I put in money into the Savings Deposit Program. I was really glad that I saved up enough money to put as much into it as I could. This means I get a 10 percent interest compounded quarterly into my account. So at the most I think I’ll probably get 5 percent, since we’re probably gonna go home in the beginning of January.
SFC Tayo told us about last week that she would now be leaving us. I don’t know why she did it, but I know from day one that she didn’t like our chain of command all too much. And who could blame her? There isn’t too much she could do except do an E-5 work around here. And I suppose she had every reason to. But I felt kind of abandoned. I mean she is the platoon sergeant after all, and you don’t just leave on the first chance that you get, no matter how hard the circumstances may be. I mean, I do understand that she is going through a lot of shit, but damn, to leave us so early on the deployment, didn’t seem too right.
But then again, she may be hooking me up next week. She is going as part of the ‘assessment team’ into Iraq and Kuwait, visiting all 16 APOs in Iraq and more in Kuwait, trying to figure out how to make the post offices there and here better. Fly into Iraq (Baghdad International Airport) next week, and travel around, in humvees, planes, helicopters maybe, just assessing the different APOs. It seemed like so much of an adventure for me. It’s kind of odd how this happened. It all happened yesterday, when SGT Figueroa, on our way to work, started talking to Windsor and me. He brought himself to the middle, saying that he wants both of us to hear. Then he says, ‘let me give you a scenario for you, what would you do if you were asked to become an assessment team going around Iraq and Kuwait to evaluate the effectiveness of the different APOs that we have set up as post offices, would you take that chance?’ Windsor answerd first, asking Iraq, going where, and how many people are involved. Then he asked me. I said well, I would, but under the right circumstances. And I wanted to have my options open. I wanted to be part of 3rd Platoon still, and I still wanted a job in our platoon because I didn’t want to leave them behind. I wanted to visit Iraq alright, but I wanted to have that option. SFC Tayo, meanwhile, didn’t really have that option. Now she fell under 3rd PERSCOM and we would probably not see her all too much when we get back.
So that’s how it went. Then later that night, I was visiting the gym when I noticed that Sanchez was there. I was surprised to see him because we weren’t foretold that he would be there, but evidently, everyone from KNB was there, trying to do some descent laundry. Nothing really happened then, except we exchanged greetings, how people are doing, how it is over there. He always tells me that it’s a paradise over there, that it’s busy all the time, but it’s still bareable. And like us, they just started receiving days off after a while. He left sometime after and I left about after an hour or so. I came back, saw Mabugat, SGT Gamarra, 1LT Duenas and finally Fitzgibbon, all doing laundry from KNB (Kuwaiti Naval Base). Well, I said my good byes with everyone else around midnight or so, but I decided to follow them to the humvee anyway. That’s when it all happened. Sanchez talks to me, mentioning that I don’t want to go to Iraq. I said what gave you that idea? He had talked to SFC Tayo, and she had told him that I didn’t want to go. I said no that’s not true at all, that I would give anything to be able to go. Well, almost anything. So then and there, that’s when it all came together. SFC Tayo had asked SGT Figueroa to ask me for some reason or another, and he had to make it not so obvious in asking me about it. But he gave himself away when I asked him a question about how many people are going and he said that they were desperately looking for people and now needed some postal qualified people to go that are E-5 and above. But now they were so desperate they were looking into E-5 promotables, meaning E-4s eligible for promotion to be a Sergeant. That was me, and not Windsor because she wasn’t qualified just yet. I put the two and two together, and I finally decided before falling asleep that night in my bunk, that I need to talk to SFC Tayo about my options.
So today, I talked to her. And I talked to her everything about it, and of course there was a reluctant revelation that yes, she does want someone to go with her, and that she did ask SGT Figueroa because she didn’t want it to be forced. She wanted the message to come from an E-5, and wanted us to believe that there was a choice, whereas if she asked, it would have seemed like there wasn’t. So I told her that well, I would definitely love to go, that whatever you may have heard may have been different because I wanted options. I wanted to be able to come back to 3rd Platoon, work with them after the assessment team returned, and continue on with my mission there. She made it clear that Iraq is still dangerous place, asking several times am I sure I want to go through the trouble, getting shot at, that it’s still very hot up there. I said that’s exactly what I’m looking forward to, and that I wanted to rendevous with 1st Platoon in Baghdad, and that I really wanted to see all the different places. She said that she’ll talk to her OIC, see what she can do, that she’ll put in a good word for me. And later on I will have to talk to him one on one about it, see what I want to do and see what he can do for me.
Of course, there is a chance that I could join in this adventure, but then again, this is a greater chance that I can’t. But if I am able to go, I know I will have stories to tell when I get back. I would have traveled in Iraq for about half a month to a month and a half, been anywhere and everywhere. Not even the infantrymen have been everywhere. And for me to visit all 16 different camps we have set up now, I just can’t imagine the things I would be able to see. I am very excited at the prospect of it. Perhaps sticking with 3rd platoon wasn’t all that bad after all. I always thought they kind of screwed me over, since I was stuck at Fort McCoy, and now in Kuwait, never having gotten a leave or a pass, while people at Ft. Jackson got to get away from the rest of us and take some R&R, while others are now stationed in A-Pod, KNB, and S-Pod. I’ve been trying to get out of here just for a little bit. And maybe this is the chance that I’ve been looking for, wishing and praying for. I am beyond excited. I just hope everything works out for the best.