View Full Version : Options
StrykerPL
04-10-2008, 19:43
What happens should an Officer not get selected, or become injured during selection? Is there an option for that individual to transfer to another branch...such as CA?
The Reaper
04-10-2008, 19:54
What happens should an Officer not get selected, or become injured during selection? Is there an option for that individual to transfer to another branch...such as CA?
Easy, you return to the unit you came from, since you are TDY.
You do not lose your basic branch qualification.
TR
You go back to the motorpool to supervise maintenance. ;)
StrykerPL
04-11-2008, 05:53
So that's how BMO's get picked. I'm sure there's worse jobs out there
I just can't think of any...
So that's how BMO's get picked. I'm sure there's worse jobs out there
I just can't think of any...
POL OIC for a FARP??
Jack Moroney (RIP)
04-11-2008, 14:32
General's Aide
Headquarters Commandant?Goddamit, I resemble that...and if you do it well, you get to stay in command for 21 months...:p
Goddamit, I resemble that...and if you do it well, you get to stay in command for 21 months...:p
:eek:
Did you single-handedly whip the band into shape or something?:D
Did you single-handedly whip the band into shape or something?Actually, I dodged Hq & Band, USAIS, but got a motor pool, TMC and messhall with HHC 4/9 IN...damn chaplain's office was next to mine...he hated it when I had to take the Support Platoon Leader to task...:eek:
Jack Moroney (RIP)
04-12-2008, 09:03
Under the ROAD concept of the "old army" that I entered, in the Infantry the HQ Commandant was a major and had the Davey Crocket, Scout Platoon, Ground Surveillance Radar, and Heavy Mortars in addition, I state this respectfully, to the ash and trash.
Funny HQ commandant story from back in 1st CAV...
We get a call down at the Company one afternoon and I get handed the phone.. lo and behold it's from the Division CoS's office...trying to contact yours truely by name to confirm the appointment that I had with the CoS the next day. I confirmed all the particulars then after hanging up immediately called BN to find out what they knew. :confused: They had no clue. So I figured I'd make my first trip to Div HQ to find out what the deal was.
I go to the CoS's office and he calls me in and starts asking me about myself, my assignment history, significant accomplishment, skills etc...So I proceed to answer him up until the point where he asks.. "LT, why are you interested in this position?". At that point I tell him that I have no earthly idea as to why I am in his office, or what position he is talking about. I proceed to tell him that I got a call out of the blue the day before, so like a good soldier... here I am.
He gets red in the face and proceeds to quiz me on how exactly I ended up in his office etc... and tells me that I am interviewing for the HQ commandant's posn... At which time I tell him I had no idea what that was. He got even redder yet.
He then proceeds to tell me how the Division is overstrength on Engineer 1LTs (promotable) which is why I am in his office and starts to tell me about the HQ commandant's posn, how great it is, what a wonderful opportunity it is for me, how it would be a command postion and a more senior billet to boot. I him and haw a bit, trying to be polite... at which time he tells me that it would only be a short assignment after which I would be transferred to a good assignment as recognition for my service.... That's when I told him I wasn't interested and that, in all honesty, his attempting to convince me further would be a waste of his valuable time since a.) I was not interested and b.) I had an Advanced Course Date
That made him mad.
He then said that he might potentially have me reassigned to the position anyway....To which I (respectfully);) pointed out that SF was my controlling branch and that they were sending me to the Infantry Advanced course en-route to selection and the Q; and if he wanted to try and extend me I could provide him with the phone number for him to contact...
At this point he got red as a lobster and kicked me out of his office....
Well, on my way out I ran into about 3 other 1LTs from the Engineer Bde sitting in the waiting area of the CoS's office. We started shooting the shit and I told them about what I had just went through... Then, out comes the CoS himself from his office and he points at all of the LT's waiting int he waiting area and asks them if they, "had volunteered for the HQ commandant's job"... to a man, they all shook their heads "NO". He then asked if any of them wanted to know more about it or would consider volunteering.... Well.. everybody just kept shaking their heads, "NO" even faster.
So, he threw us all out.
After getting thrown out of the waiting area... all of us could hear the CoS ripping into HIS staff about "this goat screw" as all us LT's decided that this was great opportunity to pack it in early and head to the club for a beer.
..the HQ Commandant was a major and had the Davey Crocket, Scout Platoon, Ground Surveillance Radar, and Heavy Mortars in addition, I state this respectfully, to the ash and trash.I had Scouts, TOW, Mortars, the Support Platoon, Medics, Commo Platoon, the ash and trash (aka the battalion staff), I had the Brigade Maintenance Facility (We had one battalion in the Brigade, so why burden the Brigade HHC Comedian?) and the Brigade Dining Facility...they would have been reluctant to allow me a Davy Crockett platoon, 'cause I woulda nuked someone...I got rid of the Redeye platoon, as well as the engineer platoon...I had an A-team slice of 200 folks, 75 of whom had some sort of profile...
I spent the last half year of command as a CPT(P) and the battalion commander at the time had asked that I stay in command until he left (an additional 14 months)...the Division commander bought off on it, but Infantile branch was concerned that I was holding back some stud muffin 11B...SF branch didn't much give a rip as long as I was gainfully employed...
I had Scouts, TOW, Mortars, the Support Platoon...
The Siege Tower company, the Trebuchet section, the Crossbow platoon... :D
The Siege Tower company, the Trebuchet section, the Crossbow platoon... You're just jealous...:p
You betcha! There's something that just seems viscerally stirring to use the term "Torches!" as a pre-firing command. :lifter
Jack Moroney (RIP)
04-15-2008, 05:26
Funny HQ commandant story from back in 1st CAV...
That is a great story and does it bring back a memory or two. I had just taken over a B-Team in the 10th in 1969 when I received a similar cryptic note telling me that the post Cdr wanted to see me. Back then the post cdr was a BG. Seems as the BG was on his way to MG and was looking for an aide which, for those who know me, was not something on my METL. The interview did not last long because when he asked me what I thought about becoming his aide I replied, "I did not come into the army to carry around a pillow for someone to sit on or be someone's boot black." Inteview terminated:D
In 1972 I reported into the 101st hoping for an airborne infantry company and as luck would have it there were slots available. However the CG was the same MG for whom I objectively discussed my career options as his aide and for some reason ,of all the young CPTs ,I was singled out by his AG for a special assignment in straigthing out the worst company sized unit on post, the 545th Personnel Service Company. I was not a happy camper and was sure that the MG was behind this. So I did the personnel management thing with the AG telling him that I was an Infantry Officer, that this was a mal-assignment, that I was told by DA that I was going to go to the Division and I would not be jerked around by some leg LTC. The last part did not go over well but he made me a promise, or a threat, depending on how you look at it. He said that he was really looking for a SF officer who could deal with the unusual and that if I straightened out the company he promised to send me to the Division. The proof of the effort would be the upcoming IG inspection in January (this was June). At the same time the MG had some quirk about pitting company commanders against one another and had come up with a stupid little penant that he would award annually called the 101 effectiveness award. He was a management freak and would use the daily stats, produced by the machine branch which belonged to the 545th Personnel Service Company, to directly by pass the chain of command and call company commanders directly about whatever cropped up on the stats that he monitored. The machine branch, as I saw it, became the center of gravity for figuring out the MG's convoluted approach to leadership and I used it to my advantage. His little award was going to be based on computer punch cards and my strategy was to make sure chads fell or hung in line for the 545th. The goal for my release from bondage was to enable the company to take that damn penant. Well to make a long story short not only did we take his dumbass penant, we maxed the IG, the messhall (we did not have dinning facilities back then) won best small mess in the Army in Conus, and our reenlistment rates broke the book. The MG never really figured out how we did it and I wasn't about to tell him but the best part was this MG, when he figured out I was the same ungrateful CPT that had turned down his selection for aide and had handily blew away all those stats he had set as measurment tools ahead of "the real units", refused to award the penant to the unit in person and had his chief of staff do it for him.:D Little did I know that this was only going to be the first of many irritating issues dealing with those "leaders" whose approach to command was management by machine.
Col Jack
You are a man after my own heart. That was good and sounded like a classic SOF Mission..... If you were not trained well then you would not have succeeded.
Col Jack
You are a man after my own heart. That was good and sounded like a classic SOF Mission..... If you were not trained well then you would not have succeeded.
I'm sure training had something to do with it, however, it sounded to me like a shining example of what a determined individual can accomplish when properly motivated and incented.:D
The Reaper
04-15-2008, 13:02
COL M:
You might remember that O'C and I got "volunteered" to the SWCS CG's Aide de Camp for exactly the same purpose, and neither of us volunteered either.
I was a little more subtle than O'C (who told the CG's secretary that "he hoped the old man liked to ride bitch, cause he didn't own a cage"), but both of us made it pretty clear that this was NOT a job we were soliciting.
While it appears to be good for careers, I didn't think it trumped a job on Demo Committee, and it damn sure wouldn't have been as much fun.
TR
Jack Moroney (RIP)
04-15-2008, 13:21
COL M:You might remember that O'C and I got "volunteered" to the SWCS CG's Aide de Camp for exactly the same purpose, and neither of us volunteered either.TR
I remember and I also remember that I had nothing to do with it. I believe that the fat, obnoxious, chief of staff brokered that move.:D