Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

"Acting" rank

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #31
    Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
    I also thought I was doing a terrible job.
    WOW.

    I thought it was just ME.

    You know, when I tried to resign, I wanted to just scream into my commander's face: 'Are you completely INSANE? What the hell is WRONG with you, lady? I'm constantly in trouble, I am obviously going down in flames and you won't let me resign? Have you totally lost your MIND? Don't you even CARE about those guys???

    My supervisor was standing one pace right flank/rear, and when she said I had to keep going, I totally lost my ****, and even though I was at attention, looked over my shoulder at him, and he was eyes caged/locked-onto the wall behind her head; wouldn't even look at me. I thought he would back me up, because he was one of the grousers about all the stuff that I was letting drop. He came back with, 'Everybody is so busy, you know, ma'am, and if we handed off the Flight to one of the seniors, well, there's spool-up time, and getting everybody used to a new regime...'

    My heart sank, and I knew I wasn't going to make the sale. I tried for a little comfort zone for myself on the stuff I was getting gigged for, and she stomped it flat. When we walked back across the street to the main NSA building, I was so shot down that I didn't want to talk, and he was trying to jolly me me up a bit, but I knew he was just glad HE didn't have the crappy job.

    But I do remember he said this: 'When you sew on your next stripe, you'll be bullet-proof. If you ever have to fight this battle again, you're going to win.'

    He was right, too: when I went to SOCOM, I had some WICKED throw-downs with our SES-2/3 (civilian rank equivalent to a one- and two-star), and I did very well (okay, got thrown out of her office on our first meeting - what is it with me and women bosses?:) ).

    But I never had a worse period than that time at Ft Meade.

    Comment


    • #32
      Originally posted by Bluesman View Post
      I used to obsess over the possibility of getting targeting wrong, and bombing somebody that didn't deserve it.
      More about that:

      Once, in Misawa, my first tour as an analyst, I was using a system called I-MOMS (Improved Many-on-Many), which was an air combat re-creation software suite, that had been adapted for targeting, things like ingress- and egress-routing and SAM suppression.

      ANYhoo, I was teaching it to myself from the manual (never a good idea, as I found out), and I put together some strike templates for a North Korean scenario, as an example.

      I got off shift, and all the way home, I was thinking about it, and I just KNEW I had saved to a folder that was accessible to the fighter wing, instead of my own working folder.

      I was awake all night worrying about it, and when I reported the next morning, I was so jangled that I made a total scene by grabbing the I-MOMS guy from the training flight (literally: I had ahold of his arm, trying to drag him out of the office, while his NCO was shouting at me to let his man GO, goddammit, or he'd beat my ass. )

      I told him if I got in trouble, he was going down with me, because he knew I had screwed up (because I'd just told him), but wasn't going to help me fix it, and he'd BURN if the investigation asked me a single question as to WHY the fighter wing had access to notional targeting data. So THERE. (I'm kind of a spaz, sometimes. )

      Bottom line: I worked six hours extra on that shift, because damned if I was going to be the guy that got bombs dropped in the wrong place. During the war, we were all going SO fast, there was a chance that we were going to get bad data corrupting the air tasking orders. Also, the ground forces were going SO fast, a lot of our grid refs were BEHIND the FLOT, and baby, if there's ANY time that you're going to get blue-on-blue, there ya go.

      I was terrified my plots were going to be The One that hit friendlies, not to mention innocents. (And let me tell you this: it is largely a matter of plain old LUCK when Bad Things do NOT happen. I am a good analyst, but this is the truth: the fact that I never had one of my strikes go into a bad target is simply because I'm more lucky than good. It could've EASILY been me, and not the guy on the night shift, poor bastard.)

      Well, I see I did it again: made the thread all about ME. Sorry; I got rollin' about stuff that was on my mind, and this is what we get: a totally hijacked thread.

      Sorry, guys.

      Comment


      • #33
        I was a field Major for 5-6 months (while in a field area), with the pay ofcourse, but once the unit moved to a peace location, I became Captain again.

        Cheers!...on the rocks!!

        Comment


        • #34
          I was once the Senior Medic of my batallion during my active time, supposed to be held by someone with a rank of Staff Sargeant. Actually I volunteered for the job and I thoroughly screwed up. Luckily my boss was very understanding and let me off without anything serious......
          Seek Save Serve Medic

          Comment


          • #35
            Originally posted by Bluesman View Post
            Well, I see I did it again: made the thread all about ME. Sorry; I got rollin' about stuff that was on my mind, and this is what we get: a totally hijacked thread.

            Sorry, guys.
            Speaking for myself, stories are always fascinating and I love reading them. :)

            Looking forward to seeing you again in a couple weeks bro, I gotta savor the time now, because pretty soon it won't be there so easily
            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

            Comment


            • #36
              I had two circumstances, one involved me the other my battalion commander

              I had a battalion commander – actually my task force commander since it was a tank battalion and my rifle company was crossed attached to them. He took command as a promotable major (selected for promotion to LTC) but refused to be frocked. His father had commanded an armor battalion in WW II as a major and it was a way to honor his dad.

              When I was a battalion staff officer as first lieutenant we planned an exercise in September which was at the end of the fiscal year. We would look around the division and look for all of the ammunition units had been allocated for training but they did not use. My battalion would then take it send details from each company to a training area to get a lot of extra small arms training. This was good in that it kept up proficiency and allowed for folks not normally assigned as machine gunners to qualify, etc.

              So I was a first lieutenant, just recently selected for promotion to captain and I was appointed the OIC for the group which went to Hohenfels training area from our kaserne. A variety of buses and cargo trucks moved personnel to our bivouac site. I got there with the advance party and made sure the mess site was set up properly, the ammunition accounts were available from the ammo supply point, etc. In other words, all of the things I used to do as the battalion support platoon leader. So I call a first formation at about 1900 on that Sunday night. I was stunned when the formation revealed that I had over 450 men present for training!!! This was over half of the battalion. I had 3 second lieutenants and some staff sergeants. The only sergeant first class I had was the mess sergeant. Once the shock wore off, I had a blast. Ten days with no senior officers around, had some great training….and no one got hurt!!

              Side note: I remember this was during the 1984 Summer Olympics and the I remember setting up a shuttle system to the post recreation center so off duty troops could watch the Olympics on AFN. Kept everyone out of trouble and it allowed me to regularly go the Kantine to get a schnitzel sandwich!
              “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
              Mark Twain

              Comment


              • #37
                Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
                I had two circumstances, one involved me the other my battalion commander

                I had a battalion commander – actually my task force commander since it was a tank battalion and my rifle company was crossed attached to them. He took command as a promotable major (selected for promotion to LTC) but refused to be frocked. His father had commanded an armor battalion in WW II as a major and it was a way to honor his dad.

                When I was a battalion staff officer as first lieutenant we planned an exercise in September which was at the end of the fiscal year. We would look around the division and look for all of the ammunition units had been allocated for training but they did not use. My battalion would then take it send details from each company to a training area to get a lot of extra small arms training. This was good in that it kept up proficiency and allowed for folks not normally assigned as machine gunners to qualify, etc.

                So I was a first lieutenant, just recently selected for promotion to captain and I was appointed the OIC for the group which went to Hohenfels training area from our kaserne. A variety of buses and cargo trucks moved personnel to our bivouac site. I got there with the advance party and made sure the mess site was set up properly, the ammunition accounts were available from the ammo supply point, etc. In other words, all of the things I used to do as the battalion support platoon leader. So I call a first formation at about 1900 on that Sunday night. I was stunned when the formation revealed that I had over 450 men present for training!!! This was over half of the battalion. I had 3 second lieutenants and some staff sergeants. The only sergeant first class I had was the mess sergeant. Once the shock wore off, I had a blast. Ten days with no senior officers around, had some great training….and no one got hurt!!

                Side note: I remember this was during the 1984 Summer Olympics and the I remember setting up a shuttle system to the post recreation center so off duty troops could watch the Olympics on AFN. Kept everyone out of trouble and it allowed me to regularly go the Kantine to get a schnitzel sandwich!
                Cool story; I liked the 'Oh CRAP!' moment, then the realization...'Hey...I get to do things the way I want 'em done! This is MY show, now!'

                :) HAPPY DANCE!

                When I was in Misawa, we had a commander that liked to train his officers with us as pawns: he used to volunteer our whole unit (which had a Real World, 'round-the-clock intel mission, mind you) to participate in the base's exercises. (We were a tenant unit; we had NO REQUIREMENT to participate; he was just brown-nosing the base commander. )

                ANYhoo, just as our night shift was ending, they blow the gronk, and we all have to suit up for MOPP IV. EVERYthing in the bag goes on: gloves, mask, flak vest, helmet and webgear. CRAP! We're miserable, of course, and we were just fifteen minutes away from being able to drive home, and go to sleep, but NO: now we have to go to the alternate shelter (the barracks, so not even the off-duty flight escapes).

                We're all laying in the hallways, not learning a dam' thang (no training is going on; we're just props), suckin' rubber, hatin' it, and who shows up in his blues? Open collar, too; not even a tie, while we're looking like OD green Pillsbury doughboys, and getting headaches from dehydration, fatigue (up for 24 hours by then) and hunger.

                Want to know WHY we were there? Because he was teaching his Flight Commanders a lesson: you have to bed down the troops, make sure they're taking care to hydrate and take care of their feet, and FEED the troops, too, not just move 'em around, not just suit 'em up. Well, they forgot, and no chow had been arranged for us, so we became human training aids to point out to our officers that they weren't dealing with spare parts, these are PEOPLE.

                Good lesson for THEM, but for us, it was just an exercise in suffering.

                Gunny, I bet your COs would have had some SERIOUS redial training and possibly even career trouble if they had done something like that.

                Comment


                • #38
                  Originally posted by Bluesman View Post
                  Cool story; I liked the 'Oh CRAP!' moment, then the realization...'Hey...I get to do things the way I want 'em done! This is MY show, now!'

                  :) HAPPY DANCE!

                  When I was in Misawa, we had a commander that liked to train his officers with us as pawns: he used to volunteer our whole unit (which had a Real World, 'round-the-clock intel mission, mind you) to participate in the base's exercises. (We were a tenant unit; we had NO REQUIREMENT to participate; he was just brown-nosing the base commander. )

                  ANYhoo, just as our night shift was ending, they blow the gronk, and we all have to suit up for MOPP IV. EVERYthing in the bag goes on: gloves, mask, flak vest, helmet and webgear. CRAP! We're miserable, of course, and we were just fifteen minutes away from being able to drive home, and go to sleep, but NO: now we have to go to the alternate shelter (the barracks, so not even the off-duty flight escapes).

                  We're all laying in the hallways, not learning a dam' thang (no training is going on; we're just props), suckin' rubber, hatin' it, and who shows up in his blues? Open collar, too; not even a tie, while we're looking like OD green Pillsbury doughboys, and getting headaches from dehydration, fatigue (up for 24 hours by then) and hunger.

                  Want to know WHY we were there? Because he was teaching his Flight Commanders a lesson: you have to bed down the troops, make sure they're taking care to hydrate and take care of their feet, and FEED the troops, too, not just move 'em around, not just suit 'em up. Well, they forgot, and no chow had been arranged for us, so we became human training aids to point out to our officers that they weren't dealing with spare parts, these are PEOPLE.

                  Good lesson for THEM, but for us, it was just an exercise in suffering.

                  Gunny, I bet your COs would have had some SERIOUS redial training and possibly even career trouble if they had done something like that.
                  Uggghhh

                  Reminded me of the early 1980s in VIIth Corps in USAREUR, where our field uniform was the MOPP suit. Only thing we wore, day in, day out for 2 years while in the field. When at Grafenwhoer, our Division put out that from 0900-1000 everyday all would have to go to MOPP IV. That made sense for the HQ pogues but we in the rifle companies already got more than our fair share of mOPP IV training. If we didn' thave to be on a range we used to go rack out for about an hour during that window...or head to the snack bar!!!

                  Of course, I also remember NTC in AUG 1987, leading my company on a dismounted attack up hill against the Alligator....in MOPP IV....in the Mojave Desert...at 1200 hours. My mask was vacuumed to my face after that hump uphill.


                  Gawd, I hated MOPP Gear!!!
                  “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                  Mark Twain

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    My worst time in chem gear - and the hardest I've EVER worked - was this story, posted quite awhile ago:

                    Originally posted by Bluesman
                    I remember a training day that I did when I was in Civil Engineering. We had to lay down 4,000 square yards of runway matting as fast as we could. In CHEM GEAR.

                    We suited up, somebody yelled 'GO!', and we WENT. For two hours, we RAN from the pile of huge, heavy steel plates to the 'bomb craters' that we were patching on our 'runway', and the evaluators would periodically 'kill' one of us from a UXO, or a leaky suit, or because they were sadistic mofos that wanted us to fail.

                    Because I have such incredibly bad luck, I was never killed, and stayed in the game right to the end. I have never come so close to puking in my life. NO DRILL - I almost hurled INTO MY MASK. But I didn't. And I looked over at Captain Baum, the Eval chief, and saw him holding his clipboard and just nodding his head in admiration, as he watched us break the Air Force record. Shorthanded.

                    After that, we thought we could storm Hell, and hold the position until the airbridge brought in angels to reinforce us.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Originally posted by Bluesman View Post
                      My worst time in chem gear - and the hardest I've EVER worked - was this story, posted quite awhile ago:
                      Geez...it sucked to be you!
                      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                      Mark Twain

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
                        Geez...it sucked to be you!
                        Were it not for Bluesmans bad luck, he'd have no luck at all
                        Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
                          Uggghhh

                          Reminded me of the early 1980s in VIIth Corps in USAREUR, where our field uniform was the MOPP suit. Only thing we wore, day in, day out for 2 years while in the field. When at Grafenwhoer, our Division put out that from 0900-1000 everyday all would have to go to MOPP IV. That made sense for the HQ pogues but we in the rifle companies already got more than our fair share of mOPP IV training. If we didn' thave to be on a range we used to go rack out for about an hour during that window...or head to the snack bar!!!

                          Of course, I also remember NTC in AUG 1987, leading my company on a dismounted attack up hill against the Alligator....in MOPP IV....in the Mojave Desert...at 1200 hours. My mask was vacuumed to my face after that hump uphill.


                          Gawd, I hated MOPP Gear!!!

                          When I was in Korea we had the week long Foal Eagle exercise. The unit I was assigned to, Det 1, 3 SPSS, was very easy going when it came to exercises. My commander didn't even want me going to the MPF to deliver mail, etc, because he didn't want to take a chance of us going into condition black and being caught. We did do MOPP IV during a staff meeting, and decided we couldn't communicate that well, so ended up taking the gas masks off to finish our meeting. Then the contractors attacked us with water guns. Yeah, it was rough!! However, around 0100 hours on a Wednesday, (I remember it quite well), the SPS came by each dorm room to make sure everyone was ok. Well, being that I am very inquisitive, I asked our security specialist what happened that morning. Apparently three N Korean parachutes were found outside the main gate, two of which were open. Yikes!!!
                          Last edited by Southie; 31 May 07,, 21:55.
                          “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix
                          "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
                          sigpic

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            My worst chem gear story...... Was TDY at prince sultan right after one of our planes had been hit with some burst from a SAM that was dumb fired. (for recon planes southern watch had some realy realy stupid requirements but they don't really matter for this story) so everyone was on high allert. Next day one of the fighters flying with the j-stars (I think a 15 but could have been a toranado) saw a truck with something that could have been a scud on the back......

                            So of course they ( base command ) decided to put us into full chem suits with the charcoal coveralls (at least I hope its charcoal what ever the hell leaves powerdery black crap all over your dcu's and stains when it gets wet, and since you are sweating like a dog going to soak yourself in saudi in chem gear......) Now on the third day of this everyone was more than a little testy and whiny about what was going on. Good news was we weren't wearing the mask just the suit but seeing the suadi's in their day to day gear just made it worse. The heat rashes and general discomfort makes me seriously dread what any kind of skin irritant chemical or biological agents are. Alot of us would have rather been exposed to that than the chaffing from that. (I'm so happy I wasn't army, god knows what those crazed fellow go through day after day in various sandboxes in chemsuits uniforms and body armour.....)

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Originally posted by Maxor View Post
                              My worst chem gear story...... Was TDY at prince sultan right after one of our planes had been hit with some burst from a SAM that was dumb fired. (for recon planes southern watch had some realy realy stupid requirements but they don't really matter for this story) so everyone was on high allert. Next day one of the fighters flying with the j-stars (I think a 15 but could have been a toranado) saw a truck with something that could have been a scud on the back......

                              So of course they ( base command ) decided to put us into full chem suits with the charcoal coveralls (at least I hope its charcoal what ever the hell leaves powerdery black crap all over your dcu's and stains when it gets wet, and since you are sweating like a dog going to soak yourself in saudi in chem gear......) Now on the third day of this everyone was more than a little testy and whiny about what was going on. Good news was we weren't wearing the mask just the suit but seeing the suadi's in their day to day gear just made it worse. The heat rashes and general discomfort makes me seriously dread what any kind of skin irritant chemical or biological agents are. Alot of us would have rather been exposed to that than the chaffing from that. (I'm so happy I wasn't army, god knows what those crazed fellow go through day after day in various sandboxes in chemsuits uniforms and body armour.....)
                              Got THAT right, bro. We used to absolutely marvel at our cops out at PSAB: suited up, geared up, holding a rifle that was too hot to touch, stuck for HOURS at their crappy little guard post...and ready with a smile and a polite greeting as we rolled to or from Ops Town. Their leadership must've been the very best, because you never saw higher morale, and they had to be suffering like dogs out there.

                              This is the truth: when morale is high, and it sucks for EVERYbody, but you have this feeling of a shared experience , even a bad one...NOTHING can beat you. It is contagious, and even on those days that you're draggin' your ole beat-down carcass into work at 0300 to make the super-early report times for a dawn mission launch, when that cute young skeeter-wing airman, flashes her brilliant smile that just breaks your heart and gives you a 'Go get 'em, sirs! See you at shift change!', with a crisp salute to the officers in the car...we'd perk up and our day would get better from that moment.

                              Sigh. All of a sudden, I miss it. A little.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Originally posted by Bluesman View Post
                                when that cute young skeeter-wing airman, flashes her brilliant smile that just breaks your heart
                                Those female USAF gate guards sure are cute.
                                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X