No labor on Labor Day

[aadler]

 
News and musings inside the cut, as I’m inclined to do.

Open Cut

So, yes, three-day weekend. I’m still having trouble getting used to the concept. Since I came into the Army, most of my time under orders has been spent in the field, and in that environment, holidays are noted but don’t really change the schedule. On Christmas in Iraq ― and again in Afghanistan ― the camp commander and his sergeant major served the holiday meal to the troops under their command, but that was really the only difference. Taking a day off would have encouraged the wrong people. Here, unless you’re in a critical position, it doesn’t really matter. Just doesn’t feel normal.

The summer is now officially over, but the signs were there already. The mornings are cooler, and sunset comes sooner. There’s another hurrucane boiling through the Caribbean, though this one doesn’t even hint at coming close to us here. Dependents are back on base, and the schools have started up again. Little sense of time passing here, but one can see it’s doing so.

My team is so close to a deadline now, it’s almost guaranteed that we’ll get some news soon. Possibly tomorrow, expected before the end of the week. Either we get official notification that we’re staying, or we start packing to leave. We were unanimous in volunteering to remain, but it was briefly chancy for one of us. We’re a composite team, made up of people from different units. One man knew his unit was preparing for an Iraq deployment, and he was conflicted: he knew he couldn’t deploy with the rest of his unit if he stayed here, but he wasn’t assured of being able to go with them if he declined to extend here. Those are the choices we face. Not whether or not to go to a war zone, not even whether to volunteer to go, but whether to give up a good chance at something we’d like to do (another six months at Guantanamo) in return for a lesser chance at something we really want to do (Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever we can fight people who hate our country and want to do it harm).

Right now, though nothing is set solid, I expect my own unit not to go back into-theater until the end of next year. That being so, I’d much rather stay here. Still have things to do.

And, without having committed myself to anything, I’ve pretty much decided I’ll transfer over into full-time Army in the next couple of years. I’ve been doing this long enough to know I like it … and I’m at an age now where I can be fairly confident that retirement will arrive before my enthusiasm runs out.

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Finished now.