I got my "words of wisdom" brief from my lieutenant this afternoon.
Lt. Smith has been in the Air Force for 17 years. He initially started out enlisted, got all the way up to the rank of tech. sgt. and then crossed over to the officer side. He's been on a few Army deployments and had some..encouraging..words for me.
He said, "The Army is a different breed. They're crude, they're dirty and often times unprofessional. There's a good possibility you'll be the only female in your unit. Just don't let them give you shit or treat you inappropriately."
-.- Awesome.
He also told me that grunts don't give a rats ass about public affairs or photography. He said they'll probably give you tasks to do that aren't in your job description or that you don't want to do. But it's best not to argue. Oh! And to be sure not to confuse their first sergeants with Air Force first sergeants..
Our first sergeants are nice approachable people that are high enough in the chain of command, that if you have problems with someone, you can always go talk to them. You can call them any time, day or night and they are there to take care of their people. Army first sergeants are apparently only their to rip new ones in people and get down to business.
Soooooo... the summary of his advice was, they'll treat you like crap, hit on you and give you shit, but don't take it. Annnnnnd.. don't talk to their first sergeants, don't complain and don't call anyone "sir." Army enlisted hate being called... sir.
SIDE NOTE: I got yelled at quite a bit when I was stationed at Fort Meade for tech school. Its a DOD school, so all services attend, but Army primarily has control of the base. And God help you if you called an enlisted soldier, "sir." The typical response was, "I'm not a SIR! I work for a living!! I am a SERGEANT." ("Sir" is apparently reserved for officers only in the Army.) And my usual response was,"Yes. Sorry siiiiiiiirr----arrgennt.." It's like when someone tells you to quit apologzing and you say sorry again.
Anyway, SSDD.
On a lighter note, here are some pictures I finally got around to downloading! Enjoy. :)
This morning I had to drop Tyler off at the airport. He's heading to Mongolia for two weeks and by the time he gets back, I'll be at Fort Dix for combat skills training. It really sucked and kind of ruined my day. It hasn't quite set in yet that I really won't see him for the rest of the year.
I was crying when I drove away, took the wrong exit and got on the freeway going the opposite direction that I needed to be.
But I had to laugh thinking about how far we'd come in the past two years.
I thought about the first time I saw Tyler. We were at Fort Meade, Md., and I was doing the combat camera portion of my class where we went out to a remote area of the base, slept in tents and treated it like a deployed environment.
The first thing we had to do, after we rucked a few miles in to the woods, was "invade an Iraqi village and search the citizens."
Often times, after troops would arrive to Ft. Meade, they wouldn't pick up class right away. So they were sort of stuck in limbo. Tyler was a M.A.T. (Marine awaiting training) so he volunteered to play an Iraqi villager in our field training exercise.
So our class split up in to teams and prepared to ambush the village. We snuck through the bushes and ran through the clearings one at a time until we were all grouped and poised to run, screaming at the camp with our M-16s.
We rounded up the "villagers", which was really about six Marines, and put them on their faces at gun point. They all pretended to not understand english or a word we were saying as we yelled at them. Cute.
Once we had them on the ground, one person stood with their weapon pointed directly at the Marine while another one of us patted them down.
I stuck the muzzle of my M-16 in Tyler's face and yelled at him not to move.
Divine intervention occurred that day.
After we searched them, our instructors told us that we were to, "make friends with the Iraqis. Offer them food, medical attention or anything else they might need."
I jabbed Tyler in the gut with my M-16 and asked him if he was hungry.
The rest as they say, is history.
I have a couple photos from our "raid" that day. We were still learning to run and take pictures simultaneously, so no ones photos turned out spectacular. But I do have one of Tyler face down in the gravel. The photo also includes a dear friend of mine, who Tyler and I are also stationed with here in Hawaii, Reece Lodder.
Lodder was also tasked to deploy to Afghanistan this year with 3/3, a Marine infantry unit.
After some long reflection that lasted the entire day, everything has sunken in a little bit more. I'm a little more excited each day to go and it gets a little easier to leave. After all, being stationed apart for more than a year makes us old salty veterans at saying, "bye babe, see you soon."
This past week I was blessed with an extra week and a half to spend at home. While the circumstances aren't ideal, I'll take whatever time I can get.
I had a bit of trouble getting medically cleared to deploy due to some vertigo episodes I've had the past few months. I get so dizzy and sick that its easily comparable to the worst drunk feeling you've ever had. The room spins, the floor wobbles, my vision slows and when I get goin' really good, I puke.
I spent a long afternoon at Tripler Army Medical about 3 weeks ago. They ran all sorts of blood tests and did a CT scan, but couldn't find anything wrong with me. The problem persists, but since there is no pinpointed cause, they can't hold me here. But just to be sure, I went back to Tripler to nuke my brain one last time to make sure nothing has changed since the last scan.
I've got my final medical clearance appointment coming up to finalize everything. Wish me luck!
U.S. Army General George S. Patton once said, "All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood."
Nearly a week and a half ago, I was tasked to deploy to Afghanistan in a moments notice. And while I am not man, nor do I expect to see much of "battle" while I am deployed, I will openly admit that I'm still scared. I'm not so much scared for my well being or safety, though that does play a part, but just scared of the unknown.
Like many Joint Expeditionary Tasked (JET) Airmen, I have no idea what I'll be doing in Afghanistan once I get there. It's been hard to set my expectations because I don't know what to think.
A JET Airman is essentially someone who is pulled from another service to fill an Army manning vacancy.
I've been told that I'll be doing my job as a photographer and writer, just as an Airman attached to an Army unit. I've also been told that I won't have anything to do with public affairs, and that I'll just be training the Afghan National Army. It's hard to say, as both are strong possibilities.
In the coming months I'm more worried about my husband having to wear his "big boy pants" and pay the bills by himself. I'm worried about my dog, Indy, my cat, Kitty (she did have a name, but it just.. morphed into.. Kitty..) and my little betta fish, Blue. (Blue has been alive for 8 months!!! I've never kept a fish alive more than 24 hours! Tough little bugger even jumped out of his bowl once and laid on the counter for about 20 minutes before I came in and freaked out and threw him back in his water.)
But back on topic..
My husband and I have prayed hard and so have our friends, family and church congregation back home. I've decided that God, for whatever reason, wants me to go and has a plan. It's hard to see it now while I can't help but make a mental list of all the things I'm going to miss. Things I had planned on being here for and had looked forward to for sometime, like Tyler's birthday, the Marine Corps Ball, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, etc.
But nevertheless, it's my duty, my responsibility and my pleasure to serve everyday as I do.
As for right now, I'm off to spend my last couple days scooping cat turds out of the litter box, doing laundry, yelling at the dog and cooking for my husband a few last times. :)
How quickly we forget not to take it all for granted.
