VISA Is Not Everywhere You Want To Go

I found this out in downtown Stuttgart when I was hungry and only had enough euros to pay the parking garage.  I had to go to four different restaurants before I found one that took VISA.  Most of them take something called an EC card and I really don't want another credit card, and a foreign one at that, just for a couple of days in Germany.  Anyhow, if you end up in Stuttgart, you definitely want to go to the old Wurtemburg palace and Schlossplatz.  It has culture oozing out of every orifice.  And great shopping too.

Stuttgart

If you wind up at CJTF-HOA and you're on the J-staff somewhere, it is likely that you will end up going to AFRICOM HQ for one reason or another.  Here are some observations.  First, you will definitely have to fly overnight and end up in Germany the next morning so remember to figure that into your scheduling.  Second, you should have no problem reserving a rental car in Stuttgart.  I chose Hertz; Avis is right next to it.  Driving in Germany is not really difficult and if you're here for just a short period you don't have to worry about anything other than having a valid U.S. license.  Do what you can to study up on how the right-of-way is handled because that's the only thing I had trouble with.  Third, you may be tempted to stay at the Kelley Hotel because it is a couple hundred yards from the AFRICOM buildings.  Don't.  I'm sure the hotel is great but the Panzer Hotel is aboard Panzer Kaserne and the base facilities here are so much better than Kelley Barracks.  Both are part of the Army Lodging system and are the first places you're required to stay when on orders.  Panzer is about a fifteen minute drive to Kelley and is worth the effort.  Fourth, make sure you plan enough time to get an access badge, which means making sure that your clearance info has been sent before you leave HOA.

Djibouti Airport

It's nice to know that despite looking like it was built in the 1970's and hasn't seen a lick of maintenance since then, they're at least trying to run a respectable establishment.

A Tip On Packing

If you're coming out here and there's even the remotest chance that you might be going to Europe on official travel remember that while this place is always hot, Europe gets quite cold in the winter.  Moral of the story:  Do not put your camouflage rain parka on the bottom of your seabag.

We Just BLUF

I'm not exactly sure how this particular bit of lingo worked its way into the U.S. military lexicon but I think it should be destroyed, and destroyed quickly.

When briefing a senior officer it has become vogue to put the Bottom Line Up Front, labeled BLUF, on your first slide and then use the rest of you brief to back it up.  Because when you get through with a brief the commander knows there's really only one important point you want to make.  So by putting it up front you tell him what to expect by the time you get to the end.

Good in theory?  Maybe.  In practice?  This is just stupid.  (If I want to bluff the commander, I'm certainly not going to make it that easy for him to see...  I want him to work for it.)

What I see far too often is an officer that goes on and on, repeating himself along the way, only to get to the end of his brief to announce what the BLUF is (which, as you will note, is no longer up front) and then that BLUF is actually a longer summation of what he just repeated.

It makes you want to drive long, sharp objects into your eyeballs at a high rate of speed.

Travel

In all my days as a Marine, I've never quite seen a system of official military travel like this.  Usually if there's some kind of training or conference you're supposed to go to the admin shop will get you set up for it.  Here it's a little different.  You have a couple of web based processes to go through but you essentially write your own orders. If you can route the travel request through your supervisor and he or she buys off on it, away you go.  I've also never seen conferences, like the one in Germany I'm soon to go to, that don't have some kind of official attendee list and travel instructions and such.  I guess I just get off the plane in Stuttgart and meander on over to conference.  Strange.

The Laundry

I should tell you about the laundry situation here.  There are containers with free self service laundry machines as part of every block in CLUville.  So you can spend hours of your time every week doing your own laundry.  Or you can walk over to one of two full service laundry drop off points and have someone else do it for you.  CLUville has it's own drop off/pick up point and there's a bigger one up by the PX.  Turn your laundry in and pick it up two days later.  That's a good deal.  It's also free and they do a good job; I've never lost anything and if I came up short by a couple of socks, I wouldn't really care anyway.  With the long work days, I can't see why anyone would want to bother with doing their own.