Claude's Ventures

November 2, 2009

Well my battle buddies Mike, Ben and the others of the 326^th are off to Iraq and I’m here in Afghanistan with the unit I was crossleveled into.

This sucks!

Don’t get me wrong. I did volunteer to join the military during a time of war. I love what I am doing. And what may be bizarre to many — I’m looking to extend my time here. My Mom has been hammering me with “Don’t you dare.” And “You need to listen to your Mother.” This is the same loving mother who called me an “idiot” for rejoining the Army in the first place.

I digress.

No, this sucks in a couple of ways.

The obvious is I’ve been training with the members of the 326^th since I rejoined the Army. I’m friends with many of them and rather be deployed with them.

The Army’s Reserve’s crossleveling policy sucks. Crossleveling is when the Army moves someone from a unit to another that is about to be deployed and there is a position to be filled. Ok, I get that.

The needs of the Army and all. But they crossleveled me into a unit hundreds of miles away, then crossleveled someone to fill my position in my normal unit. (Yeah, don’t ask about reasoning.)

I found out that when I get back from Afghanistan I’ll have 90 days to find a unit with an open position. I won’t be able to rejoin my old unit because they will still be deployed.

It is obvious to me now why this Arkansas unit I’m in needed to crosslevel everyone into the unit. They provide no support. My orders that have been wrong since February are still wrong.

Then a couple of weeks ago another reason I will never allow myself to be crossleveled!!!

I sent in my promotion packet I put together with the help of Mike and Miss Hill (– of course from the 326^th ) a few months back. The promotion board met and I was recommended for promotion to Sergeant First Class (SFC). Great news!!! Right??? Wait not so fast.

I waited for a month for my promotion orders before enquiring about where they were.The response was that I received no orders for promotion because there were no SFC positions available.

Because I was crossleveled, my old position back in Ohio was filled by crosslevels. So there was no position to promote me in. But wait I’m working in a SFC position in Afghanistan, so shouldn’t I be promoted anyway? AAAhhhh, no – because the unit I was crossleveled into has been placed under a different command (They failed to let us know we are now based out of Texas.)

It turns out there were six other SFC openings. I failed to put down the proper amount of mileage I was willing to go to be part of that unit, so I wasn’t eligible for those positions. (Ok, maybe I should have known this.)

I can tell you, I immediately changed the amount of mileage I was willing to go (The mileage covers coast to coast). The chances are very good I’ll be promoted in January. Oh well, just another reason to celebrate when I go back to Columbus in January on leave!

Anyone up to get many celebratory drinks? With a designated driver of course.