Promotion Pics

Some have chastised me for putting up pictures of my toe vice pictures of my promotion--I don't know why!?!? In any case, I have a good excuse, namely, I had pictures of my toes and I didn't have pictures of my promotion... at least until yesterday. Once again, all last week my office computer was off the network, so I had no e-mail or other connectivity, so I never go the pictures of my promotion until yesterday... woe is me... without further ado (and without toes), here they are:

Relief!!!

They call it TOA (transfer of authority) or RIP (relief in place) or RIPTOA (you guessed it....); but, whatever you call it, my replacement arrived last night--YIPEE!! This can only be good news!

Although he was notified far in advance when he was supposed to deploy, you never count on military movements to be on time (early or late--usually the latter). But, nevertheless, I allowed myself to get excited when I found out that he had actually left for the processing station in California (I left California for the mobilization processing station in Virginia, he leaves Virginia for the mobilization station in California--that is the military decision making process in action!) and told Peg the planned timeline... BAM! The third of July was a nasty surprise when he called and said he had arrived in California and processed, but was medically disqualified.... doh!

This is why military timelines for deployment (and re-deployment) are NOT a good idea.... at least not on an individual level... maybe on an army-of-liberation-level it will work.... we shall see...

Regardless, facing the Fourth of July weekend and a replacement that was non-deployable was distressing! It was a distinct possibility that either The Replacement would be a minimum of a month late or not come at all.... because they wouldn't allow him to continue on to the training at Fort Jackson--the same place I had so much fun back in January--without being medically cleared. But, lights at the end of the tunnels shine brightest in our darkest hours... or something like that. There is a waiver process that we went through, complete with about ten miles of red tape and gnashing of teeth and scratching of claws (good for cutting through the red tape). So, they--eventually--agreed to let him continue on to Fort Jackson while the waiver process wended its way through the system.

But, I KNEW something was going to happen to facilitate me going home. Because my Toe Time told me it was time to go home. Remember the sphincter of despair, the donught of misery--excel charts that people use to track their deployments... they look like this...



Well, on this deployment I decided to use a different chronometer. In the preparation for deployment (at least I think it was then, it makes for a better story, so I am sticking with that) I was moving bits around the garage, reorganizing in an attempt to make the work bench usable by Peg as a shipping/mailing center--purely selfish on my part, I like getting stuff in the mail! Anyway, during the moving about of a Heavy Object my big left toe was damaged, complete with blood blister under the nail. These things generally take about 6 months to grow out, so I thought, "Perfect! I will be ready to go home when the blood spot in my left big toenail is gone." Well, here a few picts to show its progression, but you can clearly see that as of last week it was gone! So I KNOW that it is toe TOA time!

Promotion!

Well, today was the day... I finally qualify for the single CHU I have been living in this whole time! Promotion seems a bit anti-climactic after the initial excitement of the selection announcement nearly 14 months ago... but, still, it is an important event in one's military career, so it was nice that my Army Family took the time to put on a proper ceremony complete with flags and the oath of office and the pinning. In this uniform the ranks are held on with velcro; this certainly makes the symbolic (and actual) changing of the ranks a fair bit easier than the pinning that previously occurred.... and thank goodness, I think my chest is skinny enough that I would get a pneumothorax with any of the "traditional" pinning ceremonies! Funny, but this is actually my first real promotion ceremony. The day I graduated medical school PEg and the kids and I went down to the recruiters office in downtown Pittsburgh (I was in nice civilian clothes post-graduation) and signed a piece of paper and took and oath, but it was mostly a quick formality. (BTW, that promotion was from O-1, ensign, to O-3, lieutenant; there is a special name for that besides promotion, but it escapes me at the moment.) My next promotion occurred just before leaving Maryland to move to San Diego; I just walked into an office, signed a piece of paper and was on my way, nothing to it. So, again, nice that the Army made more of a deal about the whole thing than I would have expected.

I think the bit I am most excited about is that I will now get a chance to wear the CDR insignia that JP gave me so many years ago--that will be worth the 14 month wait.

Anyway, I am now officially much more handsome, significantly smarter, and all around improved!