How Did I Get Here?

Monday

I’ve been asked a lot lately about my plans to go to Iraq.

This has caused many hours of contemplating on my part because if you know anything about me, I’m all about fair-share and doing the right thing. I try not to be a hypocrite and am well aware that Marines go toward the sounds of the gun, and not away.

I served in the first Gulf War back in 1990 but I also know that does not exempt me from going now. I don’t expect that. In fact, it highlights the fact I have not been over to Iraq since my overseas control date is 1991.

An overseas control date was something they used to use. You got a certain date based on when you had been overseas last and this was used as a metric to see when you would be going again. The powers-that-be would look to see who had the oldest OSCD and that would tell them who would be up for orders to go.

Now, with so many people going multiple times, that little metric kind of goes out the window.

Add in that the Commandant recently came out and said “Hey, if you haven’t been, you’re going.” He’s trying to beat the bushes and let every Marine have the chance to go over and fight.

It seems to make sense, especially if I make Major. Here is how it’ll look:

Monitor: “What do I have here? Here is a Major-select that has an overseas control date of 1991, never been to Iraq, hasn’t been in his MOS since 2001, and has two years obligation when he picks up promotion. Oh, I see he’s an Adjutant too.”

After the Monitor dehydrates from salivating, he might want to get me into the fight.

Will he take into consideration my circumstance?

Like I said, I don’t want to shirk my responsibility. And if they want me to go, I won’t fight it. But I wanted to retire at 20 but the monitor moved me against my will, obligating me for two years.

So OK, I go to 21 (at the time) but I steadfastly refused to move my family one more time after this one. I moved them from Virginia where I thought I would retire out of and I promised that the next and last move we would make would be up to Seattle after this final tour.

Of course that was put in jeopardy when/if I accept promotion to Major.

Now I’m left with a choice. If I raise my hand right now to take a turn in Iraq, I lose my one and only Command. There is a long discussion about this but suffice it to say, Command is what every Marine hopes for and this is a fluke that I got this one, being a twilight tour and an Adjutant by trade.

If I wait a year, I’m in the same boat. I lose the Command.

If I ride out the Command (a two-year gig), and then go, I’m faced with the reality of spending my 22nd and last year in the Marine Corps over in Iraq. Do I really want to do that? Any other time (other than Command time, of course) would be OK but that last year is particularly bad.

I’m not the kind of person to drop my pack at the end but come on, my last year in the Corps over in Iraq? That’s a little much to expect. I will need that year to transition, find a job, and get ready for life after active duty. If I go to Iraq, I lose that precious time and there is no way they will give me three months terminal leave from there.

When you get out, if you have saved enough leave time and the command is willing, you can get out three months early “on vacation” and get paid. It’s called terminal leave.

I wouldn’t get that on a one-year tour in Iraq. I would be there a year, come back to the States, and get spit out of the Corps.

Ideally, I will get to finish out my Command, which has a good argument for keeping me. Only the current XO and I will be the continuity of the Battalion. Everyone else, from the Colonel to every key staff billet, will be leaving this summer.

After the two years there, I will have one year left and my desire would be to go over to RTR and do my last year as the XO of third Battalion.

Why Third? Simple.

That’s where I graduated from bootcamp so it would be a full circle event. I would retire as the XO of the Battalion I was a Recruit in.

But if they send me to Iraq, they send me. I go. I’m a Marine. That’s the way it works.

And hey, imagine the blogs!!!!!

Free Advice for Today: “When boarding a bus, say ‘hello’ to the driver. Say ‘thank you’ when you get off.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.