First let me say thank you for all your continued support and your fine salutations on my return! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Now, let me try to put into words what I went through for the past year. Please understand that this is no sad sob story… but while it was happening to ME… it did take a lot out of me.
I got home with HIGH intentions of transferring into the Army full time. I took all of November off to spend time with my family. I started the process with a recruiter and in about two months my packet was ready to be sent up. That very day my Commander and Chief set the conditions for full military cutbacks. I was not going to be allowed to transfer.
I had gone back to Home Depot on January the nineteenth, to a different department than I had left from. That was to be expected and I accepted my new department thankful to have a job.
Now when you take a military person who has just spent the last 18 months in a war zone and put him in a non-military setting… sometimes it doesn’t go over too well. Add to that the fact that his hopes has just dropped out AND that his pay is now a THIRD of what it was, it becomes more and more troublesome. Well fortunately I am not the kind of guy to let little things bother me.
NOPE not ME… I just shut down instead. I spent the first two months putting everything I had into catching up the Honey DUE list and getting the packet ready. When I got the crushing news no transfer was coming… I shut myself off from outside contact. Poor poor pitiful me! I had to start back going to drill… to a unit that didn’t even have a slot for me anymore (internal setup changes). I tried transferring to an MP unit to keep my MOS but that wasn’t working out. Months and months of nothing and struggling was starting to get to me big time.
Last month I went to drill and the unit was going to the field for three days. Those of us who didn’t have the proper gear had to stay back and I was put in charge. We had a great weekend working hard on staying out of trouble and cleaning up the unit. I really felt like I was doing something again and it got me motivated. During that weekend I called a recruiter friend and asked if there was any openings. He said there wasn’t but that he heard there was some at the school.
On the back side of Fort Jackson is an area allocated to the South Carolina National Guard. We keep a lot of our vehicles there, we do weekend and two week maneuvers there and we have a school there for military training. The biggest thing we train on is the WLC and BNCOC classes… when getting promoted you have to attend this courses depending what rank you are or are going to be.
So, I call out there to an instructor I know and he says that they have about six openings and got me the First Sergeants number after speaking to him for me. I started on the First but actually training for me doesn’t begin until Thursday. I had to take a DEMOTION back to E6... But being a fulltime job and getting OUT of Home Depot is well worth the cut! I am sure you can imagine my excitement desire to get started! So much so, that I had to come and share it with all of you.
I am sorry that I disappeared. Looking back I think that if I had stayed in touch… your (all of you) encouraging words would have helped me hold up better! During the time I was in Iraq you were all instrumental in keeping me going in a job that ran 12 hours a day seven days a week endlessly. During the times when I sat in a bunker knowing mortar was coming at us… I often spent thinking what we could talk about next.
Well… I will not be able to get to a computer but once or twice a week now. It will be a totally different set up and this first month is all about training. But, I hope that we will again be able to share words of kindness and wisdom. Please feel free to share any stories that you have to tell of what the past year has been like for you!!
Thank you all once again for being a friend!
Simply,
Chris