Urban Sasquatch
New Member
SSG. Hodges here, saying hello to everyone.
A bit about myself:
Worked for 11 years as a 1N3 (Russian linguist) for the Air Force; got disgruntled by the silly politics and got out after they took away the bonuses but left Russian as a critical language, which made me unable to cross-train, despite being the ONLY enlisted guy that year to volunteer for Chinese.
During my time in the Air Force I have been billed for the privilege of staying in the military (through a clerical error when they took out ALL of my GI Bill at once and were billing me for the difference in increments); I was declared dead (yet another clerical error) and that took some time to clear up (apparently you cannot collect your own insurance and go home); and I have had a second identity created (apparently while I was at DLI the second Me was attending survival school in Washington, collecting half my paycheck and doing well academically).
When I left the Air Force, the young lady processing my paperwork asked me why, so I told her those stories. She excused herself for a few moments and, upon her return, told me skeptically that she found no record of such events in my file. When I asked her if she'd ever heard of a "delete" key, or whether she would leave things like that in a file after correction, she gave me another out-processing form to sign.
That form turned out, I discovered much to my chagrin, to be a form which disallowed me ever rejoining the military, despite having an honorable discharge and leaving the military based solely upon my ETS. This had to be overturned by a Colonel at the time I joined the Army National Guard.
When I went to see a Guard recruiter (hey, those ads about paying for college can be pretty tempting), he asked me "Okay, so what did you do on active duty?"
"I held a TS/SCI for a decade, worked overseas in a variety of environments with all branches of the military, high-level equipment and sensitive information, dealt with both American civilians and foreign nationals, and graduated one of the toughest schools the military offers."
"Hmm,..." he said, "We don't have that around here. Wanna drive a truck?"
I spent the next nine years as an 88M, driving the HET (the big truck that carries tanks).
After coming home from Iraq I wallowed in the HET company for another year before an MI unit came to Louisville, where I drill. They were told about my former MI status and said they were interested, so I met with them, liked them and promptly transferred. I loved that unit, there were some really, really good people in it -- and then KY reorganized and decided that outside of Special Forces, Intelligence had no place with them.
The MI unit was disbanded abruptly and I had to find a new home.
I checked with a couple of other Intel units in the hopes of staying with the field of languages, and had hopes for heading back to DLI for Arabic since my scores were more than high enough. Sadly, both times I contacted units the conversation went thusly:
"Hi, I'm a SSG in MI, currently a 98G, and my unit is disbanding. Do you think you guys might have a slot for me?
"Hey, we'd be happy to have you! We're just getting ready to deploy, and..."
*click*
Hey, I was still early in a new marriage and my first son was only a few months old; I wasn't quite ready to head back to the Devil's Sandbox -- so sue me, eh? I've done some time and I'll gladly do more; just not right then.
As it turned out a new Signals Company was starting up in the same armory where I already resided, so I joined them. It seems high scores are good for more than language and so I have been slotted to become a 25S (Sat-Comm). I'll likely be heading for school sometime in October (if they get a slot) down at Ft. Gordon, GA.
I've been with the military in one form or another for 22 years, about 13 of them active. I won't pretend to LOVE the military, but I think it's not only necessary, but can be pretty good. No doubt I've met some wonderful friends and people throughout my career and I hope to meet more.
I have a wife and my first child, a son who is now 14 months old. While I'm dreading being away for 10 months, I'm sure all will be well.
In the civilian sector I work as a programmer although I'll be the first to admit, I'm not terribly good at it. Apparently it's just not my cup of tea.
For a little more background:
I grew up on a farm, raising beef cattle and sheep. I've done and loved lots of that outdoorsy stuff and hope to pass it on to my boy.
I've lived in England, Italy and Japan, plus my tour in Iraq (does sleeping there for months on end count as "living"...?) and Kuwait. I've visited the countries mentioned, as well as Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Ukraine.
Personal interests include languages, martial arts, cooking (and eating), camping, gardening, animal husbandry, drawing and writing (poetry and fiction), philosophy and religion, mythology and folklore, the sciences in various forms and just good, old exploring new stuff. The list of interests seldom wanes and I simply love learning, meeting interesting people and getting to know them, exchanging thoughts and ideas.
I look forward to getting to know some people in here.
Best regards all,
SSG. Hodges, KYARNG
149th SigCo.
Adventurer and Dad
A bit about myself:
Worked for 11 years as a 1N3 (Russian linguist) for the Air Force; got disgruntled by the silly politics and got out after they took away the bonuses but left Russian as a critical language, which made me unable to cross-train, despite being the ONLY enlisted guy that year to volunteer for Chinese.
During my time in the Air Force I have been billed for the privilege of staying in the military (through a clerical error when they took out ALL of my GI Bill at once and were billing me for the difference in increments); I was declared dead (yet another clerical error) and that took some time to clear up (apparently you cannot collect your own insurance and go home); and I have had a second identity created (apparently while I was at DLI the second Me was attending survival school in Washington, collecting half my paycheck and doing well academically).
When I left the Air Force, the young lady processing my paperwork asked me why, so I told her those stories. She excused herself for a few moments and, upon her return, told me skeptically that she found no record of such events in my file. When I asked her if she'd ever heard of a "delete" key, or whether she would leave things like that in a file after correction, she gave me another out-processing form to sign.
That form turned out, I discovered much to my chagrin, to be a form which disallowed me ever rejoining the military, despite having an honorable discharge and leaving the military based solely upon my ETS. This had to be overturned by a Colonel at the time I joined the Army National Guard.
When I went to see a Guard recruiter (hey, those ads about paying for college can be pretty tempting), he asked me "Okay, so what did you do on active duty?"
"I held a TS/SCI for a decade, worked overseas in a variety of environments with all branches of the military, high-level equipment and sensitive information, dealt with both American civilians and foreign nationals, and graduated one of the toughest schools the military offers."
"Hmm,..." he said, "We don't have that around here. Wanna drive a truck?"
I spent the next nine years as an 88M, driving the HET (the big truck that carries tanks).
After coming home from Iraq I wallowed in the HET company for another year before an MI unit came to Louisville, where I drill. They were told about my former MI status and said they were interested, so I met with them, liked them and promptly transferred. I loved that unit, there were some really, really good people in it -- and then KY reorganized and decided that outside of Special Forces, Intelligence had no place with them.
The MI unit was disbanded abruptly and I had to find a new home.
I checked with a couple of other Intel units in the hopes of staying with the field of languages, and had hopes for heading back to DLI for Arabic since my scores were more than high enough. Sadly, both times I contacted units the conversation went thusly:
"Hi, I'm a SSG in MI, currently a 98G, and my unit is disbanding. Do you think you guys might have a slot for me?
"Hey, we'd be happy to have you! We're just getting ready to deploy, and..."
*click*
Hey, I was still early in a new marriage and my first son was only a few months old; I wasn't quite ready to head back to the Devil's Sandbox -- so sue me, eh? I've done some time and I'll gladly do more; just not right then.
As it turned out a new Signals Company was starting up in the same armory where I already resided, so I joined them. It seems high scores are good for more than language and so I have been slotted to become a 25S (Sat-Comm). I'll likely be heading for school sometime in October (if they get a slot) down at Ft. Gordon, GA.
I've been with the military in one form or another for 22 years, about 13 of them active. I won't pretend to LOVE the military, but I think it's not only necessary, but can be pretty good. No doubt I've met some wonderful friends and people throughout my career and I hope to meet more.
I have a wife and my first child, a son who is now 14 months old. While I'm dreading being away for 10 months, I'm sure all will be well.
In the civilian sector I work as a programmer although I'll be the first to admit, I'm not terribly good at it. Apparently it's just not my cup of tea.
For a little more background:
I grew up on a farm, raising beef cattle and sheep. I've done and loved lots of that outdoorsy stuff and hope to pass it on to my boy.
I've lived in England, Italy and Japan, plus my tour in Iraq (does sleeping there for months on end count as "living"...?) and Kuwait. I've visited the countries mentioned, as well as Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Ukraine.
Personal interests include languages, martial arts, cooking (and eating), camping, gardening, animal husbandry, drawing and writing (poetry and fiction), philosophy and religion, mythology and folklore, the sciences in various forms and just good, old exploring new stuff. The list of interests seldom wanes and I simply love learning, meeting interesting people and getting to know them, exchanging thoughts and ideas.
I look forward to getting to know some people in here.
Best regards all,
SSG. Hodges, KYARNG
149th SigCo.
Adventurer and Dad
