Introductions

I'm a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and I'm volunteering to go to Djbouti, Africa, for a year of duty with CJTF-HOA. I'm putting this blog together because I found it hard to find first hand information when I was going through the decision process regarding my orders. Most stuff was dated by a couple of years and some other things just didn't have what I wanted. So the plan is to post as much unclassified information as I can over the next 18 months or so. Everything from the process of getting orders, to the training and travel, through the deployment and to include the retrograde. If my experience can be a help to someone, then I've done my job.

Currently, I've been in the process for a few months so there's some catching up to do. I would have started the blog earlier but, as I explained to my wife every time she asked about how certain of deploying I was, until it happens it hasn't happened. That's been true for my entire 20+ years in the Corps and it's still true today. Funny thing is, in the Marines... even after it happens it might not still keep happening.

Time will tell but I should be starting active duty on or about October 17th. Lots of ground to cover between now and then.