we have one who does only junior captains. So during the Signal Captain’s Career Course, which is the school I am in now here in Georgia, they get a list of some of those assignments and bring them to us. There were eighteen of us who still needed assignments, so she brought eighteen different ones, from all over the world (mostly). There were some decent ones on there, nothing great, and there were some really awful ones on there (Ft. Polk, anyone?) They only gave us a day to rank them all in order of our preference, 1 through 18, so Mindy and I had a nice long talk and decided on our order. Tuesday the branch rep showed up, and yesterday (Wednesday) I met with her and got my official assignment. And the winner is….Smith Barracks in Baumholder, Germany, home of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division.

We’re actually pretty excited about it, although there are MANY, MANY questions about how it’s all gonna go down. The biggest is a looming deployment, and how soon it may be. It’s been a long time since I deployed last, believe it or not, especially in the Army’s eyes and especially given the fact that four or five of my classmates have been twice. So I get no free pass because I went once already. That’s ok with me on a professional level; hey, it’s my turn again. It won’t be any fun leaving Luke and Mindy, but I vaguely remember something about duty and fidelity or something…or maybe that was my wedding vows. I don’t know. I do know I will probably go back sometime in the next six months…which means I will have just arrived in Germany with my family only to leave them and go to the Country Reputed to be Amazingly Peaceful, Per Executive branch Reports. So I got that going for me… We may end up going over to Europe, packed light, for however long it is until I deploy, and then Mindy will return to the States to stay with family. Along with that comes many questions- such as, what to do with our pets? What to do with our household goods? What to do about a place to stay? And so on and so on.

Good times. I also have new and exciting things to look forward to, like a 15 month deployment instead of the normal 12. But hey, they promised us a year at home! Can’t beat that with a stick…unless you remember that’s what they said when the deployments were 12 months (Insert random comment here: Um, why on earth did they gut an entire active duty brigade- my last unit- to do training when they needed units for this surge? I tell you, I work for geniuses in DC…just misunderstood ones). They are also now throwing $20,000 dollars at captains who sign on for another 3 year commitment, since they are losing us at a breakneck pace. Hmm, I can’t seem to figure out why…oh well, maybe it’ll come to me. Mindy and I will have to decide about that one. We may do it, just since I have a one year commitment after this course, then another year-plus in Iraq, and by then I’ll just be mad at myself for not taking it with really only a year left. Who knows.

So with all that hurtling towards us, we prepare to move on. Should be an exciting 2007, to be sure. Please keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers, after you get done thinking and praying for all the other fantastic events happening around the world. We have a lot to prepare as well as many things to decide, and are pretty much placing it in God’s hands at this point…I wouldn’t know what to do anyway.

I will let Mindy keep updating you guys on Luke…she always hits the stuff people want to read about anyway. My stuff is usually just funny stories about how I throw the ball at his head to make him laugh and how I knock him over when he’s playing on our bed. I have taught him how to throw, so I’m proud of that one. Of course, if he inherited my junk shoulder, I doubt he’ll be throwing footballs or baseballs at the professional level when he grows up. But I guess I can post a few pictures of him on here.

Well...that's all folks. Now get back to work, you slackers!