Wow – the whole time is relative concept has certainly kicked in. On my yearlong tours the first six months was the quick time but this time around the sixth month is really dragging its feet. Maybe the solution is to pretend that I’m not leaving until the end of the year then August will be here before I know it.
Things are actually running very smoothly. We have had a few small events with our maintenance guys but it gives me something to do. For starters, all their badges expired over a month ago and some of them got caught on the flight line by the security guys. It was touch and go as to whether or not we would have people to tow our aircraft out of the hanger. We raced around and got some temporary certificates until their badges came through. The company headquarters blamed it on the Army being unreasonable but I have a classic email chain where the badging office asks for the same contract repeatedly and the company kept sending the wrong one. It turns out the company didn’t have the required contract and somehow that was the Army’s fault. They asked me to go talk to the Sergeant asking for the paperwork and convince her to just move the application along. I replied that a better idea was to give her what she asked for like every other contactor on base. So they made up a contract, signed it and we had the badges within a week. Now the company is all concerned about coming up with a set of procedures to follow so this doesn’t happen again. I said it’s really simple – give them what they ask for when they ask for it and there won’t be any problems (after all the Army has been issuing these badges here for ten years). I keep feeling like I am missing something but no one will tell me what it is.
The other problem we are running into is parking or I should say launch sites since we park our aircraft in our hanger. Our ramp has 14 launch sites and about 25 C-12s. Since the Air Force owns it they claimed 8 spots and said the Army could have the rest. What they didn’t realize (or really care) is that the non-Air Force (so they must all be Army) planes are actually 5 different programs, 3 of which are entirely contractor operated. It has been working OK since most of the programs get along but there is a certain outfit (not to be mentioned here) that thinks they own 3 of the spots. So the couple of times we have had to park there for launch or recovery feathers have been ruffled. Now I’m in the process of tracking down my counterparts in these programs so we can get this worked out.
All that being said if these are the problems you are dealing with in a combat zone things must be going pretty good. Our missions have been steady and I have given in and now go to bed around 4 or 5 AM. I still refuse to stay up for breakfast because then I would truly be on the night shift.
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I am encouraged to note that you are a normal human. Totally rational in some areas (the ones that matter but I am biased (: You are for solving a problem rather than discussing trivia.... The badge crisis (: but nicely irrational when it matters to no one but you...breakfast refusal to buffer against the unwelcome night shift reality. (: Actually, I think you are not normal..most get these areas reversed. So take this as a compliment (:
ReplyDeleteI never really thought of it that way but I will take it as a compliment :). I have to keep reminding myself what is trivia and what isn't but I still have a tendency to get them backwards.
DeleteNow I realize this is just a civilian talking, but why would you have 5 different groups using C12's without an overall organization? And for what in the world does the AF need C12's??
ReplyDeleteUnderstand the badge situation. Its a detail which is not important until it gets down to the people for which the detail is their whole purpose in life. (~:} There are many situations like that in government. Don't know about the private area. Cheers!! DAD
The different programs have different capabilities and they are working on collecting them under one roof but the question is which roof. Most of this technology is relatively new and what happens when a new technology is developed it gets fielded as a separate program and pushed into theater. This has been happening for a few years now with a resulting mishmash of programs. The Army in particular is trying to get a handle on it and move all the aircraft into normal Army aviation. The bigger question for the military as a whole is which service is going to have what capabilities. Anything that involves airplanes is the interest of the Air Force but do they really want to fly a bunch of C-12s around? I can tell you that their pilots don't :). Pilots from a lot of different airframes have been tagged to fly these planes and they aren't happy. It has always been a battle about resources and turf wars and with all the airborne platforms the lines are blurring between the services. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out especially with the budget constraints.
DeleteYou are probably aware that when I was in the service my training was very "basic". There was no thought that when I went into combat I would be anything but a rifleman (person?)& maybe throw a grenade or two. A radio operator would have separate tng as would a machine gunner; mortar team; recoiless rifle; etc. But I understand that now cross tng. is all the rage. I understand this concept has some limitations - a flyer would not necessarily need to be trained to operate a tank say. But surely a truck driver could drive a army truck as well as a navy one.
DeleteSooo, it seems to me to have to have three separate, competing forces for the single purpose of defense is very inefficient. Of course I would have hated to have given up the idea that timber beasts and engineers had anything in common (~:}. Cheers!! DAD
It has certainly changed and a big reason for that is advanced technologies. In he past the Navy would never see itself as having a roll in a war in Afghanistan but now we have Navy aircraft and Navy technology helping out the soldiers. As capabilities expand you end up with more and more overlap so every so often there has to be a refocusing on what are the key capabilities you want in each service (as in - "what is it you say you do here?"). This usually occurs in line with budget cuts as in our case.
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