I made it!

Well, it's finally May 22nd and I am now officially in the U.S. Army. My time in the Air Force is difficult to explain, but I did somewhat in the first entry. These last few weeks I have been running around all over Eglin AFB to get signatures and checked off for certain things required to out process the base as well as the AF in general. 21 May was my official last day in the AF, and I took my Army oath this morning with my friend Scott. It feels a little weird now that I won't be driving to Eglin in the morning every day, but at the same time I feel liberated in the fact that I will be taking on a new challenge with something that may not (actually I am sure it will not) be as comfortable and easy as my now previous assignment. My commitment to the Army is three years starting today! It would seem like a long time to most, but I think of it more as (at least) a three year adventure taking me to distant and exciting places in the world, although they may not be as safe as the states. I have gotten most all of my supplies ready for training, which starts on June 8th. Christina and I will be getting ready to move on the 28th when the movers come to pick up our stuff. Then the next day I will drive up to Ft. Benning, GA and begin looking for a house. I always wanted to be a soldier but I realized, with my wife's help, that I simply joined the wrong ROTC detachment at OSU. I do not regret my decision to join AFROTC, I learned a lot and made many friends, but I am assuming I would have fit in better in Army ROTC. Many in my AF detachment had the wannabe pilot syndrome where they would do anything and everything to become pilot, even if that meant screwing over your friends or putting yourself above all else, which is the common attitude. I chose not to try to be the #1 person in college, and that doesn't mean that I could have if I tried. I wanted to be a simple cadet, work hard in everything, commission, and do well in my job that I hopefully enjoyed. I have nothing against those that I graduated with who had better grades than me or who were stratified higher than me; they worked hard for it and they deserved it. Sometimes I questioned their motives but the majority of the time they had unselfish ones. Why am I telling you this? Because, I believe, there is a fundamental flaw with our system we have today. Call me cynical, or call it wishful thinking. Everyone's goal in ROTC, of course, is to make it through four years of school and training, and commission. I remember my commander teaching us the difference between groups and teams and he said that we didn't have a common goal, we were not a team. We were just a group of kids who all had their own goals, without any team oriented goals. He was right! Everyone's individual goal was to get the best grades, best ranking, best career field (most waned pilot of course). So everyone commissioned with different accomplishments, grades, and subsequent jobs in the AF. My commander also explained to us how that changes very much on active duty where a unit is working together to accomplish a mission. I was excited to be in a unit like that where people weren't competing with each other because they were thinking about how better to work together to accomplish the mission at hand. Looking back at my first assignment now, I regret the fact that I don't believe I was in a unit like that. Who knows, it may have been different if I was in maintenance, communications, etc. What was hammered into us time and again was how to get stratification, what we needed to do to get bullets on our performance reports, what is good to have on award packages, etc. Not once were we taught how to work together as a team (probably difficult due to the nature of our unit). The most important thing we were told was how to get promoted to the next rank, what we need to do, what kind of jobs we need to have, what are career killers, etc. They talked about how going on a deployment as an acquisition officer looks good on your performance report. Wow, I don't remember them saying you should go on a deployment to serve your country or contribute to the mission, but rather for a couple lines on a performance report. Since many Army soldiers have deployed 2, 3, 4 times to OEF or OIF, do you think that all they are thinking about over there is this is going on my performance report? Probably not, more like staying alive, watching my buddy's back and completing the mission. This is what I am hoping for in my new unit in the Army. I know that I will go on several deployments during my time. But we will be a team working together for the common goal, not doing our own thing, and maybe helping out a friend if it may benefit us.
I can see how this mirrors civilian society. In America, our society is based on money, capitalism. I don't believe there is anything wrong with that. But, as no system is perfect, capitalism can have some negative qualities as well. In this country, outstanding individual achievement is the most highly regarded quality in a person, whereas team accomplishments are usually not as respected. For example, in baseball is a player who broke the single season home run record (even though he may have an * next to his name) or that another team won a few championships? I admit, it depends on the situation, but just think about it in general. In America, if get educated, work hard, and you don't try to cheat, then in most cases you will make a good life for you and your family. This is the greatness of our society: it doesn't matter where you start, but only what you do after you start. But it seems that some will do anything to get rich. I will get off my soapbox for now, and in no way do I intend to sound self-righteous or that everyone else is wrong. From my experiences, I have been trying to understand why things are the way they are. I am the same as every other human who wants to well and achieve more: I worked hard, got decent grades, and now I am successful so far. This has been the story of most Americans. The problem is once you start having success, you want more and more and more, and that is when it is difficult remember to think of what is best for this team I am a part of, could be your family, friends, unit, company, etc... If you agree or disagree with me on any of this, please comment. I like to hear other people's opinions about anything, it gives me an even greater perspective. I will write again soon when I get closer to my training.