A bunch of mutts!

One of the things that makes our unit different than most is how it is comprised. To lay it out a little bit one needs to know how personnel can be classified in the Navy and the Navy Reserve Component. This is something that I've had to learn a lot about over the last few weeks, so here goes my best explanation:

Active Duty - Active Duty is the easiest to explain because its pretty self evident: a sailor who's day to day job is in the Navy, full time. Depending on if this is an enlisted sailor or a warrant/commissioned officer can change a great number of things of course. Enlisted Sailors have enlistments, which they are legally obligated to fulfill, and once their time is up they can leave the service. Commissioned officers are a bit different in that they may have a 4 year obligation, and then they too can leave the service - but they can be subjected to recall in the event of war etc. At least that's what I've been told, and anyone who's been in the service can tell you there can be bad gouge all around.

Full Time Support (FTS) - This guys used to be called 'TAR's or Training and Administration of Reserves, but now they are FTS. They are a seperate community within the Navy that allows a sailor to essentially be on Active Duty, but their jobs are specifically tailored to supporting the reserves. So you may have people with administration jobs that are in the FTS community, and they help with a lot of the paperwork, pay issues and things of that nature for reservists. If you're a reservist in the Navy, these guys really do an important job of supporting you and making sure things are taken care of.

Selected Reserves (SELRES) - So here's where I fit into this picture, I am a SELRES - more specifically a Mobilized SELRES or MOBSELRES. Essentially I am a reservist, I have a civilian job, and I'm the guy that does one weekend a month / 2 weeks a year. When the need arises, in the event of contingency operations around the world, I can be either voluntarily or involuntarily called to Active Duty. In this case I was involuntarily called to active duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), with a boots on ground (BOG) of no less than 350 days and up to 24 months.

MOBSELRES vs Individual Augmentee (IA) - I had a hard time with this one actually, and the benefits and drawbacks to being one or the other. An IA is someone who has been pulled from their command and placed somewhere else as an individual. They could be an Active Duty sailor that gets orders to be an IA to another command for a year or they could be an FTS that gets IA orders, and in lot of cases in Iraq and Afghanistan they are reservists that are filling individual billets.

Our squadron is unique in that we are a reserve squadron that has been mobilized as a unit since 2004. Since we have been mobilized as a unit since 2004, that means we have a great need of people to fill jobs that are available in our command. We fill them with some FTS, some Active Duty IAs and some MOBSELRES.

Here's where this gets tricky... FTS usually get orders to our squadron for about 2-3 years, meaning that they will be with us for a good duration of time. This will be an FTS's permanent assignment, and they will be around a while. IA's on the other hand are usually on loan to us from another command for a certain duration of time - usually a year. Also MOBSELRES are usually mobilized for 365 days in most cases, and therefore around for a shorter duration.

From a personnel manning perspective this makes managing schedules, and who gets what training one of the biggest nightmares on a day to day basis. Our squadron can look like grand central station on bad days with all the new people checking in. For the most part the first week of each month a new group of people are rolled in from Ft. Jackson IA training and assigned to us. They are then placed in their perspective work centers and told what their job will be on a day to day basis.

DETACHMENTS!!!! - DETS throw another monkey in the wrench where we send a group of people over to Iraq for 3 months, constantly rotating people over and back. There are also DETS that happen for training purposes in the US.

Here's the gist, and the wrap up for this lovely novel - with people coming in every month, people rotating to the desert, and people transferring out or retiring, we spend a lot of time just trying to figure out who we're going to get.

That's it for now... for those who may be interested in what kind of helicopter we fly here's a nice picture. I'm going to really work on trying to get more pictures or video up here soon!

So that's how you do it!

Just saw my CO do a re-enlistment ceremony, and after my bungle I found it rather 'instructive'. He managed to run through it from his memory, and didn't have him run through an entire sentence... of course he pointed that out to me after he finished!

First week as the SUPPO here is over and its been a bit hectic along with a learning experience. We've managed to solve a major hurdle involving a few hundred thou - which is good, and watching the budget on a day to day basis is priority one. The amount that we may spend on repairing a bird is very important, and getting the parts in time is even more important. If we can't order the parts in time, or make sure they are the correct parts, then maintenance can't get them.. and if maintenance can't get the parts, the birds don't fly!

Onto the weekend, some sun, and some sailing with Jen. I'm going to try and get some pictures posted up here soon as there is a lot of (what I think is) really cool things going on here. For one most of the Atlantic Fleet is home ported here, and the helicopters themselves along with a whole host of other things. Its certainly different than waking up every day worrying about customers and if they are going to buy software :)

I hearby solemnly swear..

This morning I finished JASMM (see below) and graduated with honors :) Seriously, there was no graduation, but there was a test and I passed, so I find that honorable. Some of the days were a bit ridiculous as we would muster at 0800, then dismissed around 1100 and come back (maybe) at 1300 to be dismissed again no later than 1500. The course used to be 10 days, but they have shortened it to 8, and I think it could be shortened to 5 in all honesty. The difficulty is that for a person like me who has no previous experience in aviation there is a LOT of information to take in. Some of the more seasoned veterans were a little more bored, and I think they may have learned some things, but they were just happy to be away from work for the most part.

Came back here around 1030 and now I'm officially on the job full time, and working as the Suppo for the squadron. I'm still trying to sort out exactly where I fit in this organization. I'm not a DEPT Head right now, or so some people tell me, but there is a supply department, and I'm the officer for it... so who knows.

Today was a very interesting day as I was the re-enlisting officer for a 1st Class Petty Officer - which was a very rewarding experience and I hope I get to do it again. Essentially I am the signing official that re-enlists this individual, and I'm proud of that. I didn't do the best job as there is a 'repeat after me' section, and I kind of made him try and memorize a very long sentence... that was my whoops. He did an impressive job though and covered my butt as he managed to repeat it almost word for word afterwards - I was impressed!

The heat wave seems to be slowing down a bit as it just reached 88 out today, which was about a 15 degree drop from yesterday. I never thought that I would find 88 comfortable but after the last 4 days here I do. Of course complaining about heat in Virginia when my friends in Baghdad and HOA are consistently above 105 every day seems a bit ridiculous.

This weekend Jen comes down on Friday, and we've got sailing lessons planned for all three days. Jen has already taken some of these lessons in the past, so she'll kick my butt as usual while we try to learn this.

If I don't post before the weekend, to all the father's out there who can't be home with their children because they are serving over seas - thank you!

JASSM and what it means to me

Training!
For the last 4 days I've been in a supply/maintenance course called JASMM (Joint Aviation Supply Maintenance Management). This course is designed to bring together people from two sides of the aviation community that tend to clash from time to time. Sometimes you have maintainers of aircraft looking for parts, and then the supply department gets in the way and doesn't have the part... and that can sometimes lead to interesting conversations over where that particular part is. Anyway, this course starts to give people appreciation of the other side of the fence... and for me, its a complete introduction to both sides of the fence!!

When I joined the Navy I started to learn a whole new bunch of alphabet soup things, otherwise known as DODspeak. You can literally put together a sentence without using a verb or noun, or anything else. I wish I could think of an example right now, but my brain is so fried from absorbing even more of these acronyms... Just to give you an example, in our training guide there are about 6-7 pages of just acronyms and what they mean.

Overall the course has been good though, and I've learned a lot more than what I knew a week ago.

Welcome Home Harry!
Two days ago at Norfolk the USS Harry Truman and her strike group sailed into the base. That meant that over 7,500 sailors who hadn't seen home in over 7 months hit the shores. Unfortunately I was in class (see above), so I didn't actually see the USS Truman pull into port, but I did get to see it all decked out at the pier and experience the 30 minute trip it took to get across base to the hangar. All worth it though as I'm sure all those sailors were glad to be home. If I can remember to bring my darn camera down here I'm going to get some pictures of the ships in port.

It's getting hot
Yesterday was 91, today was 94, and its not supposed to dip below 90 for the next 5 days. Yeah, I'm complaining and my cohorts in Africa and Baghdad are probably ready to slap me right quick as its probably above 110 every day there by now.

Looking forward to the weekend....
Heading home for the second straight weekend, which will be great to see COMHMEFRNT (translated from Navy speak: Commander HomeFront AKA the wife). I've got a bunch of house work to do, including doing a massive trimming on the tree outside our house.

Next Week:
As of lunch time Wednesday I will out of training and I will officially full time as the SUPPO for the squadron, and I think its going to be great. As some may know as the SUPPO I'm essentially in charge of watching the part orders, and the funding etc. I have to review flight hours, fuel charges, and prepare the CO for his wing presentations on budgeting etc. The great thing is that the 1st Class Petty Officer and the Senior Chief Petty Officer that are in the Supply Dept have nothing but impressed me in my first week here. That's going to be very important because over the next few months we're going to have to spend a lot of time closing out the fiscal year, and getting inventories done. One thing I am looking forward to is a 1st Class Petty Officer is re-enlisting on Tuesday and he asked me to swear him in aboard the USS Iwo Jima - actually I think his grandmother is going to read the oath, and I will certify his re-enlistment, but its still going to be a fantastic thing to watch!