March 22, 2008

Gone Baby Gone

I arrived here on Okinawa just over two years ago. A month after that, Cpl Ose showed up. He and I had followed similar career tracks so far; he had ben promoted to corporal the very day after I had.

But while I'd come from a helo squadron and was quite happy here, Ose had come from a F-18 squadron and was pissed off. He was Los Angeles born and bred, and missed being able to drive an hour and see his family every weekend. The new work environment bothered him too: fighter squadrons have much less gear to take care of, so the work tempo is much slower. Plus, a fighter squadron has a seat shop that takes care of on-aircraft work, so the flight equipment shop only has to work on aircrew gear, and essentially never need to go outside. So Ose wasn't happy here. He wasn't happy getting dirty and cut turning wrenches, he wasn't happy trying to keep track of 120 aircrew and 300 sets of passenger gear, and he didn't like the other people in the shop very much.

Cpl P arrived six weeks after Cpl Ose did. He was LCpl P at the time, fresh out of school; but he'd been delayed a couple of months at school for scheduling reasons, and he was a high-flyer, meritoriously promoted to Lance, and got himself promoted to Cpl after about six months on-island. He was happier here; he liked the work, he liked the aircrew. But like everyone else, he hated the SSgt that ran the shop for a year, and he became increasingly bitter about the way the MEU was driving us.

The two of them both went to see the monitor when he visited the island. (The monitor is the man that assigns all enlisted Marines to their units.) They requested, and received, orders off the island, in less time than their scheduled two years. Ose had to extend his contract by a couple of months to make it work, but he was willing. He hates the Corps, but he hates this unit more.

They left yesterday morning, both flying out on the scheduled military flight called the "Freedom Bird", Kadena Airbase to Seattle, Washington. Ose is going to a helo unit in China Lake, California, to his irritation. P is going to a I-level squadron in Camp Pendleton. I think Ose is getting out when his contract ends in a year, but I have hopes that P can regain his motivation when with a unit that doesn't suck as much as this one does.

I'm now the only one in Flight E that remembers how good this unit used to be.

UPDATE: Forgot someone in there. When LCpl P arrived here, he came with LCpl S. S had a drinking problem, and wasn't getting any treatment, and was not getting punished for his misbehavior. Well, he's in treatment now, and the city prosecutor has dropped the felony charges in exchage for a fine and an apology. With charges dropped, he's off legal hold, so he'll be leaving next Saturday. We're getting a little shorthanded around here.

Posted by: Boviate at 08:32 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1

It sounds like there won't be enough people left for it to be possible to get everything done in time to pass the inspection.

When Cpl Ose complained recently that you were making him do maintenance while you did paperwork did he know he was about to leave anyway?

Posted by: Mom at Sunday, March 23 2008 03:38 PM (8kQ8M)

2

I have ever expectation that multiple shops and programs will fail this inspection, my own shop not least among them.

And yes, Cpl Ose has known when he was leaving for three months now.

Posted by: Boviate at Sunday, March 23 2008 04:10 PM (Q9CQ6)

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