Changes...

One of the things that comes with being in the military is getting used to constant change, both for better and worse. After 15+ years, I have learned that being flexible is often not enough, as most times you must be fluid. And, when it appears that fluid is still too stiff, you must be gaseous. I suppose this is where I find myself today. A couple examples...

I was advised this morning that the "permanent" barracks that I moved into yesterday are now not so permanent, and we will be moving on Tuesday to another building. For the record, this "seasoned" Army veteran waited until yesterday evening to unpack his bags, thinking that a change could likely come my way. It wasn't until after I had unpacked my overstuffed assault pack, rucksack and duffel bags that I received the news of this change. Apparently, I was still in fluid mode.

The other change was not so surprising, although it will have a dramatic impact on my duties for the foreseeable future. The short version of the story is this...our Brigade operations section is divided into two sections: current operations and future plans. The chiefs of these two sections have been building their "teams" for weeks now, and I got caught up in the middle of a tug-of-war over which section I would be assigned. I have tried to keep a positive attitude throughout. I figure it's better to be fought over, than having people trying to get rid of you, which, yes, was the case here. However, I told them both to be careful what they asked for. Now that the dust has settled, I find myself in the future plans section.

So, my duties while deployed will now be very different from what I told many of you I thought they would be. I now anticipate one of my first assignments will be working on the plan for how to move our Brigade back to Iowa. It took us 2 years to plan how to get to Afghanistan, so it will likely take us a good 6-9 months to figure out how to get back to Iowa once we're there. I will still be assigned to Bagram Air Field (north of Kabul), so there will be no change with duty location.

I guess that's all from here for now. The fluid side of me wants to begin (re)packing my bags for Tuesday just to get it started. However, I think the gaseous side of me is winning out, and I'm going to wait. Knowing the Army, I give it a 50/50 chance that I even have to move. We'll find out Tuesday. Lee.