I'm Done ... 3 Months and I Can Walk Away

So I know that I haven't been posting much about military life on here like I had at our previous duty stations. One reason for that is my parents taught me, if you can't say something nice- don't say anything at all!

Now it's not like we hate it here - ok, I kinda do - but mainly because it is so unlike other bases.

We've always been stationed at Army bases, but we are currently assigned to an Air Force Reserve Base, meaning there is no support here for military families. It's not just the post amenities that we miss either- the camaraderie here leaves much to be desired.

I straddle two worlds so to speak. When George first took command of this detachment, they had previously fallen under a different organization- one that we are now 'attached' too, but our parent organization is located at Fort Bragg. This gives us the identity as an independent organization that co-exists with the larger unit here.

As the first commander he had a lot to overcome, to include but not limited to, fighting for respect as a commander of the detachment forcing the senior personnel of the larger unit to go to him when they needed our Soldiers versus just tasking them to do stuff without at the very least notifying him. I can only imagine how hard it was for our Soldiers caught amid the "divorced" parents, both telling them to do something different. George was fortunate in having the Organization's commanding general support him & it quickly resolved itself. Our families, however, still feel alienation from the larger group.

We still fight with getting information in a timely manner but I thought that was our biggest problem. But then ...

Well tonight we had the Steering Committee Meeting where the leadership meets with the Family Representatives. The first thing they brought up was that we needed to disband our unit's FRG! What!?! They can't do that ... Literally, its in the Army regulations that commanders must provide Family programs for Soldiers & their Families. Ha! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! The they demanded that we give them our clendar of events for approval? OMG! Someone must've found a rustly ol' crack pip and smoked it to come up with that idea! They don't get say in what we do! And not to be outdone, they wanted to view nd edit my welcome letter to families to ensure that they understand they can participate in both units' activities! Thankfully, the 1SG was there to see what was going on (and to keep me from stomping some heads,), but poor George had to hear it from both of us after the meeting was over.

After they tried to disband us, we moved on to other things with the Christmas Party briefing (yes, briefing) being at the end. First the Admiral started it off by going into detail that he didn't want this location, but the location he wanted was unavailable, then he left the meeting for other stuff. So the 1SG gets up to do the slide presentation and from the start they are picking apart every choice we made. Now, it was by coincidence that I signed up to be committee chair for the same one that was tasked to our unit so at least I get to work with my one people on this one.

Tell me if I m wrong ... I told them it was important to chose a location where we didn't need volunteers to serve the food, or do the craft, or other things so that the voluteers (its always the same people) could actually enjoy the event for once rather than worrying bout what shift they were on for serving food, or who was cleaning up, or manning the kids area. I thought it would give them a chance to spend time with their kids and enjoy mking memories, but apparently I am the only one who had that thought. When I explained it was so parents could do stuff with their kids, they wanted to know if we could hire someone to watch the kids instead. Really, is it too much to spend a few hours playing with your kid in a bouncy house or help them decorate a snowman cookie!?!

Everything was an issue with them. I am so happy that we are leaving in a few months, but I feel so bad for what our fmilies will endure after we are gone. I hope the commander and his wife that come in after us are willing to stand up for our families.

I could go into more detail of how horrible it was to be completely attacked from all sides, but I think I'd rather down a diet coke and some cookies rather than get my blood pressure elevated. Next meeting, we are getting a sitter and George, 1SG and I will attend. I think that that will be a fun show to watch!

Until our next cup of tea ...