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"J"

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
59,663
288
North Carolina
Jackalope said:
I learned early on. Always Always Always steal your shot record. 😅
Click to expand...
We were the ones who maintained it. We kept it in a folder and locked it up in our respective shops. Always made copies of it when it was updated. Also got a cop of all my medical records before I retired.
 
Sgt Fury

Sgt Fury

Sgt. Spellchecker
24,500
184
Southern NJ/Vinton county Ohio
29FCF017-994C-4E31-8CB2-322BD9651343.jpeg
 
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Hedgelj

Hedgelj

Senior Member
Supporting Member
8,586
189
Mohicanish
"J" said:
What made you decide too call it quits?
Click to expand...
Honestly the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

Edited to add:

I have 9 years total in service. 8 Considered active Army Reserve and 1 year in the IRR. Of those 8 years only 5-6 are considered good years. When I commissioned I was in Anesthesia school. I joined into a program called the Specialized Trainining Assistance Program (STRAP). We get commisioned in school as 1LT or 2LT and then get a stipend through school and can also fill out 1380s for drill points and pay and fall under the Army Professional Management Command (APMC). Well they didn't bother sending me or a few of my classmates to the official orientation weekend in Georgia, they just threw one together that told us nothing because they had none of the correct personnel there for the content so we got a bunch of email addresses for questions and that was it. Then part way through my schooling they (APMC) changed what you could fill out 1380s for. I contacted my career manager at the time and they said unless you want to go to an actual drill just don't fill out 1380s, its not a big deal if you are okay not receiving the extra couple hundred dollars each month. EXCEPT IT IS A BIG DEAL!!! Without the drill points you don't get a good year, so now you see why I don't have as many good years as possible.

Problem 2: When we finish our anesthesia program we have at least a masters degree (now changing to doctoral) and we are supposed to be promoted at the next promotion board to CPT. Well except that APMC didn't bother submitting my packet the first time so I was passed over. That doesn't look so good on your OER btw. The second time I was up for promotion the board didn't follow the AR guidelines for promotion and I got passed over again. They stated that it was because I didn't have my Basic Officers Leadership Class (BOLC) done. I was scheduled for BOLC but the classes prior were full. ALSO, APMC put in my file that I was educationally qualified for promotion and I also put in a memorandum stating the AR governance that showed that I was educationally qualified. However the board didn't care that the AR stated I should be promoted and didn't. I then got the paperwork to outprocess as being passed over 2x is a qualifier for that. So instead of losing all that they had invested in me and some of my fellow soldiers there was a memo written by the Secretary of the Army that kept me and a few others in. When I went to BOLC later that year EVERY other 66F in my class fell under that memo. It was a huge problem that the promotion boards didn't care about a few AOCs that fell under the guideline of a specific AR, and thus the memo.

Problem 3: My deployment. As a 66F I am a healthcare provider that is considered professional staff and the AR guidelines and memos state my orders are for 120 days with 90 days boots on ground (BOG). This is because they understand the civilian side of my employment cannot sustain the 6-12 month deployments of the regular joes. Think of what would happen to a physician if they were gone from their private practice for a year. It would be ended. Well needless to say an O4 didn't care and didn't follow the AR and memo guidances from the Secretary of the Army so I was actually BOG for 110 days and we had to start an IG inquiry to get me not on orders for 150 days which is what the O4 and O5 were wanting. The army spent an extra 75-100K to keep a group of us in Kuwait for an extra 2 weeks (that's pay because there were O3-O6s in the group) rather than move us through normally.

Other issues. There are only so many locations a 66F can be in. They are making it incredibly difficult to balance civilian work with the Army requirements and its not worth it. I take a fairly significant pay cut to do the Army stuff and its not worth it anymore, especially when units are asking for much greater time than the standard weekend a month and 2 weeks a year (talking MUTA 6s 8 times a year, MUTA 4s 2-3 times a year and two 3-4 week ATs a year). Also the online training is becoming harder and harder to do without a GOVT computer but yet no time is allocated or the computers are down every weekend at drill. The deployment and demob process is becoming a shitshow for the providers also. We don't go with our unit, we go to a different location. This location is changing over to more and more contractors and less soldiers and they are making it nigh impossible. I know of one person who they completely didn't fund his travel to the mideast, he sat in Tx for an extra 2 weeks and then was sent home because rather than correctly funding his travel, they just extended the active duty 66F he was supposed to relieve. That CRNA then went home with no job lined up because of the type of work he does for 3 months. Another group of providers that included multiple O6s was screamed at and told they were incompetent by the government contractor who was supposed to give them guidance on how the packet was to be filled out when it was done wrong with no guidance. The training schedule at the location has time for the packet to be filled out but that wasn't good enough. Its just becoming such a shit show that its not worth it for many of us anymore.

I loved my time in, loved my unit and my fellow soldiers. I was honored to get to work along side some of the men and women I did. I met people of the caliber they write books about. I regret nothing. But I have served, and now its time for me to focus on other aspects of my life. Yes, had I stayed my 20 is the retirement good, but I can do better on the civilian side without the headache, stress and hassle of just trying to serve.
 
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"J"

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
59,663
288
North Carolina
Hedgelj said:
Honestly the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

Edited to add:

I have 9 years total in service. 8 Considered active Army Reserve and 1 year in the IRR. Of those 8 years only 5-6 are considered good years. When I commissioned I was in Anesthesia school. I joined into a program called the Specialized Trainining Assistance Program (STRAP). We get commisioned in school as 1LT or 2LT and then get a stipend through school and can also fill out 1380s for drill points and pay and fall under the Army Professional Management Command (APMC). Well they didn't bother sending me or a few of my classmates to the official orientation weekend in Georgia, they just threw one together that told us nothing because they had none of the correct personnel there for the content so we got a bunch of email addresses for questions and that was it. Then part way through my schooling they (APMC) changed what you could fill out 1380s for. I contacted my career manager at the time and they said unless you want to go to an actual drill just don't fill out 1380s, its not a big deal if you are okay not receiving the extra couple hundred dollars each month. EXCEPT IT IS A BIG DEAL!!! Without the drill points you don't get a good year, so now you see why I don't have as many good years as possible.

Problem 2: When we finish our anesthesia program we have at least a masters degree (now changing to doctoral) and we are supposed to be promoted at the next promotion board to CPT. Well except that APMC didn't bother submitting my packet the first time so I was passed over. That doesn't look so good on your OER btw. The second time I was up for promotion the board didn't follow the AR guidelines for promotion and I got passed over again. They stated that it was because I didn't have my Basic Officers Leadership Class (BOLC) done. I was scheduled for BOLC but the classes prior were full. ALSO, APMC put in my file that I was educationally qualified for promotion and I also put in a memorandum stating the AR governance that showed that I was educationally qualified. However the board didn't care that the AR stated I should be promoted and didn't. I then got the paperwork to outprocess as being passed over 2x is a qualifier for that. So instead of losing all that they had invested in me and some of my fellow soldiers there was a memo written by the Secretary of the Army that kept me and a few others in. When I went to BOLC later that year EVERY other 66F in my class fell under that memo. It was a huge problem that the promotion boards didn't care about a few AOCs that fell under the guideline of a specific AR, and thus the memo.

Problem 3: My deployment. As a 66F I am a healthcare provider that is considered professional staff and the AR guidelines and memos state my orders are for 120 days with 90 days boots on ground (BOG). This is because they understand the civilian side of my employment cannot sustain the 6-12 month deployments of the regular joes. Think of what would happen to a physician if they were gone from their private practice for a year. It would be ended. Well needless to say an O4 didn't care and didn't follow the AR and memo guidances from the Secretary of the Army so I was actually BOG for 110 days and we had to start an IG inquiry to get me not on orders for 150 days which is what the O4 and O5 were wanting. The army spent an extra 75-100K to keep a group of us in Kuwait for an extra 2 weeks (that's pay because there were O3-O6s in the group) rather than move us through normally.

Other issues. There are only so many locations a 66F can be in. They are making it incredibly difficult to balance civilian work with the Army requirements and its not worth it. I take a fairly significant pay cut to do the Army stuff and its not worth it anymore, especially when units are asking for much greater time than the standard weekend a month and 2 weeks a year (talking MUTA 6s 8 times a year, MUTA 4s 2-3 times a year and two 3-4 week ATs a year). Also the online training is becoming harder and harder to do without a GOVT computer but yet no time is allocated or the computers are down every weekend at drill. The deployment and demob process is becoming a shitshow for the providers also. We don't go with our unit, we go to a different location. This location is changing over to more and more contractors and less soldiers and they are making it nigh impossible. I know of one person who they completely didn't fund his travel to the mideast, he sat in Tx for an extra 2 weeks and then was sent home because rather than correctly funding his travel, they just extended the active duty 66F he was supposed to relieve. That CRNA then went home with no job lined up because of the type of work he does for 3 months. Another group of providers that included multiple O6s was screamed at and told they were incompetent by the government contractor who was supposed to give them guidance on how the packet was to be filled out when it was done wrong with no guidance. The training schedule at the location has time for the packet to be filled out but that wasn't good enough. Its just becoming such a shit show that its not worth it for many of us anymore.

I loved my time in, loved my unit and my fellow soldiers. I was honored to get to work along side some of the men and women I did. I met people of the caliber they write books about. I regret nothing. But I have served, and now its time for me to focus on other aspects of my life. Yes, had I stayed my 20 is the retirement good, but I can do better on the civilian side without the headache, stress and hassle of just trying to serve.
Click to expand...
Probably should of just joined the AF as the army is one fugged up shit storm 😂😂😂😂

Shots fired 😂😂😂

That’s a lot of shit too happen too one person in a span of 9 years... seems like the folks overseeing your career didn’t give a shit about much of it.
I never trusted anyone and always looked out for myself. I can count on one hand in a span of 35 years of people I could trust with my career. And 2 of them I’m still friends with and will be hanging out with for the next few days....

Sorry it didn’t work out for you. I hope you don’t look back 30 years from now and wish you’d of stuck it out. I’ve talked too way too many people who’d of wished they would of....
 
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Jackalope

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
39,188
274
"J" said:
Probably should of just joined the AF as the army is one fugged up shit storm 😂😂😂😂

Shots fired 😂😂😂

That’s a lot of shit too happen too one person in a span of 9 years... seems like the folks overseeing your career didn’t give a shit about much of it.
I never trusted anyone and always looked out for myself. I can count on one hand in a span of 35 years of people I could trust with my career. And 2 of them I’m still friends with and will be hanging out with for the next few days....

Sorry it didn’t work out for you. I hope you don’t look back 30 years from now and wish you’d of stuck it out. I’ve talked too way too many people who’d of wished they would of....
Click to expand...

I did 6 years, would have retired last year. Looking back I wouldn't have stuck it out even if they threw hookers through my window every night. 😅
 
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hickslawns

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
40,478
288
Ohio
Sounds familiar Hedge. Only mine was on the enlisted side. Dropped the ball over and over. Messed up orders. Failed to get schools submitted. Finally get ready for PLDC and the time left on enlistment was too short. I went to extend 3 yrs and they didn't have current physical. Had to extend 6mo. Get a physical. Then extended 3yrs and they tell me "no E-5 slot available in your MOS. You'll need to reclassify to a different MOS and then we can get PLDC.". What? That would put me nearly 10yrs in and still an E-4. Fuck you. I'll just fade away. The incompetence was unfathomable. Same NCO's who perpetually dropped the ball were behind on stuff because they WERE off to schools for themselves. As I was getting out they gave me the sales pitch "You're halfway there. If you continue 10.5 more years you will draw $168/mo when your 65." 🤣🤣🤣 No thanks. I'm out. Crazy to think I've been out 17yrs already. I was hoping things had gotten better in that time. Doesn't sound like it.
 
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