From the Soldier to Cop side: There’s
been some action being taken in recent days to help assist the troops being
discharged back into “society”. I
personally think that this is a great idea for in many cases, soldiers (a
general term to include all in the military) often joined up when they were
young. They spent anywhere from 4 to 30
years following orders, giving orders but always dealing with some kind of “order”. Then, regardless of age or background, upon
discharge they are poured back into the real world.
I know when I was discharged from the “regular
army” when I was 20 years old; I had no idea what I was going to do when I
returned home. Lucky for me, my dear old’
dad let me stay with him while I worked and went to college full time.
Fast forward to 2004-05. When my National Guard unit returned from
deployment to Bosnia, we had about 2 weeks of earned military leave that we had
on the books…so after we de-mobilized, we were getting our leave pay for 2
weeks. This was a great idea to have a
few weeks to rest before returning to work.
However, the police department I was working for at the time didn’t
think I needed all that rest. As soon as
they found out I was home, they called me to get me to return to work. I almost had a whole week off—counting the
time in Bosnia- I was usually working 6 days a week and usually 12-16 hour
days---so I hadn’t had a vacation in a few years. That deployment was a total of 9 months.
I was tired.
But, I put on the blue uniform and went
back to work.
6 months later we were re-deployed to
Iraq (there were about 15 of us Bosnia vets with the unit who “volunteered” to
go to Iraq.) That deployment was a total
of 15 moths with the useless training before.
So when I returned home and had 2 weeks of military leave I told the
P.D. that I’ was taking a whole month off – and I didn’t answer the phone.
After being home for a month and resting,
I went back into the patrol car. This
time the police department got a little smarter and had me ride with another
experienced officer. She was one of the
best cops I ever worked with…so the first day in the car she asked:”well, how
long do you want to ride with me?”
I looked at her and said: “As long as they let me. I like being driven around.” About 3 hours into that shift we got a call of a bank robbery. For some reason I was the only one not getting all excited---- well, what the heck, there was no gun involved so what was the big deal? (remember after a year in Iraq, anything is easy.)
I looked at her and said: “As long as they let me. I like being driven around.” About 3 hours into that shift we got a call of a bank robbery. For some reason I was the only one not getting all excited---- well, what the heck, there was no gun involved so what was the big deal? (remember after a year in Iraq, anything is easy.)
2 weeks later, the town had one of the
biggest floods in 20 years…and I was working 12 hour shifts so many days I lost
track. But I was getting OVERTIME
pay. Unlike the Army.
A good sense of humor did help......
I think I earned my retirement. Both of them.
5 comments:
I belive one of the "Murphy's Laws of War" is: There is nothing more dangerous than a Butter-bar with a compass and a map.
That you did, and it IS about time they took a hard look at the re-integration into society. It's NOT easy to shift those mental gears in a hurry (and some NEVER really come back).
Yep! Well Done, Dude.
1. You did.
2. Carried a lot more than your share of the load, did it twice, and in more than one AO.
3. Taking big bites and spewing large chunks.
4. BTW, vsv cartoon: Me are the 2LT w/compass after a party (one combat boot and one bare hoof).
5. Please keep writing.
V/R JWest
Ody, I actually found lots of people who can't read a compass/ map. In the later years they relied in GPS- but when batteries died, they were lost.
Old NFO, Some came home, but their minds didn't. Some were just not all there even before they deployed- but the deployment just made things worse.
Mr West- I'm sure you could use a compass
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