AN IRAQ WAR VETERAN TELLS WHAT IT IS LIKE WHEN A GI RETURNS TO THE US (A MUST READ)

Just me, or is "Supporting the Troops" Really Just "Checking the Block"?

by: RockRichard
Mon May 12, 2008 at 21:50:57 PM EDT

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1236

Once again, I have been too scarce. It seems odd to me that I had more time to blog when I was in a war zone than I do in good ol' Fayetteville, North Carolina. However, these are strange times in which I find myself. I have spent the last 30 days or so readjusting to life as a husband, learning to be a father, and trying to get my way out of the Army. The one thing that is apparent to me so far is the Army (and perhaps all military services) is not prepared for the situation it finds itself in. Big shocker there.

Allow me to describe for you the problems here at Fort Bragg. Over the last year, the entire 82nd Airborne Division has been deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan for 15 months (save one brigade, which did a twelve month tour). In the first four months of this year, four brigades (about 3,500 Soldiers) returned from overseas with another due to come home later this summer.

The problem here is that after all the welcome homes, the hugs, and the playing of "The Boys are Back in Town", many of these Soldiers are still stop-lossed and must transition out of the Army. Sometimes, as much as 50% of a unit falls in to this category. This does not include the Soldiers who aren't stop-lossed, but whose separation dates are approaching. Additionally, many of the services required for transitioning Soldiers are also required by Soldiers who are simply moving to a different installation.

When all of these brave souls return to American soil at once, they are all competing for the same services. The catch is that unless a stop-lossed Soldier extends his or her enlistment, he or she has only 90 days to out-process. We are all at once trying to schedule end of service physicals. This means that my appointment is five days before I begin terminal leave. The problem there is that it takes seven to ten days for the hospital to finish the paperwork. I must either stick around after I am out of the Army, or waive my physical and fight the VA for whatever benefits I may be entitled to.

My wife, who is staying in the military for now but leaving Fort Bragg a few weeks before me, attempted to schedule a transportation appointment today. For those not in the know, this is where a moving company contracted by the government comes to your house to pack up your belongings and haul them to your next duty station or to your home of record if you are leaving the service. She was told she must go to a briefing before scheduling the appointment. Too easy. The briefing is held once a day, four days a week. The problem? Only 50 Soldiers may attend a given briefing. My wife was told that Soldiers show up as early as an hour and a half prior just to get a spot in the briefing, due to the massive amount of transitioning and moving Soldiers.

Today I had my appointment at the Army Career Alumni Program (ACAP) center. This was a joke. Apparently, Congress has legislated that transitioning Soldiers must attend an ACAP briefing before leaving the service (I'm sure there is an equivalent for other services). Within the first five minutes, the woman giving the brief made it known that she had know idea what she was doing. She informed the group "because you have served during a time of war, you are considered Veterans". I'm sure you can all find the flaw in this statement. After this, she could have handed me a check for a million dollars and I would have ignored her. She no longer had any credibility.

Maybe she was a Bush appointee.

The next item she addressed was ACAP job fairs. Apparently, ACAP has two of these a year on Fort Bragg. One last year was cancelled. Can you guess why?

Survey says: The overwhelming majority of the Division was either in Iraq or Afghanistan!
The first one this year was held on April 1st. On April 1st, I was sleeping in a white circus tent on Kandahar Airfield. The next job fair will be held in October, well over 90 days beyond the end of my service.

This isn't so much a problem for me. I've already been accepted to the college I plan on attending and don't plan on looking for a "real" job for a while. But I can guess how many troops are pushing through ACAP that do need jobs, and ACAP's methods to assist them are unacceptable.

But let's talk about college for a moment. Of the hour and a half brief, about three minutes was spent talking about continuing education. That was on a side note dropped about the Center's computer systems having some program where I could look up colleges in the city where I'll be moving. If I hadn't figured this out by this point, 30 days before I leave the Army for good, I'd be in deep trouble.

The rest of the brief was used to talk about jobs. There were posters and notices hung all around the center about openings at corporations such as KBR and L3 Communications. It was almost as if the Army was actually encouraging me to join the military industrial complex. In fact, the term "G.I. Bill" never came out of anyone's mouth the entire time I was at the ACAP center. Perhaps ACAP doesn't expect many Soldiers to even use their educational benefits. That makes me wonder why the stink exists about funding better education benefits for Soldiers.

The final step was filling out a DD Form 2648, Preseparation Counseling Checklist. We did this on computers provided at the ACAP center. The computers asked us a series of questions about services we'd like to have more information about. The computer used the answers to populate the DD 2648. At the end of the questionnaire, we were told that our counselor would give us more information about that services in which we were interested. At the end, I was handed a sheet of paper with phone numbers and told to contact the relevant party for any item I selected "yes" for on the 2648. Thanks for the counseling ACAP. Really, if I just wanted to check the block I could just print a 2648 myself and have my Platoon Sergeant counsel me.

I don't blame ACAP, hovever. ACAP is just like any agency within DoD, or DoD itself. In flooding programs like ACAP with Soldiers who must separate within 90 days, the Government is feeding the agencies rotten apples, and expecting their excrement to be fruit salad. My problems are not isolated. In fact, I'm sure anyone on this blog who has separated from the military has had the same problems if not worse. On the whole, our system of taking care of Soldiers has been destroyed by a lack of planning or ignorance to the overall cost of war. Specifically, it seems as though no one has given any thought to the returning Veteran. "Supporting the troops" has become one giant exercise in "check the block".