Only a year to go...


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Middle East » Iraq » West » Al Asad Airbase
June 3rd 2008
Published: June 8th 2008
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We are transitioning quite well since our arrival. Each day we report to our duties, we take a little more responsibility from the unit that is leaving. As I said before they have shorttimers disease and their symptoms grow worse every day. I can't say as I blame them for itching to go home. I am happy to be here and excited to begin a new experience. As I manage soldiers I use my personal leadership style which differs from the Army's management style. Where I may ask for someone to do a task or job the Army would say, "do it and like it." We have a cadence (marching song) that says, "Go to war or, go to jail." It must come from Vietnam - but the new version of the cadence might say go to war, do it our way, and like it, or we will yell at you and, you will still be at war. A little rant from my daily routine.
I am learning crisis management which is great for my civilian job. I am learning how to manage people and make command decisions. I am also learning how not to talk to people in a positive way. I am learning how micromanagement sucks the productivity out of any operation. I heard today, "It is important to put two spaces between line 1 and 2 so that you can be in accordance with Army Regulation XYZ. Wow. No wonder our government is so inefficient - we had someone write a manual on line spacing in memos.
As they say, I digress.
I am lucky to have had the trainers that I have. They have taught me a great deal in this short two weeks. Only a year to go.


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