Moving again, deployment and reenlistment
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 30, 2006
It seems like when it rains it pours and, as usual, the Devil is at the center of it all. And by Devil I mean the Army.
My first announcement is something I’ve been putting off writing about for a long time. I’ve been in quite the state of denial but at this point it’s going to happen whether I like it or not (and believe me, I don’t). It looks like within the next six weeks I’ll no longer be in sunny Southern California and instead in Bush country. That’s right, I’m moving to the Republican wasteland that is Texas. More specifically, I’m moving to Fort Hood.
The Army seems to have the worst timing when it comes to moving soldiers. This one couldn’t come at a more shitty time. First off, I’m finally in a decent relationship with a great guy. And with my lack of faith in long distance relationships, everyone can take a guess what’s going to happen when I move. On top of that, I really need to take leave to go home (more on that in a minute) but with the move, it’s highly doubtful I’ll be able to go when I need to. Plus I have to go through the hell of making new friends and adjusting to a new place only to be leaving there in less than 18 months (because that’s all I have left in the Army and there is no way in hell I’m staying in Texas after I get out). The worst part is I’ve finally made it to a place where I’m happy with my life only to have all that torn away. It really pisses me off.
I have been trying to look at the positives, though. One being that I’ve become very dissatisfied with the Army over the last year. This is unusual for me as I’ve always loved being in the Army and took a certain pride in it. But some of the people I’ve had to deal with, along with some events in my personal life, have really left me unhappy in the Army. Maybe I can get some of that motivation and pride back. And I will be getting away from some of the people I can’t stand here. And while I’ve spent the last couple months making a lot of happy memories here, there are a lot of bad ones, too. Though I still feel the negatives outweigh the positives at the moment.
……….
The next thing, and the reason it’s so important I be able to take leave and go home, is that by Thanksgiving, my little brother, Jack, will be in Iraq. It’s a year-long deployment, though he said it might only be six months. But with the way the Army looks, it will probably end up to be more than a year. The Army sure does like to fuck people like that.
I’m having mixed feelings about this. First off, he’s married. His wife is stationed in Monteray at the moment going to language school (she’s in the Army, too, and fresh out of basic training). We all see what a deployment did to my marriage and I only pray they are strong enough to make it through. I hate faith in them, but it’s going to be a long, hard year for them and most 21-year-olds just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to survive something like that. But I’m rooting for them.
The other thing is I hate the idea of my baby brother going to Iraq when I still haven’t gone. If it were up to me, I’d go instead of him. But that’s just my big sister instinct to protect him, even though I know he can handle himself. At the very least, I wish I could go with him. But even if I could, it really wouldn’t be fair to our family. The next year is going to be stressful enough for my parents and sister with just him in Iraq. I wouldn’t want to put them through the added stress of me being there as well. I’m sure my parents could handle it. They are both former military. But my sister is only 15 and very attached to the two of us. So part of me hopes I won’t deploy at all in the next year. It’s a double-edged sword.
……….
I had to go speak to the career counselor this week. He is the guy who works to get people to reenlist in the Army. With 18 months left on my contract, my reenlistment window just opened and he wanted to tell me my options and see what my plan is. He really gave me no incentive to reenlist, though. There are no bonuses available for my rank and job, so the only things I am being offered is choice of station or the option to change my job.
The problem with this is choice of station will get me nowhere. I’m definitely going to Fort Hood and would have to spend at least two years there to be allowed to move somewhere else. So while in theory I could get choice of station, the reality is I wouldn’t actually get it. The other option, to change my job, isn’t a bad option, but the grass is always greener on the other side and while there are jobs that seem like they would be enjoyable, there are downsides to everything.
The reality is I’ve been 95% positive I’m getting out of the Army when my time is up. I’m sick of not having total control of my life and sick of the bullshit. One good thing about going to Fort Hood is maybe I’ll get my love of the Army back, because right now I have no positive feelings. And even though my reenlistment options are shit right now, they may be better in six months or a year. So I might as well wait until I get to Fort Hood and keep looking at what the incentives are. At this point I still plan to get out, but I’m still not completely positive of what I want to do, so I could be swayed. It’s one of those times when I’m just going to have to wait and see.
13 months gone by
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 28, 2006
This morning I realized I let the one year anniversary of this blog go by without any sort of mention. So a month late, I give you my State of the Blog address.
A lot has changed in the 13 months since I began my blog with this post.
When this blog began, I was married and looking for a way to fill my time while my husband was deployed to Iraq. Since then a lot has changed. My husband came home from Iraq, we filed for divorce and I’m now dating someone else. I’m still in the Army doing public affairs, but soon I’ll be moving off to Texas to do the same job there. I no longer have a cat or a plant (which didn’t survive the deployment).
The last year has been a tough and stressful one, but I’ve learned a lot and grown up a lot throughout it. At various times I’ve wondered if I could really make it through it all, but thanks to good friends and family, I’ve come out of the last year a better person in many different ways.
So Happy Birthday to gypsygentilli.com and lets hope the next year is far better than the last.
You might be a city girl if…
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 27, 2006
…your guy takes you shooting and you have to ask how to shoot each weapon before you use it.
Yeah, Andy and I went shooting yesterday with his friend Jesse. It was fun and I actually hit a few things I was aiming for. Actually, I did better than I thought I would, though my shoulder hurts a little today. But here are some pics from the day.
I was actually able to hit a lot with this one, but it’s a pretty small rifle and doesn’t have much kick. Jesse actually bought it for his wife for home protection and she’s smaller than I am, so it’s a good girl gun.
This is Andy’s baby. I had fun shooting it, but it has a bit of a kick and that made it almost impossible for me to hit anything I aimed for, though I did hit a couple things.
Bang, Bang, You’re Dead
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 25, 2006
I did this play back in college. It was the last show I was ever in and part of my Rehearsal and Performance class. The play was written around the time school shootings were prevalent, when it seemed like it was happening on a weekly or monthly basis. The whole play is in the head of a kid who opens fire in his school cafeteria. It goes into what led him to do what he did and his eventual guilt and realization of the consequences. If you haven’t read it, I’m sure you can find the script on the Internet. I highly recommend it. It is by far the most emotional play I’ve ever done.
Something always stuck in my mind after that class was over. The whole point of the class is to rehearse a play and then take it to area schools to perform it. Because it was such a hot topic at the time, most schools refused to let us perform it. The reality is administrators just didn’t understand and wouldn’t take the time to. If they had only seen the play they would’ve realized it wouldn’t push anyone into performing such a desperate act and might actually prevent it.
The reason I suddenly remember this show, which I did 5 years ago, is because I was surfing through Netflix the other day and discovered they made a movie based on the play. I just assumed it would be the play put into a movie, but it was ever better than that. It was actually about a high school drama club performing the play, with life imitating art in that the events being portrayed in the play were also happening at the high school.
But there was another instance of life imitating art, or more correcting the converse of that, because in the movie, administrators also didn’t understand the play and actually banned the drama club from performing it.
Anyway, I recommend checking it out. It’s a well done movie. And even better, the credits show video from actual performances of the play. So check it out if you can find it.
