On This Day...

...Two years ago--September, 11 2006--I received a half-sized manila envelope in the mail.

I was living in Berkelely, CA, and I was just kicking off my second year of business school at the University of California. The night before I had gone to a Silver Jews concert in the city, and I slept in a little the morning of the 11th. I don't think I actually left my apartment that day until 3PM when I had to start heading to a class. I stopped to check the mail on my way out the door, and the manila envelope was inside my box.

The envelope had been forwarded from my summer address in Seattle (I worked at Amazon that year as a Product Manager intern) and the return label was from the Army's Human Resources Command.

This was not the first piece of mail HRC had sent me, but each previous mailing had been a regular letter in a regular envelope. Though I hadn't been expecting to receive anything from the Army, the second I saw that return label from HRC I knew what was inside--and strangely, I wasn't at all surprised to be receiving it.

I never did make it to class that day. Inside the envelope was a set of orders that required me to report for duty on the 3rd of October--about three weeks later. The envelope also contained instructions for how to request an exemption from the call up, or a delayed reporting date, so rather than go to class I called my wife (an Army lawyer) and my dad (a retired Army lawyer) to start figuring out my options.

As much as September 11, 2001 changed our lives and our world in the macro sense, receiving those orders on September, 11 2006 changed my life and Lauren's life even more. We are on a fundamentally different course than the one we had been on, and though I know that we would have married and shared our life together regardless, it's impossible to say how different our lives might have been if this burden had been handed off to others.

The Silver Jews, incidentally, played a show in my native Washington, DC on Wednesday evening--the 10th of September, 2008--proving for the umpteenth time that God is not without a sense of humor. I had hoped to be home in time for that show, but alas, I'm still here in Afghanistan for a while longer.

Monday Morning News Brief

Surprise, surprise--international aid groups don't want the US military mucking about their development efforts in Africa.

And really, every single Civil Affairs team that the Army might have sent to Africa is one more CA Team worth of dudes they would have to call off of the IRR to backfill less glamorous missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Africa mission, all told, is an interesting and important one. It remains to be seen, however, exactly what role the US military will play.

Happy Weekend, everyone

Yet another article, this one from the Durham HS and linked to at ArmyTimes, confirms that the IRR recall is still very much in effect. When will it all end? Time will tell...

Of note, Chris (from the linked article) was called back on 400 day orders. My call-up (and that of my peers) was for 545 days, or 18 months. The difference is probably that this guy will do the same job he did the first time around, whereas all of my IRR classmates and I were summoned to re-class to Civil Affairs.

I tell you what, though...even with the re-class to CA, if the Army was more efficient about the whole process--9 weeks of CA training, 2 weeks of pre-deployment stuff, ship you off to Iraq--you could get CA guys through in 400 days and change. But alas...it just ain't gonna happen.

Have a great, IRR free weekend everybody. And Chris, if you happen by this post--hang in there, buddy. The whole process goes by faster than you think. Good luck and God speed.

Rachel Ray, terror supporter and jihado-apologist!?!

Say it isn't so, Rachel!

It would appear that some folks back in the states are taking to task everyone's favorite throaty voiced, indie music loving, cheap meal buying Dunkin Donut spokesperson.

For what, you ask? For wearing a scarf in a commercial. Which makes us lose the war on terror...how exactly?

Wow. Just wow.

Note: The attached picture is of Rachel at SXSW, no doubt spewing her vile, anti-American hate for all the lefty music fans there to watch Vampire Weekend and discuss why they think that Freedom, contrary to popular opinion, is indeed Free.

An Explanation of Sorts

Here at Army 2.0 we’ve had some new visitors of late, so I thought I might take a moment to summarize the basic premise of the blog.

Without further ado, I present to you the following tale of sadness and woe, hope and redemption, absurdity and plagiarized Stephen Baldwin anecdotes:

Boy goes to college, joins Army, meets girl, leaves Army, and goes to business school. Boy meets IRR. IRR falls in love with boy. Boy gets dragged kicking and screaming away from boy's girl off to the IRR's secret lair of sado-masochistic love and waffle fries...and in the process, boy meets other boys who were similarly ensnared. Boy all of a sudden doesn't feel quite as bad about everything, eventually gets back together with girl, and all of the various boys and girls go on to fame and fortune as Investment Banking Internet Consultant millionaires.

That last part hasn’t actually happened yet (if you want to be all technical about it). And each of the aforementioned boys is currently continents away from their respective girls (which sucks pretty hard). But still…I think you guys get the idea.

Off the top of my head, here are a few other questions you might be asking yourself about my current situation:

Q1) Why did you go back into the Army after you finished your MBA?

A1) I was involuntarily mobilized from the IRR to return to active duty. I was originally ordered to report in October 2006, but the Army granted me a delayed report date so that I could finish school (and get married, as it turns out).

Q2) What is this IRR you keep talking about? Is that like what happened to Ryan Phillipe in that one movie?

A2) Check here for my most detailed explanation of the IRR (and here for a recent update). The IRR is different from being “stop-lossed”, which is what happened to Ryan Phillipe in the creatively named movie “Stop Loss”. Whereas a stop-lossed soldier is retained on active duty beyond their active duty commitment, an involuntarily mobilized IRR soldier is one who came off of active duty and was drafted back into service.

Q3) Where’s all the juicy stuff—details about what you do, opinions on various Afghanistan related subjects, etc?

A3) Isn’t learning about Duke basketball recruits and times I was awarded giant novelty checks just as interesting? And aren’t first person narratives written by my cat more interesting still??? Beyond that I don’t know what to tell you…literally. I’ve disclaimed any and all opinions in the blog’s header, but I’m not sure where the line is in terms of sharing, and I’m not interested in testing that out. I do my best to capture the experience of a life spent building the infrastructure of Afghanistan without listing any details or passing judgment on how well or poorly we’re doing it. I offered up possible explanations for my reticence two posts back.

Q4) Who would win in a fight—Oski, or the Blue Devil?

A4) While I will always root for a Duke team ahead of a Cal one (even in football, if it ever came to that) I think that Oski could take the BD in a fight. Oski is pear shaped (low center of gravity) and I’m pretty sure his cardigan has magical powers. That’s a tough combination to beat, and I don't think the Blue Devil has it in him.

I think that’s it from here—thanks for stopping by, everyone. I hope you enjoy your stay. Please feel free to email me or write comments with any other questions that you have.

A rare IRR mention in the media...

I forgot to pass along this link the other day. It would seem that the media took a pause from its incessant Stop-loss bashing to briefly mention the crazy IRR fad that none of the kids are talking about.

The WaPo military blog expands on the story of this San Francisco vet that just got his IRR letter in the mail--so much for the rumors floating around that there weren't going to be anymore IRR call ups. The comments on the WaPo blog aren't as interesting as the last two WaPo blogs I linked to, but they're interesting all the same.

Notice that, as always, the focus with IRR stuff tends to be people giving advice on how to sham out of the call up. The whole thing seems harmless on the surface, but what does this ultimately do? It increases the number of people that the Army has to call to fill a given slot. With every new call up, the dodgers have a greater chance of getting over, and eventually enough responsible types have been recalled that the Army can meet its quota.

The process ends up disproportionately punishing those soldiers with a more pronounced sense of duty (and/or pronounced Catholic guilt), and I for one don't think that's very fair.

It's that whole Three Buckets thing again...and I think my attitude has slightly changed since I wrote the Three Buckets post. I used to have respect for those who decided to blatantly ignore the summons, if that's what their conscience told them to do. More than 600 days since I got my letter in the mail and my life was completely knocked on its side, I don't have much sympathy for the folks who ignored the recall. Why? Because in so doing it foisted the problem into someone else's lap, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think that was a little messed up.

Ah well...what're you gonna do?

p.s. For those of you who are interested, here is another IRR link, this one about a dude who reported and was medically released. Buried in the post you'll find a link to my Three Buckets post (which is how I found this other blog to begin with). If nothing else, this is more evidence that the recall continues, under the radar as always...

Andrew's Day Off: 2 Weeks Later

Remember when my Day Off made me realize that I needed to pace myself, to take more personal time between the various missions my team and I are tasked with?

It's 0111 in the morning right now. I just got back to my hooch, and I'm going to sleep for 5.5 hours, in my clothes, and then wake up to shave and get cleaned up in time for my 0730 meeting. Tonight is not atypical. **

I've pulled one all nighter in the past two weeks, and one almost all nighter--abed by 0345, arisen by 0545. I'm regularly (i.e. most nights) in the office after midnight. Granted, I'm not getting up at hours you'd typically expect for the Army--I can swing 8 AM wake ups a few times a week--but I'm still working far more hours than is healthy, and as you know this is a 7 day a week gig.

Sigh...it's really not that I want to be doing this, it's just that I've been pretty well trapped into this lifestyle. I have to sustain it, sustain something at least, for about 2 more months. After that I think things will slow down.

But we've all heard me say that before.

Of all the things to complain about...

Check out this video of a soldier living in the "deplorable" barracks at Fort Bragg.

Now, I lived in said barracks for about 4 months last summer. As usually seems to be the case, I had a slightly less tragic perspective on things than this guy.

Honestly, of all of the things I can complain about my Army 2.0 experience, having a barracks room that had been ravaged by vicious venetian-blinds hating Gnomes is no higher than 8th or 9th on that list. It just comes across (to me) as whiny. It's the Army, after all...where's the fun if you're not suffering at least a little bit?

p.s. The only truly annoying part of this incident is the commander coming on and claiming they had no idea how shitty the barracks are...I don't buy that for a Bagram Airfield minute. Those barracks have been in use by mobilizing and de-mobilizing soldiers for more than a year, and trust me, this is not the first guy to complain about the broken lights, lack of hot water, exposed ventilation, etc.

Why isn't the Army broken?

Interesting blog on the Post that asks the above question.

Be sure to read the comments to get the full story, as several mildly well informed people chime in to say their piece.

Unless a new comment has popped up since I initially read this, no one has yet uttered the "I" word, but all of us around these parts know what's up.

Invite Only IRR Blogs

Seriously Josh? You know that a lot of your traffic was coming from this site, don't you? Ah well...good luck with what you're doing.

And kidding aside, I think it's probably a safe move for Josh. I cut off blogging entirely during my CAQC time, and it wasn't because I wanted to. Josh is probably up against the same sort of restriction (I'd be shocked if they don't explicitly ban blogging now when you start that course, given all the drama surrounding my situation).

Anywho, if any of y'all are friends with Josh out there and see how's he's doing, drop the rest of us a line and let us know.

Monthly Roundup and General Awesomeness--March 2008

Greetings from (briefly beautiful but increasingly rainy) Afghanistan!

Another month is in the books, and I have to say...March flew by more quickly than any month yet. I think this is largely due to how busy I've become (note the 2 weeks I stopped blogging mid-month). But I think that it's also related to the fact that (realistically or not) I can finally see the finish line.

That said, 6 months is still a long time...so enough rambling, and on with the roundup!

First and foremost, Mrs. Exnicios and I would like to cordially invite everyone to save a date.

In other news...March brought with it a couple of new (and completely adorable) additions to the gallery--but neither could top my vote for favorite picture of the month, this shot of my happy reunion with Jeff and Chris!

Wait--did I say favorite picture? Because with all due respect to the baby, the puppy, and my buddies, this shot of me and noted johnny-come-lately Art Monk advocate Peter King might take the cake.

And hell, while we're at it--check me out kicking it in Bear Territory (not to be confused w/ my office in Afghanistan, which I've been told looks nearly identical). Thanks again to K/R, M/S, and N/K for this fantastic gift--3 weeks later and I'm still grinning ear to ear.

But sadly, March wasn't uniformly awesome as far as pictures go. As most of you remember, a certain star from a certain 1995 tour de force of cinematic triumphantness failed to show up at Bagram for his picture. Will I ever recover from this setback? Time will tell...

March turned out to be an eventful time for IRR content--I started the month with a roundup of fellow IRR bloggers, posted Kevin's farewell here, and I discussed the recently announced muster here.

Late in the month I spruced things up a bit here at the 2.0--I added a link to the sidebar for IRR specific content, the wedding/celebration announcement, and the history of the name Exnicios (something I know you're all dying to learn more about.)

And finally, if you've made it all the way to the end of the roundup (and I won't hold it against you if you didn't) check out my favorite post of the month, which share a couple of related vignettes. Be sure to read all the way through Colin's comments, which were really great, insightful and appreciated.

That's it for now. I hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll talk to you again next month!

Another farewell...

The IRR blogger world said goodbye to Kevin a couple of weeks back.

And today, I'd like to bid farewell to another one of the greats--Jason's Iraq vacation has come to a merciful end, and he is home in Philadelphia with his family. Congrats to you and yours, Jason. I hope that we haven't seen the last of you out here on the IRR-internets.

Jason closed out the blog on a happy note, but not before he laid into our friends over at HRC one last time. In the quote below, Jason is referring to an article that appeared last month in Stars and Stripes.

Money Quote: "I guess it’s funny that despite years of honorable service, we were called up and treated like second class citizens for over a year. Yes, we are the dreaded IRR, and despite having a lifetime more experience than most of the people who thumb their noses at us, we’re still treated like second thoughts."

Sad but true.

We'll miss you Jason, and maybe we'll see you on down the line.

As for me? T-minus 200 days and counting...

Different people react differently to the IRR...

I have to say, I'm not sure how many of you have been keeping up with Josh over at "To War & Back", but...let's just say the guy is having some trouble adjusting back to Army life.

That's completely understandable, of course, but still...compare and contrast his reaction to Fort Jackson to mine.

Me: Also, make sure I post sometime or other about how smart and saavy everyone here is--already had lots of good conversations with folks about technology, marketing, technology-marketing, and the like. Very impressed with my fellow soldiers.

Josh: Now for a little culture shock word association: chewing tobacco, "ain't", wood paneling and cinder blocks , bigotry, "chow hall"

The quotes are out of context, and Josh has his positive moments from time to time. But generally speaking, I think the culture shock is really getting him down. Still...taking pictures of your Harvard cap on the bed isn't help making him a more sympathetic character (not that it's my/your sympathy that he's aiming for).

And really, what's so bad about living somewhere where eating Chik Fil A three times a week isn't just accepted, it's encouraged? Come on--a pickle on a fried chicken sandwich? That's cause for celebration, not dismay. And when you get right down to it, Walmart, fast food, strip clubs and pawn shops...that's just America, man. No use getting too upset about it.

Bottom line--I think that Josh is sans peers, and it's hard to stay positive going through something like this without friends to share the experience with. I don't know how I would have made it through that place without my wife just a few miles up the road, and Jeff and Chris taking every lump I did along the way. We had each other, and that made all the difference in the world.

I hope things pick up for Josh, and his experience becomes more positive with time--because time is something he's got a lot of.

While I was away...

I sat in for my brigade commander at a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and I was literally the lowest ranking guy in a room of about 30 people. By my rough count there were 4 Majors, 13 Lieutenant Colonels, 10 Colonels, and the General--except that the General wasn't there.

As the meeting began he was elsewhere, no doubt doing important General things. It appeared that I was off the hook, and I would brief my brigade's portion to a room full of disinterested higher ups who were really only there because they had to be, not because they wanted to know what all the brigades had to say.

But since this is me we're talking about--and my morning with the General was not to be denied-- he made his entrance 30 seconds before it was my turn to speak. No big deal, I told myself. If there's one thing I'm good at it's briefing stuff. But seeing as the General didn't know who I was, I felt an introduction should be my first order of business.

"Good morning, sir. Captain Exnicios, Task Force Cincinnatus S9 standing in for the Brigade Commander."

It was a pretty good start, I thought--forceful, confident, everything a fine junior officer such as myself should be.

"Exnicios?" the General responded. "Is that your real name?"

"Yes sir, for my entire life." Where was he going with this?

"Wow. It sounds like some sort of horrible disease." But hey, at least he pronounced it right.

And from there I did my briefing, which went fine. The General (who seems to be a genuinely alright fellow, insults to my Exnicios heritage aside) complimented me on my performance, and that was that.

About a week later I happened to find myself driving in an SUV with the General's aide, a recently promoted Captain who carried himself with a slightly obnoxious swagger as befits his aide-de-camp/West Pointer status. The two of us were chatting with our driver, a Civil Affairs sergeant who had recently arrived in theater, which led to the following exchange.

CA SGT: "Some of the officers we have aren't that great, but some are really good."

General's Aide: "Yeah, I've heard that a lot of times you CA guys get stuck with really horrible IRR officers who got called up, don't want to be there, and just fuck off the whole time."

I resisted the temptation to reveal my status as a proud member of the IRR, and the conversation moved on to other things. Later that day the good Captain was asking for my story, and I informed him that I was one of the aforementioned "good for nothing" IRR officers. If he was embarrassed he hid it well, and he quickly feigned interest in my life and times. He let me know "how much it must suck" to get called back. He also cited the recent WaPo article on Captains getting out of the Army, an article that I don't have a very high opinion of. I pointed him to the vastly superior NYTMag piece from last summer, though I'm sure he hasn't looked it up.

Anywho, there's no really exciting way to end this story, so I'll just say this--how have I not gotten into the oped writing business yet? I suppose that's something I can look at on my way out the door...

For those of you who thought the IRR might be ramping down...

One of my numerous good friends named Chris just forwarded me this link. It would seem that the Army enjoyed last year's muster so much that they've--shocker of shockers--decided to throw another one!

Before I go on I should say how much I enjoy my current position, and that I believe I'm helping my team here make a significantly positive impact on the future of Afghans and Afghanistan. But that said, one wonders how long can this IRR stuff will continue. I mean, the stories you hear...

I had a very interesting chat this afternoon with a young Lieutenant who graduated Harvard in 2005 and has already been accepted to Harvard Law class of 2012 (should he decide to get out of the Army). This gentleman informed me that in 2005 they told his commissioning class to have backup plans. It would seem that the Army felt it had too many nascent LT's, and many would be asked to go to the reserves instead of active duty. This particular guy ended up going active anyways, but my question is this--how could they turn away willing active duty guys when they're recalling IRR people to fill slots elsewhere in the ranks?

Now, I fully appreciate that a brand new LT is not the same thing as a Captain with 4 or 5 years of experience (your typical IRR draftee). But let me tell you something--anyone can be Civil Affairs. I really think it's a branch like any other, not something that one has to come to later in their career as the traditional model dictates. There are already brand new 2LT's in the CAQC anyways, so why not shuffle some things around so that you utilize the manpower you have without panicing and hitting the IRR button.

So why doesn't the Army do this? The explanation I keep coming back to is that they choose to reward individuals who are voluntarily joining, while they push the burden onto those of us who had the audacity to quit. And this makes total sense from their perspective. People like me are already lost (or so they reason), so there aren't any drawbacks to alienating us through the IRR process. A brand new 2LT, on the other hand, still has their entire career in front of them. Piss them off now by sending them off to a CA gig that they really aren't interested in, and you risk pushing away someone who might have stayed in otherwise.

I honestly don't know where any of this leaves us, but all the same--good luck to all of you musterees out there. I wish you the best, and who knows? Maybe I'll see you here at the Forward Edge sooner or later...

IRR Blogger update

On the heels of my O.Y.E update from last week, let's check in with a few of our favorite (and/or most interesting) IRR bloggers. While they tell their tales of war, I will continue to feed you a daily diet of awesome movies, NBA action, and legendary wrestlers.

Kevin took a long break from blogging, and came back to inform us that he's...considering staying in the reserves after this deployment??? Say it ain't so, Kev, say it ain't so...

Jason continues to match his consistently enjoyable content with regular appearances over thunderrun, a war blog roundup. Oh Jason, you rock star you...

And last but not least, Josh has FINALLY reported to Fort Jackson to begin his training...the same Fort Jackson that Chris and I reported to EIGHT MONTHS BACK!!!1! I first reported on Josh last October, and unless I'm mistaken he had the same orders that we did. We got delays to finish school, and then reported in June. Josh got a delay to finish school, then had a family situation that got him delayed even more.

Honestly, I don't think I'd be able to handle it if I had lived w/ the uncertainty of will-I-or-won't-I have to report to Jackson for basically a year longer than I did, then have to deal with just now starting the process in earnest. I think it would be more than I can handle. So everyone say a prayer to the God/Tree/Giant-Spaghetti-Monster of your choice for Josh--his is not an easy row to hoe, not by a long shot.

A Different Sort of Thanksgiving

Things tend to get dramatic here at the forward edge of freedom, and Thanksgiving 2007 proved to be no exception.

First things first, the most important part of the holiday is that I was able to spend it with my beautiful wife Lauren. This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Thanks to Uncle Sam and his relentless pursuit of Neo-Global Islamo-Fasciasts, our first Thanksgiving as a married couple nearly didn't happen.

You see, the good people who run FOB Patriot do so with a simple, powerful premise behind everything that they do--Theater Immersion. They reckon that the best way to prepare for life in Iraq or Afghanistan is to simulate that lifestyle as closely as possible for 6 weeks immediately before sending units overseas.

Is this a good way to train, in my opinion? I think that, as with everything, there are tradeoffs--but generally, Theater Immersion, if done well, seems like it might have a small incremental affect on our survivability overseas. If a spot of hassle and discomfort are the price we pay for one or two or 10 dudes not getting hurt or killed, then it was a small price indeed.

That said, Theater Immersion sometimes stretches the bounds of common sense. Such was almost the case this Thanksgiving.

To wit, we were originally supposed to spend the entire Thanksgiving holiday here at FOB Patriot, locked down as always, despite the fact that we had NO training scheduled for the day. More reasonable minds eventually prevailed, and we owe that almost entirely to our battalion chain of command. Our Battalion Commander has fought relentlessly for the well being of the soldiers in my unit since the day we arrived at FOB Patriot.

Unfortunately, though, because of the late notice that we'd be able to leave the FOB over Tgiving, most of the battalion was unable to arrange for their families to visit. I was fortunate that Lauren lives relatively close to here, but we literally made the final call on Tuesday or Wednesday for her to come down to Fort Bragg.

Once here, Lauren and I spent the holiday with my old friend Matt Holmes and his beautiful family. Matt has opened up his home to me and Lauren time after time since I've been at Fort Bragg, and once again I find myself at a loss for words in thanking him for his generosity. Lauren and I had a wonderful day surrounded by babies and pets and a loving family.

And more than anything else, Lauren and I had each other. So while things didn't play out exactly as Lauren and I had planned, our first Thanksgiving as a married couple will forever be a holiday to remember.

p.s. I wrote many moons ago about the amount of turkey that I had consumed at Army dining facilities. Since then, I've been served surprisingly little turkey, much to my chagrin and/or relief. That said, Lauren and I definitely ate the hell outta some turkey on Tgiving. And then on Friday, when I had a few more hours free, we got lunch at Boston Market, split an 8 oz turkey plate with stuffing and mashed potatoes, and pretended that we were eating leftovers.

Civil Affairs Doctrine for Dummies

Or is it BY dummies?

I don't think it is, of course. But at the same time...

Civil Affairs doctrine is being developed in real time, as Civil Affairs Operators return from Iraq/Afghanistan and furiously attempt to recreate a logical framework to describe what it was they did overseas.

Things sometimes end up jumbled in a pretty confusing fashion. For example, three of the five CA Core tasks are:

1) Support of Civil Administrations (SCA)
2) Foreign Humanitarian Assistance (FHA)
3) Nation Assistance/Management of Civil Authority (NA)

Each Core task has multiple sub-tasks. Many of the sub-tasks are identical from Core task to Core task. For example, a sub-task for Nation Assistance might be to "Perform QC of NA operations and associated costs". Well, simply take that sub-task and replace "NA" w/ "FHA", and wham-o, you have a subtask for FHA. Makes it a lot easier to memorize doctrine for exams and the like.

Except not all tasks are worded the same way, creating all sorts of (questionably necessary) confusion. For example, check out these three supporting tasks.

1) SCA: Coordinate and synchronize collaborative interagency/multiagency SCA operations
2) FHA: Participate in interagency planning and synchronization of FHA operations
3) NA: Synchronize NA projects with other programs, both military and civilian

All of these sub-tasks say more or less the same thing about their respective Core tasks. Does it make sense to re-write the damn thing each time, confusing already confused CA Operators who are trying to wrap their brains around the word casserole that is our ever changing doctrine? Hopefully this is something that they/we will be able to streamline as this process goes forward...but who knows.

Just goes to show...when you're writing the text book as the class goes along, you're bound to have some fun along the way.

Computer Games are Fun

First we had the first person shoot-em-up Army Video Game--a recruiting tool that, until recently, was the top result on Google if you searched for "Army 2.0" (take that, Army!)

Now, we've got a action-adventure shoot-em-up Left Behind video game that's being marketed directly to soldiers. Solid. Whatever your view on such a game, you gotta admit that it's a little wacky when the lines between marketing and religion begin to blur like this. Especially when government agencies are involved. And especially when Evander Holyfield and (we can hope) all 9 of his illegitimate kids are on board.

Hat tip to Andy Kiang for the link!

P.S. I couldn't write this post without linking to Megan's story about another of this games endorsers, Bio-Domer Stephen Baldwin. A little tale that I like to call THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD!!!!1!

Another HRC Nightmare Scenario

Check out this blog post from Jason, a fellow IRR draftee who is about 6 months ahead of me.

Money Quote:"When notified to deploy, the 104th scoured their list of qualified candidates and cross leveled and determined that they didn't have enough Captains to fill mission requirements. They put a request into Human resource Command (HRC), who proceeded to fill the unit needs by recalling the requested officers from the Inactive Ready Reserve. The rest is obviously history - I got my telegram and reported as ordered and here I am. Here's the catch, though. After receiving the requested fill from HRC, the 104th realized that they did in fact have enough officers to fill the mission. So, they contacted HRC and told them that the IRR recalls were no longer necessary because they had enough people. The response from HRC: Sorry, too late. You asked for them, so you got them. So what did the 104th do? They sent home their own people."

Doesn't this just fit perfectly with everything else we've been learning about HRC? As I've said many times, I'm happy with Civil Affairs--I think it's the best job out there for someone of my abilities and interests. But to hear these stories about how HRC assigns folks to units...mind boggling.