Deadlines, Preparation..

The latter part of this year has probably been one of the most stressful times of my army adventure so far. I don't call it a career, or I try not to, because I am not going to be doing this for my entire life; it's a stepping stone in what I hope to be a lifetime of experiences.

Some months ago I was put on a team that was to install modifications on all aircraft in the battalion. Twenty-four aircraft to be exact. Initially, teams of civilians from contracting firms were supposed to take on this giant, but then the heads of our unit decided to put it on the shoulders of the little guys to save money, or to make money since they did not have the money to pay contractors. So instead of paying some guy a bazillion dollars to modify the Apaches, they could pay us our crap pay and get triple the man hours. Brilliant.

Don't call me bitter..I just don't understand why a civilian would be paid some atrocious amount of money to do the same thing that I am going to do for a third, or maybe even a quarter of the pay. The mindset of "doing my part" keeps me in line though, as these aircraft need these modifications for the combat zone, and I have skills.

So our team had to go talk to these contractors so that they could show us the process of modification. It was kind of odd because while they were showing us they tested their latest modification and it did not work; pretty encouraging. Some guy was saying how he'd been doing this for twenty years, which isn't really something to brag about when your shit doesn't work. Regardless, we had an idea of what was going on and set out to make it work.

Our first aircraft was somewhat of a nightmare. One of the modifications requires running a set of wires from the very tip top of the tail to a switch panel in the pilot station, which is, yes you guessed it, in the front of the aircraft. Getting the wires through the pre-determined path was hell on earth...Tools were thrown, thin air was beaten to a pulp, and profanity was rampant...The engineer that drew up the blueprints for this obviously didn't try the install himself on a real aircraft. It looks good on paper!!!! Anyways, our first aircraft took 5 days to do, when the mod was generally supposed to take around 16 hours. The production control office surely wasn't satisfied with our progress, so we had to get better. At least it worked the first time when we tested the system, unlike those highly paid civilian contractors.

From there, it only got easier. One tends to perfect a process after doing it over and over and over. Our team got it down to a day and a half for one aircraft...Mind you that is working hours, not hours in a day, so all in all we were finishing an aircraft every 12 work hours. Surely we will finish all 24..right?

Well, to make a long story short...through all the sweat, some blood, but no tears, we managed to fight the fight and win the day. As of yesterday, all of the aircraft have been completed, but even though it was over it still isn't over. We have yet one final deadline; all of the aircraft that haven't had their mods tested need to be completed by well, tomorrow. That's a difficult task when there is no coordination between flying the aircraft and other maintenance. Getting time on the aircraft for testing is like trying to take back that dollar you already gave the stripper. Rough. Tomorrow will either be a good or bad day.

Preparation for war is no easy business, either. There are so many facets that support this statement that I can't possibly discuss them all, so I will mention a few. We get issued so much crap that I don't have any more space to store it, and we aren't done yet. I'm glad the Army wants to make sure I am properly equipped, but damn. If I tried to carry all of this junk into a war zone I'd surely be gunned down immediately. The administrative part of it all is the worst. Between planning my funeral, right down to what music I want, and getting all of the necessary shots and finishing mountains of paperwork, I feel like I should be cross-eyed or something by now. Regardless, it is all essential so that when we go abroad everything is taken care of.

Pretty soon it will be time to do equipment layouts and inspections to make sure we have everything necessary to brave a 15 month tour in Afghanistan. No matter what anyone says, this process sucks. "Hold up your GAS MASK, hold up your UNDERWEAR ha ha, hold up your M4 RIFLE!!!!!!" Hope they don't ask me to hold up my soul, and make sure I have enough bullets please.

I haven't really developed any feelings toward the upcoming deployment. I don't know if I want to go or not. I guess I do because I signed up to do my part, and if this isn't doing my part then I don't know what is. I'm not scared of being hurt; they say when you get into a crazy situation that training just kicks in and you know what to do. We shall see.

I suppose that's all I have for now..There's a soft queen sized bed calling my name, and I am going to indulge myself while I still can. We leave in a month, and I'm pretty sure they don't have sertas in durka-durkastan. It's either a cot, or the ground. Hope you find this entry amusing, funny, entertaining, or something else positive. If not, check your pulse.

P.S. I WANT TO GET PROMOTED (another story all in itself. But SGT GRATSCH is coming, I promise you that)

peace, love, empathy

-J