Was It Really 25 Years Ago??

It is hard to believe that 25 years ago today was my first day on active duty as a new Second Lieutenant! I still remember that mom dropped me off at the airport on a cold and windy morning in Milwaukee and in the early afternoon I had arrived at sunny and hot Fort Bliss Texas. I checked into housing and the fun started! We had a small OBC class there were 16 of us and after you separated the reservists from us active duty guys there were only 9 of us. Out of those nine Fly Boy and Boeller retired from Active Duty, Vinnie got thrown out for smoking the weed, and I believe that Sluggo and I are the only ones still serving as reservists on active duty. He’s and O-5 and I like to remind him of that every chance I get since he always had one day of rank over me until I made 0-5 and I always caught hell from him for that. He’s in Gitmo working with the detainees and looks like he’ll be doing that for awhile.

I have had the chance to serve with some great Officers and Soldiers some who really went places. My first 1SG in Germany was none other than Sergeant Major of the Army (Retired) Robert Hall. The second battalion commander I had in Germany was LTG (Retired) John “Jack” Costello. At the same time it has been a small world. The current Program Manager that is working the Depot Integrator Contract here at the Depot is LTC (Retired) Robert “Bob” Cini who was my boss during Camp Challenge during the summers at Fort Knox, during my tenure teaching Army ROTC. Sluggo who was my best friend at OBC ended up coming down to our Battalion in Germany and actually ended up in the battery I was an XO in. One of the students who was a cadet at NIU where I taught Army ROTC at ended up as a co-worker of mine at Sun Microsystems in California.

Some of you might be asking did he spend the $150M and the answer is yes and no, I did spend a large chunk of change about $92M although we still have the hard part of identifying the parts that belong to the non-US vehicles and weapons which may take us awhile. The Iraqi’s of course send me their official MOD stamped list of vehicles that I had asked for months ago and had received a partial list from my counterpart which I used to come up with and get buy in to buy parts for. Of course they provide the list but when I asked for parts manuals or bill of materials for these vehicles I got the deer in the headlights look, and reminded them that the longer it takes them to get me that info the less money I have in the bank and once I am out then they will be the ones who buy the parts going forward.

We had the MNC-I (Multi National Corps-Iraq) Commander and his key staff come out to the depot this past Wednesday to pay us and some of the other activities a visit. He just took over 9 days ago and is already getting out to see what’s out there. These past few weeks with all the GO visits and getting a chance to sit in on briefings and riding in the same vehicles as these senior leaders has given me a different perspective as to what it takes to be a GO, and all the different tasks and responsibilities these GO’s deal with on a daily basis is mind boggling!

The building projects continue to move forward and in the next two weeks I should be signing for a couple more buildings. My boss from the IZ was out here with the last visit and I got a chance to ask him where we are at regarding our upcoming replacements and I wasn’t too surprised when he said they still didn’t have a replacement for my deputy or for my slot. At least it looks like SSG Gamboa has a by name replacement and we may even get the other Soldier who will be slotted in a newly created position. That is key since SSG Gamboa is the guy who gets things done with contractors, manages the interpreters and does a whole myriad of tasks day in and day out. He’ll be leaving early since he has to knock out some mandatory military education classes back in the US before getting off of active duty, so he can get promoted! Some of the other folks that are from our Division but are working in other areas here at Taji already have been in contract with their replacements and that is usually a good sign because that means you can really see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The visiting AMC Depot Commander arrived today and he’ll be here for about 3 months working with the depot commander and his immediate staff as a mentor and advisor. This will help me with my job since I can now focus on getting the construction completed and training/curriculum set up for the Iraqi Soldiers and not have to worry about spend time on the mentoring/advising side of the house! He’s from the one of the Depots in Pennsylvania and from what he told me has spent four years in the old Soviet Union working with their troops and I believe that will help him in this new role.

The new issue of the day are the over head cranes that we have identified for some of the buildings, which will be using the current rails but will need the actual bridge portion to be ordered. Who is going to certify the current rails as meeting the required weight and structural standards, getting the proper measurements, etc.? The USACE, AMC and the depot integrator are all involved and something tells me that this discussion will come to a head in the next 48 hours. The Iraqi Army unit in the aqua zone already used their 50K liters of fuel they delivered to the generator farm for the month so we cut off their power two days ago and told them no fuel no electricity.

Well that’s about it for now, I had hoped that I would be able to run tomorrow my long run but my left hip is still rather sore, I guess the roads have taken a toll on my body and I will have to stick to the elliptical trainer in the gym to get my miles in. I guess that time will tell.

The Colonel