One Day Difference

It is amazing how one day can make a difference.  I'm not saying all that much happened over the course of one night or even this morning to change things for J and I but it is one day closer to an end for our normal life routine.

Friday J got denied re-enlistment yet again.  He'll start his ACAP process this week.  I'm not sure what, when or where this will lead to.  Yes, there is still one last chance that he could re-enlist but with two higher ups saying no it doesn't bode well.

Down sizing sucks.  We all have had someone close to us that has lost a job with this economy.  Looks like J will be struck down twice by the failing of man.

He was let down by his team mates.  He didn't deploy so they held a grudge.  They could have given him recommendations but they chose not to.  Mind you he feels thrown under the bus.  If you'll remember back some ways for those that follow my blog J was a spare to a team.  He was given the opportunity to stay back and try to create a family with me.  They had two other people to fill his job.  He did offer to deploy this spring but was told he wasn't needed with his injury.  So he decided to go through with the surgery and work on healing his back.  Now he is paying for staying behind.

His surgery was a success.  His back is healing enough to have his profile down graded.  He can do more now.  In a few months he should be back to near perfect health again. 

I shouldn't be amazed that his teammates would throw him under the bus.  But some how I am.  I am ashamed of them for holding a grudge.  J did what he could back here to make things easier for his teammates while they were deployed but they didn't look at it like that at all.  No they are thinking that he was lazy and didn't do what they wanted in a timely manner.  He did what he could given the resources he had to work with.  I'm really tired of the pass buck blame that is going on in the ranks.  Own up, learn from the problem, work to accomplish the goals the team has set forth. 

While on Rear detachment J has been praised in his monthly counseling statements for going all out to work hard, take classes to be more valuable to his unit like the recent one he took to become the unit's armorer, and excel at tasks given to him.  He is considered a model soldier.  However, none of this matters to the teammates deployed or to the chain-of-command that is ever changing on Rear detachment.  All the chain-of-command knows is that J didn't deploy with his teammates, therefore he must be considered unfit and of no real use to the army so he'll be eliminated.

It is a sorry day when a trained, fit, and well educated soldier will be tossed aside so that they can bring in a new untrained, high school educated only, recruit to fill the ranks.  Maybe the Army should check it's books because from my understanding it costs more to train a new soldier to do a job including the basic combat training and outfit them than to continue to pay a soldier of my spouse's rank to do the same job at a higher skill level because he is proficient and they are not.

Now it is a wait and see what the end of the year will bring.