JACK ARMY

Incentives to Train, Retain

This article at Defense Industry Daily reminded me of my one and only trip to Eglin AFB while a member of Special Forces.  It was a training mission to practice calling for fire from the simply awesome AC-130 Spectre gunships.  Here was the typical "day" while there:

0800 First call, do PT

09300 Clean up, breakfast

1100 Stand around and tell war stories and jokes

1200 Lunch

1400 Pack up weapons and gear in rental vans

1500 Drive out to range, sleep en route unless you are the driver

1700 Arrive at range, check NODs, Lasers and weapons, tell war stories and jokes

1900 AC-130 on station, practice "call for fire" and "adjust fire" missions

2300 Drive back to quarters, sleep en route unless you are the driver

2400 Hit midnight-chow at the dining facility

0100 Go to Destin, find a bar and drink, tell war stories and jokes

0500 Go back to barracks, get some sleep

Repeat

We did this for about 12 days with a few variations.  Sometimes we fired our personal weapons or maybe we incorporated some other team cross-training, but generally we followed the above schedule.  And we got some awesome training... and had an awesome time when we weren't training.  So, we were motivated to train more, to schedule and conduct more training missions and when the time came, to reenlist for more of this lifestyle.

Of course, this was before the current wars kicked off, but I imagine that the training missions are pretty similar despite the seriousness underlying that training.  Work hard, play hard, as the warrant officer on my team used to say.

So, investing in upgrades at Eglin, in my opinion, not only increase the skill and warfighting capability of the units using those facilities, but add to the motivation to train and desire to reenlist.  This is what some might call "second and third order effects."  Your thoughts?

Changes in Health Care Delivery

After reading this article at CNN, I find it interesting in how the delivery of health care seems to be adapting, not just to the way our health care system works now, but to the way people think it is going to be when Congress and the President change it.

Personally, I think I like the idea of a retainer-based plan.  Basically, you give the doctor some money to be YOUR doctor, and he promises to be that.  Some basic services go with the retainer and some services are guaranteed at a certain price, but the doctor and the patient have some flexibility and some certainty with such a plan.  More than one would with a beaurocrat-run system, whether government or not. 

At least that's the way I see it.  You?

Advice for Younger Soldiers: 1

I'm going to start a category for advice that I'd like to pass on to younger Soldiers as I begin my transition out of the Army.  Some of the advice I'll give, I learned years ago, some is more recent.  Some is just for young Joes, some for NCO's and/or officers, some for everybody in uniform.  All of it is based on my experience and is meant purely as advice.  If you find something useful, great.  If not, no problem, let it go.  My intent is three-fold: first, give Soldiers still serving the benefit of my experience; second, generate some comments from other "old" Soldiers that may provide insight gleaned during their careers as Soldiers; third, entertain the readers of JACK ARMY.  I hope it helps.

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My first bit of advice comes from a conversation I had with two staff sergeants and a private first class today:

Two things you don't trust another Soldier with, private through general, I don't care: your money and your wife.

I've seen too much money get stolen by other Soldiers, even ones that were supposed to be trustworthy, such as your battle buddy, or a best friend, or from an NCO buying something from a junior enlisted Soldier.  And we've all seen the stories of a general forced to retire because he was caught shagging a captain's wife, for example.  You can trust a Soldier with your life.  You can trust him with your freedoms.  You can trust him to help you out of a bind.  But don't trust him with your money, unless you are willing to part with it, and certainly don't trust him with your wife, unless you swing that way!  And what does Joe steal?  Just about anything.  Cash, debit or credit cards, your stuff, other people's stuff that you are borrowing, cars, and on and on.  So, as I was taught as a private in basic training, lock up your stuff to keep honest people honest.  In other words, remove temptation by locking up your wallet and cash, even with your roommate whom you shared a foxhole in combat with.

Here's the example from my experience: as a young PFC stationed in Germany, there was another PFC in my platoon also from San Antonio (my hometown), so we had a connection.  We got to know each other, not so well that we were joined at the hip, but well enough that I thought I could trust him.  At the time, I had an old beater, a Ford somethingorother that was worth $500 and for some reason I decided to sell it.  San Antonio buddy decided to buy, only he didn't have the money right then, but he assured me he would pay me at the next payday if I would only sign the bill of sale so he could go ahead and register the car and begin driving it.  I signed trusting that he would pay me back as he promised. 

Well, payday came and went and he claimed that he didn't have the money, bills, but that he would pay next payday for sure.  Sure, I can trust you, after all we're platoon-mates and buddies, right?

Another payday comes and goes.  Another excuse.

Then another payday, and my wife tells me that she sees his wife in the PX parking lot putting a brand new weight set in the trunk of that car.  Wait a minute, if you have money for a new weight set, you should have the money to pay me what you owe, or some of it anyway.  I confront old boy and he tells me that he isn't going to pay me, he has a bill of sale with my signature on it and I have no proof that he didn't pay.

He was right, I had no proof and had I pushed the issue, I would have been told the same thing by the chain of command or whoever I tried to complain to.  So, I was out $500.  But, to paraphrase Jules in Pulp Fiction, I bought something for my money.  An expense lesson, but after that, I didn't sign anything or give up anything that wasn't paid for, completely.  And I didn't trust Soldiers, or anybody really, with my money.

Fortunately, I never had to personally learn the lesson about trusting a Soldier with my wife.  Thank goodness.

Advertising... or Turning Off?

One sure way to get me to ignore your advertisement, is to start it off with the words, "Obama says..."

Other than those official orders he gives as Commander-in-Chief, I'm not really interested in what he says.  I'm certainly not making decisions about life, education, careers or cars based on what he says!

So, ads like the one below on Facebook have the effect of turning me off instead of inspiring me to find out more about the product.

Hey, now might be a great time to get a degree, but Obama has no place in my decision-making about it!

Back Up!

In case you haven't noticed, gojackarmy.blogspot.com is gone.  I don't know why.  I started getting messages that there was something in my blog being reported as "an attack site" but I couldn't figure out what.  I went through the template code line by line and everything was pretty much the same as it has been for the last two years.  Only the little changes that I made recently, but that was to the blogroll, mostly and changing colors.  Nothing significant.

I wonder, though, about that very last post that I put up that was about Obamacare.  I feel like I've read about Google being pretty liberal and big ol' Obama supporters... and kinda down on milbloggers, but maybe I'm just feeling the conspiracy theory because I don't want to believe that I messed up my blog.

Regardless, the old JACK ARMY is gone, and thanks to Code Monkey who blogs on Chuck Z's blog, From My Position, On The Way, I may be able to salvage some of the old JACK ARMY posts and archive them here.

So, the moral of the story?  Back up your blog.  Just like you do your hard drive. 

You do back up your hard drive, don't you?

3rd Special Forces Group Adding a Battalion

The 4th Battalion "will be presented" on Tuesday (the 18th or24th of August?).

Via Army Times:

    "The battalion will add at least 400 soldiers to the post in central North Carolina. Officials have said each of the five active groups in the Army Special Forces will gain a new battalion under the expansion plan."

One more battalion per Group, doesn't say if the Reserve Groups are getting any, but if it's just active duty, that's five more battalions and 2000 more Soldiers.  That's a lot. 

I wonder how recruiting and training for those extra 2000 Long Tabbers is going.

US Army Stationing Decisions, FY 2008-2013

I regularly check out Defense Industry Daily for interesting tidbits on what DoD is buying or otherwise spending taxpayers' money on.

This interesting tidbit outlays the Army's upcoming unit moves and activations (mostly the latter) through 2013.  Ft. Bliss is growing, Ft. Polk looks to be doing the same...

Anyway, check it out for a look at the new units coming to an Army post near you.

21 Years of Service

That's how much it will be tomorrow, 17 August 2009.  I joined the Army 21 years ago, a fresh-faced, eager-eyed, young buck ready to see what life had in store. Basic Training was at Ft. Benning, GA, where I learned to be an infantryman, and another two-week course there gave me the basics of the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle.  After 30 days of leave, during which I married my first wife, I winged my way over to Germany where I was stationed at Kitzingen in the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry "Can Do" as a SAW gunner.  A few months later I became the platoon RTO and soon after a gunner on the Bradley.

Next was my 30-day trip to Saudi Arabia and my measley contribution to Desert Shield/Desert Storm was to play softball and dig holes in the sand.  I had already gone to SFAS and next came the Q Course.  I failed out of the medic course, didn't really want to be a medic anyway, and made it through the weapons sergeant course, then Polish language training.  My first assignment was to ODA 066 at Ft. Devens, MA, in August, 1993, but the Group moved to Ft. Carson a year later.  I enjoyed my time in SF, but in 1997, SF Branch decided to put me on recruiting duty.

I started recruiting in my hometown, San Antonio, TX, enjoyed it and decided to stay.  After reclassing, I moved to Ft. Benning as a Special Forces Recruiter and three years later moved to Lake Charles, LA to run the recruiting station there.  Unbeknownst to me, many recruiters in that battalion were helping applicants cheat on the ASVAB, including at least one in my station.  Since I didn't catch him, I was relieved and sent back to the infantry, and here to Schofield Barracks, HI.  I've since worked in the S-3 shop, been a platoon sergeant, NCOIC of a MiTT, and now I'm the Rear Detachment First Sergeant, a job I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

So, after 21 years, it's about time to get some slack and finally cut the rope.  I've mostly enjoyed my years in the Army.  I love the lifestyle, the camaraderie, the desire to make things better.  But I'm nearly 40 years old and I'm not going to advance beyond the point I'm at.  I have a strong desire to settle down and grow some roots.  So, I won't make it to 22 years in the Army unless something drastic happens in the next several months.  I look forward to the transition, though.  It'll be like an adventure, a challenge and I'll find something that will pay the bills while I figure out what will really excite me in the civilian world.

21 years.  Goes by way too fast.

FTC to Monitor Blogs

FTC to Monitor Blogs (via Outside The Beltway) is an interesting post about how some bloggers are making money while blogging and how it is going to be monitored by the Federal Trade Commission.  The original article (linked at OTB, follow link above) describes bloggers as receiving thousands of dollars or free items such as laptops to blog about certain products, trips and cruises, and the like.

In the interest of full disclosure at this point, I'll let you know that I have received 2 free books in exchange for a blog review.  One book I gave away, the other I have yet to review (sorry!) so it is still sitting on my bookshelf.  Also, I initially used Google's Adsense and received one check for $100.  However, I stopped using Adsense at some point when some policy or public remark from Google irritated me (I can't recall what it was, but that doesn't matter to me any more, now it's just the principle of the thing that I'm hanging onto like a dog with a bone).

I really like James Joyner's point that "journalists employed by someone else get paid.   That’s the nature of employment.  Independent bloggers, by contrast, are entrepreneurs.  Actually, most make no money or barely cover expenses, making them, in effect, hobbyists."

At this time, I fall into the hobbyist category, but I would love to make blogging an entrepreneurial enterprise (hint, hint!).  So, I feel no guilt for the very little that I have received for blogging.  My expenses to blog far outweigh the "income" I've received, so if the FTC and/or government would like to know about it, then I think I should claim both the income and expenses on my IRS return and the current tax laws will cover it.  Right?

SFC Jared C. Monti Scholarship Fund

A worthwhile cause that honors a great American hero.  Go to Pundit Review for the details and support if you're able.

Update: Welcome BostonMaggie followers!

What I'm Reading

Currently, I have three books on the nightstand in various stages of completion:

1. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris.  A great read about a president I really didn't know much about.  Well, I can say that about, oh, 36 of them!  Anyway, I graduated from Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School in San Antonio, TX, but never read a book about the guy.  Fixing that now.

2. Everyday Greatness edited by David K. Hatch and commentary by Stephen Covey.  Covey's own books are insightful and worth study, but this book is a compilation of articles from Reader's Digest which Hatch put together for his work as a leadership consultant.  So far, it is inspiring.  I have no doubt it will continue to be so to the back cover.

3. Beginning Writer's Answer Book edied by Jane Friedman.  I desire to write a book that will one day be published.  I have a few ideas that I think can be developed into full-blown novels but I really haven't had the inspiration or impetus to do the work necessary to make that happen.  My dream job is to be an author... one that makes enough money to live comfortably without doing any other work would be ideal!  So, I figured, what am I waiting for?  Nobody else is going to write my first book (see I said "first book" indicating that I'll write more than one...) for me.  Hopefully, this book will guide me to achieving that goal.  If not, at least I'll have a better understanding of what it takes to write a book and get it published.

So, that's what I'm currently reading.  Have you read any of those three?  What did you think of them?  Have you read anything similar that is worth a look?

Retirement

I'm seriously contemplating retirement and returning to San Antonio soon.  While I love the Army and the Army lifestyle, my family needs to settle down.  I think.  There's so much to consider and if the decision to retire is yes then so much to do.  Anyone got some ideas on how to make the transition as smooth as possible?

Input and Feedback

As I rebuild JACK ARMY, I'd like to know what you'd like to see as well as how you like what you are seeing so far.  I know there isn't much, yet, but I'm working on that.  In the meantime, though, what did you like about the old JACK ARMY blog, what would you like to see new or different on the new JACK ARMY blog and what can I do to make you want to come back?

I'm open for some good ideas and some constructive criticism.  Whatcha got?

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By the way, I have tried to re-register the "gojackarmy" name on Blogger, and despite the initial notification, it tells me that "gojackarmy" is unavailable. I'll keep trying, as well as trying to find out why it was deleted in the first place. In the meantime, please update your links, bookmarks, etc. to bring you here. I'll be working hard to get JACK ARMY back up to speed and your help is much appreciated!

Technorati Claim

Update:

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This post was to claim this blog on Technorati.

Health Care Reform

This was the title of the very last post on the the Blogger JACK ARMY.  I don't know why, but that blog was deleted.  So, having already considered moving to my own domain, that forced me to do it now.  But, what did I say about health care reform?  In general, I equated the concerns of many senior citizens to that of a younger person who faces the possiblity of being denied health care because of the lifestyle choices he or she makes.  No, I wasn't referring to sexual orientation, either.  Anyway, I'm not against reform, but I am against anything that jeopardizes the quality of care we generally receive in the United States now.  There's a reason people from other countries come here for health care... maybe because ours is the best.  What do you think?

SP

This is the new JACK ARMY.  Those of you that have spent a little time in the Army will recognize the title of this, the first post, as the SP of this blog.  JACK ARMY is operational.  Enjoy!