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.

The Passport

I knew I was going to need a passport so I started that procedure months before I deployed.  What I never quite figured out correctly is what the difference was between a tourist and official passport.  The tourist version is blue and the official is red.  But that's not the real difference.  The real difference is that the official passport gets you through customs without having to pay for a visa.  Also, a visa application could take a few minutes or could take forever and ultimately be denied.  The passport for which I paid over a hundred bucks is the tourist kind.

I'm now in the process of applying for an official passport.  On the good side, it's free of charge since I'm working on government/military business.  On the bad side, it's going to take two to three months and I have places to be within that time frame.  So, if you find yourself coming out to Djibouti, you're going to want to look into getting that official passport as soon as physically possible.

Oh, another Important Tip about coming out here:  Get lots of extra passport photos and bring them.  The only way to get them here is to go out in town and you will probably need them for various things.  Like visas and new passport applications.

The Rotator

The rotator is the mil air flight that brings new people in and old people out of Djibouti.  It shows up once a week at an hour of its choosing.  Today it chose right after midnight.  I've been up for quite a while helping a few new members of our office get their bags sorted out, trucked down to CLUville, and get them settled in.  Unlike my commercial air flight, they stopped just about everywhere possible on their way from the States.  Mostly Navy and Air Force on this rotator.  Marines tend to fly commercial air due to the location of our pre-deployment training.  And it's a good thing, too.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

The time has come and off I go. The final process goes through the MARFORAF liaison office. They check off all your paperwork, hand you your itinerary and wish you well. Then it's up to me to get across the world in one piece. I loved the last bit of advice here; if something goes wrong with one of the flights, just keep pressing forward, using your government travel card to buy tickets that get you closer to where you're going. Should be fun.

Tips On the Rental Car Situation

If you're coming to Camp Lejeune and mobilizing through the DPC then you really need a rental car. I had one authorized at government expense for only the first ten days but I decided to keep it on my own dime. I'm here longer than most and I hate being confined to base and I'm getting per diem while here so I can afford it.

With the amount of running around you have to do while checking in and doing the field training the car is essential. (The base hospital is probably four or five miles away from mainside.) After that, it depends. If you're staying at the Lejeune Inn you are a half mile from the DPC and everything else is even closer. If you have a week or so of just waiting around then you can easily walk down to the DPC and check in every morning. If you are staying at the BOQ or the barracks down at French Creek then you need the car because they are miles away. If you cannot get a rental car in your orders and you are going to be here for a while, you can try this: Take a taxi from the airport to the Lejeune Inn and arrange for a rental from Enterprise. They are a couple hundred yards away at the MCX annex on Holcomb. Get your car there, use it for the days you really need it and then turn it back in and wait out your time. Then take a cab back to the airport and turn the taxi receipts in on your travel claim.

Training III

Yesterday: Pistol Sharpshooter (a middling score)
Today: Rifle Range, Intro to Combat Tactics. Fun.
This Afternoon: Gas Chamber. Not fun.

Oh, and two more shots yesterday.

Training II

Ran through a CFT and the rollover trainer today and I am a beat puppy. (A CFT is a Combat Fitness Test: a half mile run in boots and cammies [you'll notice I said 'run' and not 'comfortable jog'], lifting a 30 pound ammo can over your head as many times as possible, and a crazy 'maneuver under fire' course.) I got through the run with ten seconds to spare. (Hey, if the minimum wasn't good enough it wouldn't be the minimum.) Then we went to the ammo can lift. I'm thinking that 30-35 lifts would be good enough to score well and still not pull a muscle and screw up the next event. So I'm counting the lifts for this willowy female Lance Corporal and she pumps out 60. Oy. Then she counts for me. I quickly change my plans and do a face saving 63 lifts. The next event is fun but exhausting. Here at the DPC they use a permanent CFT course with lanes already marked out. Of course, that means that the grass has been worn away and we're crawling in mud. But you sprint, low crawl, high crawl, zigzag through cones, grab a wounded buddy and drag him back through some zigzags, transfer him up to a fireman's carry, drop him back at the start line, pick up two ammo cans, run (or walk in my case) back down the course, throw a dummy grenade, do some push ups, then pick up the ammo cans again and run (or walk quickly in my case) back to the start line. Like I said, crazy. And to make it even more fun I had to carry a bigger guy than me. But at my age I get about 6 minute to pass with the barest minimum points. I did it in 3:30. So that was successful.

Then there's the rollover trainer. Hmmm... I have to take back my Disneyland comment. First you buckle yourself in to the seats of the interior mock up HMMWV. This thing rests in a gimbal that spins it around at a decent but unhurried pace. They spin you two or three times and you end up hanging upside down in your seat belt or scrunched up against the door or something. Let me tell you, this is a very disorienting position no matter how Joe Cool you thought you were before. The light's at a different angle, the shapes of ordinary things are not like your brain thinks they should be, blood is rushing to your head, and you're probably carrying your full body weight on the top of your helmet. Oh, and you have a rifle to maintain control of. You find the latches of your seat belt, which never seemed to be where they were supposed to be, and unbuckle while unsuccessfully trying to prevent yourself from becoming a completely discombobulated lump of humanity on the roof of the vehicle. Then you have to manhandle yourself into a logical position, keep in mind that there are three other people trying to do the same thing, and figure out which door can open. Then you unglamorously haul yourself out and set up security positions. Repeat seven or eight times.

Tomorrow: Pistol Range. Even if it rains that should be an easy day.

Training

Now we enter the training phase of my time here at the DPC. This afternoon we had a familiarization class on crew served weapons and and introductory class on the rollover vehicle trainer. Tomorrow we get into a mock up of a tactical vehicle and sit in it while it gets rolled a few times. Then we get out of it without killing each other. Sounds like a good candidate for a new ride at Disneyland.

Oh, and more shots today. Yea.

More Handy Tips

1. Don't bother bringing an empty seabag to Supply. They're very good at arranging the gear you get by stuffing it into other things.

2. If at all possible, stay at the Lejeune Inn. It's right in the middle of mainside and the BOQ is quite a ways away. Getting a non-availability statement is easier if you don't make a reservation at the BOQ and go there to check in after a few days have gone by and everyone else has taken up the rooms.

3. Take a contrarian view of standard Marine thinking and don't do complicated things like Supply and Medical 'first thing' in the morning. Everyone is doing them first thing in the morning. Save your mornings for checking into the B.S. stuff like MCCS and PMO. Do the major muscle movements later when the lines have drawn down.

Supply

Went to Supply (Sorry, 'Central Issue Facility'. Who comes up with these stupid names?) today and got all the gear that they said I was supposed to have. It is an insane amount of stuff. I brought an extra seabag just to hold gear and I don't think it will be big enough. The main problem is that if I use my seabag and the huge pack I was issued I'll be going over the baggage limit to fly commercial. Since it seems like I got the complete combat load for Afghanistan. I'm getting in touch with the people I'm going to be working for and double checking on what I need. Djibouti is supposed to be a permissive environment after all...

Medical II

Here are some handy tips:

1. If you are a Marine reservist deploying overseas then you need to do whatever it takes to get your medical records in your hands before you leave. Don't listen to anyone who says they will be transferred "automatically." In fact, when you mention this at the DPC, be prepared for the room to burst out in a healthy chuckle.

2. If you know you haven't had very many shots then do whatever you can to get some of the live viruses administered before you report to the DPC. There's a 28 day wait between them and if you need more than two, you're screwed.

3. Learn to like waiting rooms.

Deployment Processing Center

Other than being next to impossible to find in the gloom of early morning, with little to no signage and an unmarked S-1 entrance that's hidden under a stairwell, things are running fairly smoothly here at the DPC. They have their check-in procedures down and you finish with S-1 to walk across the parking lot and sign up for training events through the S-3. Then you get your billeting arranged while here at CLNC. I'm sitting down with the MarForAf LNO after lunch and then starting my run through medical. Medical should take most of the week and all my field training will take most of next week. There's also a list, much longer than I had previously thought, of online courses you have to run through. Those can be done on my laptop at my own pace and they have printers in order to print off certificates. They also have a bank of unclassified computers that we can use.

There's a large group of Marines, mostly going to a new Brigade HQ that CENTCOM is standing up, and they are sort of clogging the system this week. No worries though, I'm pretty sure I'll be here for a month anyway. Another friendly LtCol pointed to my check-in sheet and said that it's basically a scavenger hunt. You finally figure out exactly what building and room you have to go to only to find that the person is out until tomorrow. That sort of thing. Really, the big hold up for most people seems to be medical and that's probably how it will be with me, waiting for all the live vaccines I have to get.

So it's been an interesting day one and it's only noon chow.

Here We Go

The journey has now taken a huge leap forward. This morning at zero dark thirty I made my way to the airport and flew in to Jacksonville, NC. One of my bags didn't make it on the little puddle jumper that I hopped on in Atlanta so I have to go back and get it from the airport tonight. It's annoying because that bag has a couple of crucial uniform items that I could not replace by the time I got on base. If it doesn't come in tonight, I'll have to report in civvies tomorrow. Great.

Anyhow, for those of you who are Marines and may end up following this same path, let me tell you about the J-Actionville airport. When you get your rental car and drive off you will get to a T that has no street signs, no directional markers, no nothing. I figured it would be easier to find Camp Lejeune. It wasn't. (Hint: go right.)

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.

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.

How To Begin

The first step in this journey is to get yourself laid off back in March. That forces you to look for options. I'd always known that going back on active duty would be a good short-term financial move but I didn't want to come back after a year or two just to be in my mid forties and have to start at the bottom of some company all over again. That decision has now been made for me already. (Plus, after seeing some of my buddies getting jobs with defense contractors, I realized that military duty might not have as many negatives as I previously thought.)

So I started looking into mobilization options. Two great sources for reserve Marines are the MarForRes Global Billets list and Reserve Duty Online, which is an MOL thing. What with two wars going on there are plenty of opportunities out there. After sifting through them all I circled in on a billet with CJTF-HOA, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. It's a standing command with responsibilities throughout the East Africa region.

What followed was an almost comical series of email exchanges where the addresses on the cc line became more and more numerous. Finally, back in May, I located the person at my current unit, MarForPac HQ, that was responsible for putting my package together and forwarding it on to approving authorities. Luckily for me, I happened to be in Hawaii for another exercise and I could go talk to him face to face. That shortened the process considerably. (I suppose I should mention that I live in Seattle, where it is currently raining and 65 degrees.) From that point on the process gathered inertia and began rolling down the line like the boulder chasing Indiana Jones. But, remembering rule number one, until it happens it hasn't happened.