>Yesterday I put a teaser in the asterisks of Tony’s best moment. I said his best moment was finding out that he’ll be switching to Space Command from AG, and that it’s a good thing. Perhaps I left you scratching your head going, “Huh?”
If you’re not associated with the US Army, then let me give you a brief tutorial on this. I’ll start at the beginning of Tony’s career and go forward to as far as I understand… which isn’t all that far past where he is right now.
Tony attended a military college for four years. It wasn’t one of the government military academies, but it’s a prestigious institute of higher learning that offers its undergrads a strict living and academic lifestyle. All students participate in the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) for the first two years, after which they can choose to leave that aspect of their schooling behind or sign a contract with the intention of gaining a commission into the service they’ve been studying in upon graduation.
That’s a fancy way of saying Tony was commissioned as an officer in the Army, and then graduated from college the next day. I don’t talk much about his career – and almost never about his rank – online, because honestly? Although I’m very proud of his achievements and accomplishments, as well as his promotions and whatnot, his rank affects our lifestyle and living situation, but not me socially. Tony’s rank stays at work with him; it does not extend any further past that. I don’t make friends based on what their husbands’ jobs are; I associate with women who are like-minded and enjoy the same things I do. Women whose husbands sometimes happen to be officers, but just as often aren’t. I don’t wear his rank; I’m a spouse, not in the Army myself. So his rank is relatively unimportant to my online (and offline) persona.
Here’s how it works… at least as far as Tony’s career has gone. He commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (LT), then 18 months later was promoted to 1st LT. Two years after that he was promoted to Captain (CPT), which is where he stands now. When he was still a cadet in school, he was asked to list the branches of the Army in which he’d like to serve. He had done a short internship with an AG officer (AG = Adjutant General = human resources/personnel services) and liked it, so he listed that branch as his first choice. When the assignments were handed out, however, we learned that his assignment was what’s known as branch detailed. He would initially train as an infantry officer, then after three years (or once he made CPT and attended the next level of schooling) would transfer to the AG branch.
So he spent his first several years as an infantry officer. He liked it enough, mostly because his assignment was with a mechanized unit where he was able to ride around in mechanized vehicles (kind of like small tanks) and play laser tag with other mechanized vehicles and tanks. He was in a training unit, so while he’d have stretches where he’d be out in the field for several days and would return home “stinking like tank”, he didn’t deploy. Plus we lived in Germany, and if, like us, you’ve never been there and didn’t know what it was like, you might have written it off as somewhere that wasn’t on your list of places to see. That would be a mistake. Germany – Bavaria especially, where we lived – was fantastic. It’s also not really important to this post, even though we lived there for three years and Bear was born in one of its oldest cities.
Shortly after Tony was promoted to CPT we moved back stateside, where he attended an advanced course that taught him how to be an AG officer. His next several assignments were (mostly) focused on that task. He deals with a lot of paperwork in the form of awards, and Officer Evaluation Reports, and all the other day-to-day stuff that comes with being in personnel services.
For awhile – because of the assignments and the deployment and other factors – Tony toyed with the idea of getting out and re-entering the civilian world. And then he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse. A deal which would bring him to almost the ten-year-mark of time served… and as it’s commonly known in military circles, once you’ve got those first ten years, you might as well stay in for the next ten. In a world where pensions are disappearing and jobs are no longer secure, the Army offers our family the ability to sleep well at night. Even knowing that Tony’s jobs might not always be fun or exciting; he may not like his coworkers, his commanding officers, or the Soldiers who work for him; he might be ordered to move our family to a less-than-desirable duty station. But his paycheck is steady, and at the end of his 20 or more years of service, he’ll be able to continue providing for us, or start another career altogether.
And so, when at the seven-year-mark of his time in service, he was offered the option to apply to switch branches from AG to something else, he started researching the possibilities. Through co-workers and contacts he learned about a newer and smaller branch called Space Operations. The appealing part of it for him was the thought of going to a job each day that required some technical skill, and that would provide him with the opportunity for higher learning and maybe a desirable follow-on career after separating from the Army in the next decade or so. The appeal to me was the thought that the training for this branch was located in the city where we purchased our first home; a city that we knew nothing about but fell in love with, and which we reluctantly left to come here to Okinawa, but always keep close to our hearts and minds. Although it’s not a city where either of us grew up – and it’s far from the hometowns where we grew up – it’s what we now refer to as “home”.
So Tony submitted his request for a branch transfer last summer, only to find that he’d misread the submit-by date. He was a month too late. But he still had contacts with some of the powers-that-be. They encouraged him to try for an appeal; to submit a letter of recommendation, along with his updated sheet detailing what he’s done in his career so far, as well as a letter explaining why he thought he would be beneficial to the Space Operations community. Everyone who knew that he was trying for this appeal told him that it was a long shot; the AG branch is already far below the number of Captains and Majors it needs to fill its positions, and Tony’s an asset to that branch. Plus, Space Command accepts few officers to its ranks, as it’s still pretty small and selective.
Last week, though, on the night that Tony went into work after we returned home from our overnight stay in Okuma, he called to share the good news. “I just opened an email, and it told me that as of the summer of 2011, I’ll be officially switching to Space Operations from AG! I can’t believe that my appeal went through!”
1. What, exactly, is Space Operations?
From the official US Army SO website, its “Vision [is] ‘Securing the high ground starts at SMDC/ARSTRAT.’ Our objective is to provide dominant space and missile defense capabilities for the Army and to plan for and integrate those capabilities in support of U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) and Geographic Combatant Commanders (GCC) missions.
Mission: SMDC/ARSTRAT conducts space and missile defense operations and provides planning, integration, control and coordination of Army forces and capabilities in support of US Strategic Command missions; serves as the Army specified proponent for space, high altitude, and ground-based midcourse defense; serves as the Army operational integrator for global missile defense; and conducts mission-related research and development in support of Army Title 10 responsibilities.”
Yeah. We couldn’t decipher that either. But we thought it might be fun to share some of that ultra-cool military lingo with you. We don’t really know what he’s going to be doing. But it sounds like fun!
2. So, is Tony going to become an astronaut?
Hahahaha. No. He’s not going to work for NASA – at least not yet.
3. So where will you be moving next? And when?
So far, all we know is that when our tour here is up in the summer of 2011, he’ll have six months’ worth of classes to attend. We know for sure that one of those 3-month-classes will be in Colorado, but the other one is still unknown. Probably on the east coast somewhere. We won’t learn our follow-on assignment until much, much closer to the time that we leave here, if we even find out before then. And even then, we don’t know how that will work. If he does find out his next assignment before we leave here, then the kids and I will most likely move there ahead of him, and wait until he’s finished his schools and can join us. We’re hoping this will be in Colorado, which would mean that he’d only be gone from us for 3 months instead of 6, and that we’d be moving back into our own home (which we’re renting out right now), and back to far fewer unknowns than what will face us elsewhere. But this is the Army. And as the saying goes, nothing is definite until it happens.
4. When’s he getting promoted again?
Who knows. His profile had its first pass by the board last year, but that was considered two years “below the zone”, or two years earlier than usual. You’d have to be pretty spectacular to get promoted that early. The board met again this spring and we’re waiting to hear the results, but again, he’s still a year below the zone. The typical promotion timeline for CPT to MAJ (Major) within AG (as in many of the branches) is at the 9.5 year mark. Tony will hit his 8 year mark in 9 days.
So there you have it – this month’s big news. If you have any further questions (that I can answer without compromising his job or national security) please ask away and I’ll see what I can do. I know what it’s like to be a civilian with little to no knowledge of what it’s like to be in the military or even associated with it; until I married Tony and we moved to Germany, I was in the same boat.
Congratulations, honey. I’m proud of you!
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