| 16th March, 2002. 9:50 pm. Finally
Gawdz what a long long week. Did the Article 6 visit with MG Romig today, along with the other OSJA folks here. I received numerous praises for my presentation on my role as the 1/1 Paralegal NCO...really getting down to some of the core issues I face, namely jurisdiction, the SF "attitude" towards law, and the problems the SF optempo creates. I did a good job of impressing the general and COL Tate who accompanied him. So that was nice. I spent about half an hour on the slideshow and didn't practice giving it once...I just got up, spoke intelligently and answered the general's questions perfectly. Schwing! I'm about 2/3 done with the summarized transcript of Thursday's Board as well. I will probably finish it tomorrow while I'm still in the work aholic mindset. Go me! Such a wonderful feeling to know I have some free time tomorrow and nothing else on the immediate horizon. I got some more Oki pix back from the photo lab today too. Got some more really beautiful sunsets. I'd post them but i figure people are getting sick of seeing all my sunset pictures...myself i just can't enough of the sunsets here. On the whole, Okinawa is easily the most relaxed, easy going, and beautiful places I have ever lived. If I didn't have family back in California it would be so tempting to stay here a few more years...which would probably lead into the military as a career. I've got a really good thing going for me in the US Army. If I was to stay another enlistment I would be assured of making Staff Sergeant within this next year. Everywhere I have worked I have had my praises sung far and wide. I am being groomed for the upper echelon. I am rather certain I would make Sergeant Major by the time I retired...maybe even Sergeant Major of the Corps. I love the Army and I love what I do. It's going to be hard to leave it all behind...Honestly, in my entire life, I have never been as successful as I have been while in the Army....and that is such a wonderful feeling. The first few years after I get out of the Army are going to be hard, physcologically and financially. I know that. I may even fail in the outside world...I really have no guarentees of getting a good paying job right at first...especially without my college degree completed or a paralegal certificate. I may even end up working menial jobs again until I get those things done, despite my experience. I am prepared to face that difficulty however. The Army makes it mandatory for us to talk to the reenlistment personal within a year of our ETS. I was talking with the 1-1 reup NCO yesterday and I told him flat out that I was not reenlisting...and we talked about reasons, finances and lifestyles for a bit. If I stayed just another year or two I would be much more stable on the outside world. The problem with staying another year or two is all the time I wasted when I was younger. I'll be 27 years old when I leave the service. That's about the cut off I think...at 27 time is beginning to run out to start building a safety net and gain a foothold. If I waited another couple years it would be almost impossible to begin anew as a civilian, and that's why I would be forced to stay in a full 20 years...get my 50% retirement check, and hopefully be able to continue on in the legal field. Even after retirement from the service, I'd still be faced with employment issues as an older man... If I had enlisted earlier, if I was still 22 or 23, I would be much more inclined to re-enlist, get a nice bonus for doing so, choice of next assignment, whatever...but now...it's just too late for that. For the rest of my life, part of me will wish I had remained Army. Part of me will wish I had "gone all the way". There's no avoiding that...particually seeing how successful I am and how well suited for my work here. But I've thought it all through, backwards, forwards, at least a few hundred times...my mind is made up. Current mood: accomplished.
Comments: taliana
but did have a question. If you enjoy what you are doing there now, why leave? I'm sure you'll do fine once you leave, but if you think a part of you will regret not staying, why leave? just curious..
I love what I'm doing and where I'm at...But that's right now. Being with a Special Forces unit here on Okinawa is unlike any other assignment in the US Army. We don't run in formation for example. We don't have bullshit uniform inspections or asshole officers. Everyone here has a job that they need to do, that's important to everyone, and everyone respects that. There's a level of maturity here that is unlike other army units, and the pace of life and relaxed atmosphere of Okinawa only adds to that. I left a load of bullshit when I left the "regular" army back at Fort Bragg. If I was to leave here and stay in the army...I'd be placed right back into the "mix". Of course, I could stay here on Okinawa for another several years, but that leads me to the next major reason... I need the nightlife of San Francisco, the hot concerts every week or every otehr week. I need the opportunity to get in my car and just *go* somewhere for the weekend. Okinawa is a small island and I don't have either opportunity here. Also...I want to be around my family, my parents, my sister, my neices. We're a very tight family, and it's something very few people have. I don't like visting once or twice a year at best. I obviously don't have children of my own and my nieces are as close as I can get right now. I don't have any romantic interests. I haven't had any since I joined the army. There's a very good reason for that...I'm a very traditional man, and the thought of having a wife or a family in the army is a very displeasing thought. It's hard enough for me to pick up and move every couple of years. I don't want to do that to a family--force my children (if I ever have any) to go from school to school to school to school. I had a rough enough time when my family moved and I had to change schools when I was ten. If there was an assignment I could take in california...one I knew I could stay at for a good ten years, it would be a much different story. But there aren't any assignments like that...and in California, there are two Army installations, the Presidio at Montery, at Fort Ord, down in the desert. If I could pull an assignment at the Presidio, I might be inclined to re-enlist for a few years and end my service there. It's close enough to San Francisco and my family that I could visit all the time. Problem is Montery is such a small base...there is only one slot I could fill there. Civilians fill the rest and they won't ever leave most likely. Fort Ord, down in the socal desert...no thanks. Add to all that, Cali is an *expensive* place to live. the longer I wait to settle back in there, the harder it will be to build equity and a life. So really, it's mostly a matter of geography. If I had grown up on the west coast somewhere, where the US Army is mostly located, it wouldn't be an issue really, and I would probably be content to stay in. That all said...I'm not burning bridges. If I get out and it really
is just TOO much for me...I haven't thrown out the option of returning.
If I do return, I would go to Officer Candidate School though...the financial
differences between officers and enlisted is so high it's a joke.
taliana
take care...
Nothing on this date last year |
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