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When people ask me how much longer I have on the island. I often give them an answer like "11 and a wake up."
To a person in the military this answer is quite valid and they go along with their lives with this knowledge.
For people in the civilian world they tend to look at me with their head tilted slightly to the side with a puzzled look on their face. It reminds of my old German Shepard Pepper when I would ask her to fetch something for me.
So I will now explain how to count backwards in military terms and why it is done this way.
You often count back to mark major landmarks, like returning to port from a major underway or a transfer(like I am about to have).
So when you count back you don't count the day you pull in or transfer. That is the day it happens so it is counted as just waking up and you do the event. You just simply count the days and subtract the day of the actual event...you simply say "11 and a wake up."
Isn't that easier...and it gives you one last day to have to count.

Labels: Diego Garcia, I/A, Iraq

With me recently posting that I'm going on I/A to Iraq the question I get from most of my civilian frineds and family is, "What's an I/A?"

Well I will try to explain this in the next few paragraphs.

There are a few ways an Active Duty Sailor can end up in Iraq.

The most common way is for a Sailor's ship to deploy and sit off the cost of a certain country for a number of months. In this case Iraq.

The second way, which is becoming more and more common is to get follow on orders from a current assignment to do a year in Iraq. This is alot different from say the Army or the Marines as the Navy is just there to fill individual assignments where the Army or Marines will send entire units of people over.

Then you have the Individual Augmentee or I/A billet. The I/A billet is where you go away from your current command temporally to do a certain job. These I/A billets are normally six months long. The most common places you see I/A billets are Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and the Horn of Africa.

So I am going to be on temporary loan to Baghdad for the next six months. Upon the end of the six months I will return to Diego Garcia for my last few months here and then...well I don't know where I am going after that, but it sure is gonna be interesting.

Labels: I/A, Iraq, MC, Navy

One of the things I am having to endure about going to Iraq is here people trying to get me to do things with the reasoning of Iraq behind it.
Example: You know Kerns you really need to run hard during P/T because your going to Iraq.
Example: Kerns you need to really be doing these team sports becuse you are going to Iraq.
I have told more than one person to, "shut up," when telling me this and I ask them, "How do you know? Are you going to Iraq? Do you know people who went through the training?"
Well, you know what I do know people who went through it, and they have told me what goes on there.
Of course being in the best shape you can be helps you. Hell, being in better shape helps a person with anything, but dont try to trick me into trying to do better in my P/T by holding Iraq over my head. I am not 7! I know what's ahead of me.
If you were there and you know what you are talking about then come at me with your advice. If not just shut up and run!

Let me start by saying...I HATE P/T. However, over the last few years the Navy has slowly taken a stronger grasp on P/T.
With that I have had to take a harder look at myself and my habits towards P/T. When I first arrived on Diego Garcia, I was as out of shape as I have ever been. could barley runa quater mile and I weighed in at a plump 215.
I had dropped some weight when I was in New Orleans, however, my heart wasent really in keeping it off and went I became very disillousioned with my commands P/T program so I gave up and quickly put back on the pounds.
I think my disillousenment came from them pushing P/T down my throat at every turn. Plus I was scoring Satisfactory on my P/T tests but it wasnet good enough for them and they kept herding me up and down the road like cattle.
Now here I am in D.G. After I had been here a few months my boss told me I had to drop some pounds and he entrusted me to go do it. No real pressure. Just go do it. OK...I can do this.
So I hit the elliptical and the track and have slowly dropped down to 195.
I seem to be stuck there...cant seem to drop below that...alas.
However, with what I have ahead of me I feel better knowing I am in better shape than I was when I got here. I can make it down to the mile marker and turn around and run back...maybe not as fast as those people who I work with(most of whom are 14 years younger than me) but hey I am out there and I am doing it.

To make things even more official I got the hard copies(or paper copies to you civilian types) of my orders in.
With that I was able to take my orders across the street and began the process to get myself back to the states.
So I leave here in the wee hours of the morning to head to Singapore then back to the states from there.
Each day is bringing new developments with this I/A to Iraq. I have to admit there are times when my head begins to swim at the thought of all this but then I just take a deep breath and sally forth! Isn't that what your supposed to do?

In today's Navy most of the learning you do, you do online.
The Navy has this website called Navy Knowledge Online or NKO for short. On this website you can take these little online courses that teach everything from the history of Iraq to how to fire and clean a M9mm pistol.
One of the things, or should I say several of the things you have to do to prepare for an I/A is courses on the NKO site.
To prepeare for the I/A you have to do 14 courses on NKO. Some of these courses take 15 minutes to do. However, most of them take four to five hours to do.
Have I learned anything from these 14 courses? Eh...not really.
I have learned more about the functioning of the M9mm and the M-16. However, most of what is taught on the courses is common sense.
So if you are in the Navy and wanting to test your common sense go the NKO site and see how many of these courses you can do by only using your wits...I bet you are smarter then you give yourself credit for.

You know when I was in New Orleans I was stationed with someone who was Hell bent on not giving me any opportunities other than the four walls I worked in.
I was told I did not have what it took to go I/A...I was told I should just do my work and go forth.
Eventually, this person retired and things at work carried on. It was alot quieter and with alot less drama.
So I am here six months and I am told "You're going." No great preambles or anything. "You're going."
So now I am getting my ducks in a row for Iraq.
What does it take to go.
Well, first you print out this checklist that is six pages long.
I am not a procrastinator by nature so I am knocking off as many of the items as I can.
So am I ready for I/A??
Well I have passed all my P/T tests. Medically I am sound. I do need to get an eye doctor appointment, but I think they will take care of this when I get to in the in processing part of my training.
Oh...I think I need to get vaccinated for Smallpox.
It would seem that other than that I am golden.
So, now I keep checking off my items. I am being encouraged and supported whole heartedly by my peers and chain of command here.
Somehow I think if I had been more persistent in New Orleans and let more than just the one person know I had desires on I/A maybe it would have been different.
I am looking forward to seeing some old friends and colleges when I get out there.

In telling people about my blog here I decided to go through my gmail address book and send out a big e-mail.
In this address book were people's names I hadent talked to in years and there were even a name or two of some friends who are no longer with us.
Anyway, after sending off the e-mail I got about 20 bounce back e-mails. These werent people who I had pissed off or at leat I don't think I did.
My words here are simple...if you change your e-mail address send an e-mail to the people in your address book. Give them the new address...it helps.

Well here I am using a blog account I set up about two years ago. Why am I back at blogger? For some reason there are people that for one reason or another don't like reading blogs on myspace.
I have over 100 blogs posted over at my myspace page so click on the link and check it out if you like.
Otherwise, I will be posting here on my normal stuff....DVD's I bought and like, what I am watching on the TV, the goings on in otherwise boring life and most importantly my perperation and journey to Iraq in April.
So stop by from time to time.
I got about 35 days left on the island then it's back to the states.
What happens when I get back there...who knows.