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20060411-20060412. This is an email exchange between
me and my good friend, Marisa, who was the Adjutant for Headquarters
and
Service
Battalion
at MCRD. She had called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted
to command a company at MCRD:
Jason: Any news about the Company?
Marisa: Bad news....The Xo went to fight for you
but apparently you are being sent here as an 0180, not
a 9910. So
the only way RTR will give
you up is if they have another 0180...which our monitor is
not going to do. So that leads me to say that
you will definitely be going to RTR.
Here is the issue, if you stay a captain,
then you can do your time in RTR and retire. If you pick
up Maj, one of two things will happen, they can PCA you
to another
base or they (Field grade CSS monitor) can reassign you
to HQBN to be a 9910 to be the company commander.
Keep
in mind
that there are no field grade 0180 spots on the depot.
I am in the same boat as you, but if I accept Maj then
I don't
know
what they will do with me, especially because 0180
Majors are very short!
Jason: Yet another reason to turn down Major.
I appreciate your help with this and although I'm disappointed,
the good news is that I'm STILL coming to MCRD SD.
Can you tell me this? Who do I contact at RTR to get an idea
of what they plan on doing with me? The fact still remains
that I will outrank every Captain at RTR so that would lead
me to believe that I wouldn't be used as a SeriesO (even though
I'd love to do it) since there wouldn't be a CC to be my boss.
Marisa: And I am so sorry about all that. But
if you do a year in the trenches, maybe you can come to
the
Bn then...don't dismiss it yet!
Jason: Thanks.
I talked to her and she patched me into the XO. We had a long
discussion and I told him how HQBN had tried to get me for
the HQCO CO and that RTR said no. He said that was their standard
answer since they don't like to show their cards. Classic HQ-vs-RTR
behavior.
Thinking that the HQCO Command was off the table, I told him
of my original desire to be a Series O and why. I told him
of my concern that they wouldn't put me in that billet because
of the seniority issue and he assured me that they don't take
that into consideration. It started sounding like he was giving
me the green light that I could be a Series Officer if I wanted
it and I assured him that I did. He said they have 35 Officer
slots opening up and 36 Officers inbound so he would have a
lot of wiggle room to put people where they want to go.
Then toward the end, he said this.
"So, if you had to pick the order, from our conversation
it sounds like your #1 choice would be Series Officer followed
by a very close second as the HQ company Commander and then
in a distant third, Adjutant work. Is that right?"
This blew me away because I didn't think the "second
choice" was
even an option and now that I had played up the Series Officer
job, how could I tell this LtCol that I might have to switch
the first two choices? It would sound a bit insulting especially
since he painted a glorious picture of the Series O job and
a rather disparaging one of the CO job (which is expected,
considering where he sits).
So I agreed and then he all but promised me that he could keep
me out of Adjutant work. He specifically pointed out that he
will most likely get me into one of the first two choices which
means somehow, the HQ billet might still possible. Maybe they
HAVE to send someone up.
We also talked about my promotion and I explained to him the
whole thing. He seemed to understand why I will probably turn
it down, even though I was a little nervous telling a LtCol
that I would be turning down a promotion to Major.
So what do you think? At least I'm probably out of the Adj
billet and hopefully if I become a Series Officer, I don't
wonder what the hell I was thinking down the line. The way
the conversation ended, there's not much of an open door to
discuss it further with him and he's the decision-maker. He
told me to let Luis know if anything changes in my report date.
It's not like I can call him back and say, "Hey, Sir,
why don't you just go ahead and put me up for that HQ billet?"
I guess I'm asking if you can keep your ear to the ground because
the first answer your XO got was the standard answer. I don't
know if it's the FINAL answer but I think I've played out all
my cards by now. If you hear of anything, let me know.
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