Thursday, October 13, 2011

More Frustration - (Korea) Day 318

Work call this morning was at 0645, we setup for a KUB in our conference room. After setup, I headed to Starbucks to get some coffee and a bagel for breakfast. I forgot to bring in my granola nut mix….grrrr. I guess I just wasn't quite awake when I left my room. When I got back to the office I had my breakfast and watched a little TV until the meeting started. After that I headed to my office and checked my email.

Once the meeting was over we cleaned up and then I worked with people in our office on getting them through the email pre-migration checklist. I then headed to my room for lunch and a little video chat. Unfortunately I got called back into the office before my lunch break was over, so it cut our video chat time a little short.

Back at the office I had to setup our conference room for an unexpected meeting. Donald Rumsfeld (the former secretary of defense under George W. Bush) was on post for a book signing and he had a little question and answer session with some of the officers in our building. I don't know too much about the guy, but I thought it was nice he stopped at the door and took time to shake my hand before heading in the conference room.

I then took our new KATUSA and PV2 Charlie to try and get a security card in order to access the secret conference room. What a nightmare! We've been trying to get them access for a couple weeks now and have been given the run-around. This time was no different, when I went down armed with memos for their badges I was told they don't have anything to do with it anymore. If anyone did help out from their office before, they were just being nice. I was a little frustrated and found myself called into the LTC's office along with one of their workers. I had to listen to this guy go on and on about how things have changed blah blah blah. The guy would not stop talking and all I could do was say "yes sir" and "no sir". What's worse is we left the place not knowing where to even go from this point on. Our NCOIC made some calls and now we have plans to go to another shop tomorrow. What a pain in the neck. When I got mine it was such a piece of cake.

By this point I'm already pretty frustrated and I had to head over to the company to drop off my levy packet. My NCOIC thought it would be a good idea if I turned in the actual paperwork as well as her email. This way we can make sure the documents don't just sit in someone's email box. Great…I thought the process was started, but it turns out I may still be at square one with this issue. On my way over to the company I ran into SPC Roy who wanted to take a look at my packet. He found a number of errors and offered to help. He does this kind of stuff all the time, but when I was gathering all my stuff together he was on leave. He straightened me out and told me all the extra forms I needed before turning in the packet. I'm thankful for his help, but I'm frustrated beyond belief at how little anyone is told here on how to do anything. I had no idea of all the different forms I needed in order for the packet not to get sent back for various reasons. The company only told me the bare minimum. One of the forms I needed was a leave form and it had to get signed and approved by my NCOIC. With any leave form you need to add your LES, PT Card, and Weapons card. I was able to get everything needed and ready to go by 1600, but by then everyone at the company is gone. I will have to turn it in tomorrow morning.

We cleaned up and everyone left around 1645. I stayed back for about an hour helping Special K study for the promotion board. By the time I got back to my room it was a little too late to work out. I did my schoolwork instead and then watched a Vampire Diaries and a CSI Miami. An end to a very frustrating day. I'm just so pissed that things can't be normal and easy in the army. Why do they have to make things difficult? How hard would it be to have things documented? There should be a clear concise procedure in order to get access cards to this place. Even more amazing is the issues with the levy packet. Why isn't there a website or a checklist somewhere that all soldiers must do at certain times before they leave. Instead we are left to fend for ourselves finding out little scraps of information from whoever will give it. We then have to try and find out what is good information and what is bad information. It's all pretty stupid!

Which leaves me to the status of my PCS: I'll turn in my "real" final packet tomorrow to the company and then who knows. I'm going to try and forget about it for a while after that. It's just too stressful.

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