How Things Become Confusing

I found out today that medical is no longer the overwhelming issue I thought it was. It's funny how this kind of thing happens and is actually a good study in organizational dynamics. You know, the kind of dynamics that make Dilbert so doggone funny.

The reporting instructions for MarForAf are pretty explicit that all training and medical and admin issues need to be handled before showing up for duty. There are even phrases like 'incomplete areas will result in canceled orders and return to your command.' So I've been trying to figure out how on Earth I'm going to get everything done with fewer and fewer days to do it. So today I had a good conversation with someone who knows the process and she told me not to worry. All the things I'm trying to do will get done while I'm in North Carolina at the Deployment Processing Center. It's there that the training and medical and such are finished before you actually fly overseas. Relax, she said, and enjoy the last couple of weeks with your family.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Billet Assignment

I've finally gotten the assignment for what I'm going to be doing in Djibouti. There's a specific line number in the Joint Manning Document that I'm deploying under. It used to be one job (the advertised job that I saw and thought I was signing up for) but now it's been reassigned to another job in another section. That's the way the cookie crumbles. No hard feelings; in fact I'm pretty excited about it.

I'll be in Operations and I'll be working to ensure that all the exercises we conduct go off without a hitch. It's even specifically written into the billet description to take care of any 'unforeseen problems'. Since that is something that I've always excelled at, I'm looking forward to the challenges ahead. (Handy Side Note: When anyone in the military starts using the word "challenges" you can usually translate that to mean "we have no idea how to do this.")

My main tasks will be to ensure the smooth workings of multinational exercises through interaction with the host nation through their military offices and embassies. From what I can gather, I'm the guy that goes around and makes sure that the plan that everyone agreed to actually works according to plan. It sounds like a lot of travel throughout East Africa and a lot of smiling and hand shaking and frantic cell phone calls. Should be fun.

The Labyrinth

This is rich. I need my orders in hand to get anything done at medical. I need to start the medical process at least a month out. I can't get orders until they clear through travel and my flight to NC is arranged. I call the admin bubbas who write the orders and they tell me that I (as in, not them) need to call the travel office to arrange travel and then my orders get kicked out of The System. I call the Marine Corps Reserve travel office and they tell me that they don't do travel requests this far in advance. I sigh. I explain the situation and they tell me that I (as in, not them) need to fill out a travel request and email it to them. Then they book the travel and I can get my orders and go to medical and get shot.

And this is the easy part.

Medical

Here's a handy tip that I kinda knew but hoped wasn't true. Medical won't do anything for a reservist unless you have mobilization orders in hand. If you wind up in the pipeline for deployment like me, ask for orders as soon as possible.

The X Factor

Another player in this game is Marine Forces Africa, the service component of USAFRICOM. (A Short Aside: The various Combatant Commands throughout the world, as shown on the map below, all have components of the four armed services that function as force providers. A force provider is a headquarters that handles the deployment of its particular service members so they can support whatever exercises or contingencies that the Combatant Command is responsible for. Therefore, in addition to MARFORAF, there is also USARAF, US Air Forces Africa, and NAVAF.) Part of the reporting instructions for MARFORAF is to be thoroughly briefed and cognizant of the roles and responsibilities that you will have during your deployment. This is typically summed up in a billet description.

My situation is a little more complex, however. There are apparently a few different billets that I might be slotted in to but no one has quite figured out which one it may be yet. For now, there's really no impact on my preparations. I'm still trying to get some training done and go to medical next week. The difficulty is going to come later when I try to study up on what exactly I'm going to need to know. Things like joint doctrinal publications that would be handy to have read will have to be put on hold. But, since the unofficial motto of the Marine Corps is Semper Gumby, Always Flexible, I don't really think it will be much of a problem. I look at it as an adventure unfolding before my feet, with pleasant surprises, sunshine, and lollipops as far as the eye can see.

Leaning Too Far Forward

Because of Rule Number One (until it happens it hasn't happened) I've tried to be careful about getting myself too prepared. It took me months before I just recently ordered some French language software and a phrase book. I've known what the medical requirements are for an equally long time but since the list is as long as my arm, I didn't feel like going and getting a bunch of shots just to find out that I wasn't going over there after all. But now things are much more certain than before. As I mentioned before, a momentum builds up and works to prevent change because no one wants to go through all of this all over again.

As an IMA reservist I have a couple of problems. One of them is lack of a home unit that can put me through PTP Block 1. Pre-deployment Training Package 1 is the basic Marine Corps stuff and it's required for joining AFRICOM; rifle range, pistol range, gas chamber, swim qual, etc. Since I drill out in Hawaii a couple of times a year, I don't have the support for completing all these events. What I'm finding out now is that they can all be taken care of in North Carolina when I get to the deployment processing center. Good enough. That leaves me with just medical. That's going to hurt enough as it is. I count 15 different shots that I need to get before hitting the ground in DJ. Lucky for me I've got a month and a half before flying to NC and another month after that before arriving in country. Should be time enough.

AFRICOM

So I chose a billet within the newly established combatant command responsible for Africa: AFRICOM. Once that was done I decided to look up some information on it and see what this was all about. Five minutes on the Google opened my eyes quite a bit. There's a whole host of people out there who hate AFRICOM and vow to resist it as much as possible. They believe it is part of the United States' plan to re-colonize the continent. After some learned study I have to conclude that their fears are understandable, given the history of Africa, but off the mark. The U.S. doesn't want colonies. We want viable trading partners. The U.S. doesn't want to steal Africa's resources. We want to buy them at stable market prices. And for those who think that this move is just to further the militarization of the continent, I would point out that there is plenty of militarization already and that part of Africa's problem is that their militaries can't always be trusted to work for the good of the people. One of AFRICOM's goals is to change that and to professionalize the various military organizations so that they behave responsibly under the control of responsible civilian governments. I just can't see that as a bad thing.

I could go on and on about this, and I probably will, but right now I'm still in Seattle going over the pages and pages of reporting instructions and the shockingly long list of vaccinations I have waiting for me.