Retention

This blog is written in two parts. The first part being a couple of days ago right after my retention appointment. The second part being today (Tuesday).

The Army is an interesting organization. I spend half of my day just trying to figure out how this business works. Yesterday I had an appointment with the retention NCO, which means I am coming up on that time in my life where I have to decide if I want to re-enlist or get out. I went to this appointment under the impression that I still had two years before I had to make this decision, and that they were just jumping the gun. I get to the office and start talking to the NCO and she tells me that my name was on the list because my ETS date is Jan 2010. ETS is end of term service, aka your last day in the army. I tell her that's not right. My IRR date is Jan 2010 and my ETS date is Jan 2012. IRR date is Inactive Ready Reserve. IRR date is the day that I go from Active Reserve Component, which is what I am now, to IRR and that means I don't have to drill anymore or do anything. I am not out of the army yet, but for two years my name sits on a list and if they need me I can get called up. I would say it is unlikely to get called up to deploy on IRR, but this war has made a myth out of that rumor. People get called out of IRR all the time now. So, I tell them that my ETS date is not until 2012. They tell me that is not what their paperwork says and I need to show them my contract to prove otherwise, which is no big deal because I have it with me. We go back and forth for a minute about how it is impossible for my ETS date to be this Jan because I signed up when I was 17 and I only had six years in. At this point one of the NCO's (there are two NCO's in the office) realizes what has happened and tells me that when you are on active duty (which I am currently active duty) IRR does not exist, so that means my ETS date is Jan 2010. Wow. I feel like somebody should have told me that.

Since I am on active duty I have no 2 year IRR commitment anymore, and I have to decide whether or not to stay in by Jan 2010. Of course there is more than one option for re-enlistment. The army never makes it easy. I can elect to take stop-loss. That would be the equivalent of getting out. I would get 500 bucks a month from now until my tour is over, and when I get back I would be done. No more drill. No more army. If I decided that I wanted to come back to the army I would be bared from re-enlistment for one year.

I could extend my contract. That means I would extend my contract through the tour and then I would have 90 days before I had to report to my unit and decide on what to do at that point. I would not be collecting stop-loss, and I would just go on doing what I am doing and put off the ultimate decision until a later date and time.

I could re-enlist. This seems self-explanatory. I would sign a new contract with the army and they would own my life for however many years. Probably the standard 6 and 2. Six years active reserve, two years IRR (which doesn't exist if you are active duty).

I am really pissed at the Army for making me make this decision while I am over here. I am more pissed that I have to make this decision period. Every time I think about what I am going to do I have a near panic attack. The reason being, this decision is just one of many in regards to what I am going to do with the rest of my life. I keep trying to tell myself that I am not growing up, that I didn't just graduate from college, and that there is no need to make big decisions that are going to impact my life. However, the truth is I have to start making these decisions and I hate it. I hate it because I really don't know. There are so many options for what I could do with the rest of my life.

Option one is the responsible path of trying to be a successful contributing member of society. Take the GRE, go to grad school (hopefully at WVU), get a masters in counseling psychology, and a Doctorate in Sports Psychology and do something great with my life. It seems so easy when I write out or say it out loud, but it will require years of hard work and possible failure.

Option two is the army career that would be equally as successful and would also contribute to society. I could try and go warrant officer, go to flight school (one year long) and become a helicopter pilot and fly medevac's (hopefully). This would be a serious commitment to the Army, and would probably mean I would get deployed a lot. This also types easier than it would actually be. It would mean lots of time away from my family and friends...and having to deal with the Army.

Option three is go home to Columbia and find some sort of job that pays me money and work there and see what happens. Wait on the whole grad school thing, and see if I can be successful without it. This option wouldn't be so bad if the economy wasn't in the can and people were hiring.

Option four is definitely the best option. Move to Colorado and become really good at skiing and teach ski lessons and spend my life as a ski bum. I know I hate cold whether, but skiing makes it worthwhile.

Option five is a little more unlikely and that would be to win the lottery.

I know what most of you want me to do, and that is take the stop-loss money and get out while I still can. That seems very appealing, but I am still not certain that I want to be done with the Army. There are parts of it that I like, and other parts that I can't stand. There are two big things that keep me from wanting to re-enlist, and they are probably not what you are thinking. The first problem is, when I get home I go back to Jeff City. This unit that I am here with is not my original unit, and when I get home the Army will transfer me back to Jeff City and I won't have to go back to Little Rock, AK ever again. Four months ago that would have sounded great. Today that is not the case.

I don't want to re-enlist and have to serve without the battle buddies that I have made here. The thought that I might get deployed again and Cara wouldn't be my roommate well...that's not okay. A deployment without her would be terrible, and this also includes Marie and Shandi. Not to mention all the other people that I have become friends with here. After church today a group of us went to dinner together, and when I say a group I mean probably 14 or more of us were all sitting at one table together. It looked like a Thanksgiving dinner, and all the people at that table have become a sort of make-shift family for me. I am going to miss them when this is all over. Also, to make matters worse I am not close to my unit in Jeff City at all. I was with them for four years, and I made more close friends in two weeks at Ft. Hood than I did in four years in Jeff City.

So that is one problem with re-enlistment. I won't be serving with my battle buddies anymore.

The other problem with re-enlistment is something I should probably not talk about on my blog. Seeing as how I was brought into an office and questioned about it today. Some of you will know what that means...and if you don't know what that means then don't worry about it. I got really pissed about it though. I found Cara and threw a pretty decent temper tantrum about how fed up I was with stupid people, and I took off one of the name tapes on my uniform and threw it for dramatic flare and almost lost it in the process. Which was a good thing because it made Cara and I laugh really hard. So it was nice that my rage was brought in check by me trying to be dramatic, but instead I ended up looking stupid. We got my name tape back, because Cara is a good soldier and had her Gerber on her. If she didn't have it on her I might have ended up walking home missing a name tape...

So, I am not 100% sure of what I am going to do. After the events of the past 24 hours I have come closer to my decision and that is to take the stop-loss and be done with this organization. If I want to join back up at a later date and time I can. I figure I might as well make money off the Army if they are going to treat me like crap. Granted the money doesn't justify what has happened in the past 24 hours...but it helps. Oh, and if they ever give me the okay to tell you guys what happened I will. Don't worry. I will shout it from the mountain tops.