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.

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...

Work is Going Well

Now, I've had the pleasure of speaking with a number of you over email since I've been here, and a common question has been--"Hey Andrew, I know that your decoration scheme and statistic keeping are good to hook, but how the heck is your actual JOB going there in Afghanistan? And, because I think I must have forgotten--WHAT is your actual job there."

More to follow, but I can say this for now--I'm working in operations for my Civil Affairs unit, and things are generally going well. The nature of the job is such that I need to flush it out a bit more before I'm comfortable sharing (you've heard that before, I know) but I promise that I will, and I'll let you all know.

For the time being, know that I'm doing my part to stem the tide of neo-global islamo-fascism. And in the end--ain't that the most important truth of all?

Love to all, and I'll holler at you tomorrow--it's weekly roundup time, so watch out!

OXFAM Isn't Impressed

As it turns out, not everyone is as impressed with the job US Army Civil Affairs does in Afghanistan as we in the US Army Civil Affairs are.

OXFAM, a left leaning think tank dedicated to bringing about social justice, released a report suggesting that the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Astan engage in projects that are "unsuitable, unused or targeted by militants". Ouch.

Another criticism is that the civil projects spearheaded by the PRT's squeeze out local initiatives. This is a particularly interesting criticism, as one of the major tenets of civil-military operations is the legitimization of the host nation government. That is, the very thing OXFAM criticizes the PRT's for is something that the PRT's are explicitly trying do the opposite of. Not sure where the disconnect is.

One of the dudes at the Small Wars Journal (see comment 18) points out that we in NATO are still trying to get our head wrapped around COIN. So regardless of the merits of OXFAM's report, I think we will continue to improve our ability to rebuild in Astan.

That said, I'm sure things will start to improve exponentially once I bring my deadly rifle skills to the fight.

Checking In and Saying Hey

Hello everyone!

Obviously, I've been away for a while. After 68 posts in less than 2 months of Army 2.0, this is my first blog since August 20th. To celebrate my return I thought I'd start tonight with an update on my timeline.

I won't share exact dates (even if I had them, which I don't), as troop movements are sensitive information that I can't post in this forum.

It turns out that I am going to Afghanistan. I'm currently slated to be a Public Safety Officer for the 451st CA Battalion. I don't know what this means exactly, and I might get moved into a job before all is said and done, but I meet my new unit tomorrow so I'm excited to learn more. As best as I can tell a PSO works with the police and emergency response, that sort of thing. An interesting, important mission, though not one I know much about.

When I link up with my unit tomorrow, we start a 4-6 week block of pre-deployment training. From there we'll deploy overseas sometime in December.

Fun stuff. More to follow.

What are they gonna do, send us to Iraq?

My old buddy Chris Davis asks a great question in the comments section of yesterday's post:

"What happens to those that don't pass the weigh-in or apft?"

And the answer is...basically nothing. We're all already going to Iraq, so if we fail to meet the course standards (including APFT type stuff) the "worst" they can do to us is send us over in a non-CA capacity. But since CA officers have one of the highest KIA rates of all Army officers, getting sent to Iraq in a non-CA capacity isn't necessarily a bad thing...

That said, an interesting rumor was floating around the water cooler earlier today. Without giving away too much, we're hearing that the IRR Captains in the class 7 weeks in front of me are getting assigned to staff jobs, rather than Team Leader roles. Staff guys are as "in the rear with the gear" as is possible in this age of non-contiguous battle spaces. The Team Leaders, on the other hand, are the bubbas out on the front lines of freedom, bravely risking their necks to ensure that no Iraqi child goes to bed without a beanie baby.

Bottom line--staff is safer, but Team Leader positions are more interesting and rife with professional/personal development opportunities. Food for thought.

The CA Command Comes Through...Maybe.

Good afternoon, everyone, and a happy day-before-independence-day to you all.

I just got out of a brief with some Civil Affairs folks from Fort Bragg, and it would appear that our long, national no-information nightmare is over.

I'll leave out of Fort Jackson on a bus sometime on Saturday. We'll head to Fort Bragg, where my fellow officers and I will be dropped off with the CA command up there (CAPOC). We're to take a 9 week course of Army training on how to be Civil Affairs officers--so to everyone who has asked me about what the hell a CA guy does, ask me again on or around the 12th of September. Hopefully I'll have it figured out by then.

From there, I'll be assigned/attached to the unit with which I'll go down range to Iraq (99.99%) or Afghanistan (0.01%). Hard to say when I'll know the details on that assignment, but depending on the timing of it all, I could be overseas as early as mid-September, or as late as...well, it could potentially drag on if I get attached to a unit that isn't deploying until this winter. We'll see.

But for now, the good (great, grand!) news is that I'll be at Fort Bragg, NC from Saturday until at least 12 September. Fort Bragg is about 4 hours from home and Lauren and my parents and everything else. And while I don't know how much time I'll have off, or whether I'll get weekends free or run of the post, at the very least I'll be a short drive away for anyone who wants to come down and visit.

There have been some horror stories about the living conditions at Bragg (and about how long you're stuck there post-course, pre-deployment) but they swear up and down that conditions have been recently improved. I've heard that one before, but again--we'll see.

Come to think of it, based on the number of "we'll see's" I've included in this email, I still don't really know a whole lot about the what/when/how/where/why's of my next many months in the Army.

But hey, a little bit of knowledge is infinitely more than the ignorance I was wallowing in before, so for now I'm happy. Will I stay that way in the long term? We'll see...