Highlights: talk with monitor about my summer PCS orders & temp DIFOP status, a/c class & CBT till 6. dinner at Cass St. Bar & Grill with Becc & friends
As a Marine officer, the guy who controls our next job assignment is called a “career monitor”. There’s a big, complex system out there that he uses to fill in a career peg-board with names… ie: Squadron A has an opening for a Captain in June, and there are 3 guys who can fill it. He chooses who goes where.
That’s an item of interest for me, because I would like to know where I’ll be assigned later this summer, when I leave Indonesia. This all falls under the rubric of “managing our career”.
I could have done this better, by communicating more frequently with this guy- but…
Since I plan on making a career in the Marines (at least 20 years), I have to compete for promotion among my helicopter pilot peers. The higher you move up in the rank structure, the less room there is to stand. This is where a guy in my position has to start thinking several years ahead.
The best way to manage my career is to get back to my primary job, which is flying helicopters in a tactical squadron. All the cultural expertise I’m developing in Indonesia is great, but it’s not going to help me become a potential squadron commander someday, so I have to fly. And you can’t fly if you’re not in a squadron.
So… I spoke with the monitor today, hoping to hear about plans for checking-into a Miramar squadron, where I was stationed before. “Not so fast mister…” came the paraphrased response. “All the pegs in my career board are full. I’ve got no place to send you this summer, except maybe as an instructor pilot at the training squadron…”
Hmmm. Wasn’t the news I was hoping for… but that’s another interesting dynamic of being a Marine these days. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. Hopefully something will come up.
Another issue, a touch more pressing is getting authorization to fly in written orders. Duty Involving Flight Operations = DIFOP. There has to be a piece of paper with my name & the right signatures on it, authorizing me to fly legally, since my job for the last 3 years has had nothing to do with flying. A round of phone calls later, the paper was on the way.
After all the administrative gymnastics, I buried myself back in the computer lab, getting through my CBT as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whew! it’s painful sitting through all this stuff… but I have to do it.
There’s something about being forced to sit through these things which makes you instantly sleepy.
I had to get up & walk around every hour or so, just to keep pressing through it.
Dinner tonight was out at a favorite Pacific Beach joint: Cass St. Bar & Grill. Their kitchen produces hot, fresh, tasty sandwiches that are just huge,, if not a touch greasy- but delicious.
Becc & her boyfriend John introduced me to a few of their friends.
Going back to a bar made me think of how most of my Muslim Indonesian friends feel about alchohol & establishments like this in general. I can hear their oversimplistic rationales why alchohol is bad in my head. (= ha ha. It’s clear that most have never experienced it. They just get it beaten into their head that Mohammad said “no” to alchohol and drunkenness.
My friends here think it’s terribly important to see your friends drunk at least once, because your “true” personality comes out then. (= ha ha,,, well- for the sake of argument. Whatever. It is entertaining sometimes to see what people do when they’re not working with all 6 cylinders. Alchohol is a fundamental part of entertainment, relaxation & enjoyment of life here in America. I don’t have to be a drinker to appreciate that culturalism about America.
An Iraqi friend pointed out a contradiction to me once. In the Koran, Mohammad says “don’t go to prayer drunk.” Later somewhere he is quoted saying “alchohol is evil.” So,,, many Muslims selectively interpret his later words to mean he was against alchohol. Others interpret the first part to mean, “just don’t be drunk when you go to pray.”
Anyways- few Muslims hear the seemingly contradictory statements together. That’s one mans explanation why Muslims have strict policies about alchohol.
Just being in a place like this,,, by Indonesian countryside standards, is bad.
Here in PB, it’s life as normal, if not encouraged as the social meeting place of choice.
It’s funny how cultural norms are so different from one place to the next. I knew some Baptist friends in college too who were taught that alchohol is evil, but as Americans, the social baggage they carried was much different.
(insert pic of Becc at Cass St. bar & grill) [1]
As a Marine officer, the guy who controls our next job assignment is called a “career monitor”. There’s a big, complex system out there that he uses to fill in a career peg-board with names… ie: Squadron A has an opening for a Captain in June, and there are 3 guys who can fill it. He chooses who goes where.
That’s an item of interest for me, because I would like to know where I’ll be assigned later this summer, when I leave Indonesia. This all falls under the rubric of “managing our career”.
I could have done this better, by communicating more frequently with this guy- but…
Since I plan on making a career in the Marines (at least 20 years), I have to compete for promotion among my helicopter pilot peers. The higher you move up in the rank structure, the less room there is to stand. This is where a guy in my position has to start thinking several years ahead.
The best way to manage my career is to get back to my primary job, which is flying helicopters in a tactical squadron. All the cultural expertise I’m developing in Indonesia is great, but it’s not going to help me become a potential squadron commander someday, so I have to fly. And you can’t fly if you’re not in a squadron.
So… I spoke with the monitor today, hoping to hear about plans for checking-into a Miramar squadron, where I was stationed before. “Not so fast mister…” came the paraphrased response. “All the pegs in my career board are full. I’ve got no place to send you this summer, except maybe as an instructor pilot at the training squadron…”
Hmmm. Wasn’t the news I was hoping for… but that’s another interesting dynamic of being a Marine these days. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. Hopefully something will come up.
Another issue, a touch more pressing is getting authorization to fly in written orders. Duty Involving Flight Operations = DIFOP. There has to be a piece of paper with my name & the right signatures on it, authorizing me to fly legally, since my job for the last 3 years has had nothing to do with flying. A round of phone calls later, the paper was on the way.
After all the administrative gymnastics, I buried myself back in the computer lab, getting through my CBT as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whew! it’s painful sitting through all this stuff… but I have to do it.
There’s something about being forced to sit through these things which makes you instantly sleepy.
I had to get up & walk around every hour or so, just to keep pressing through it.
Dinner tonight was out at a favorite Pacific Beach joint: Cass St. Bar & Grill. Their kitchen produces hot, fresh, tasty sandwiches that are just huge,, if not a touch greasy- but delicious.
Becc & her boyfriend John introduced me to a few of their friends.
Going back to a bar made me think of how most of my Muslim Indonesian friends feel about alchohol & establishments like this in general. I can hear their oversimplistic rationales why alchohol is bad in my head. (= ha ha. It’s clear that most have never experienced it. They just get it beaten into their head that Mohammad said “no” to alchohol and drunkenness.
My friends here think it’s terribly important to see your friends drunk at least once, because your “true” personality comes out then. (= ha ha,,, well- for the sake of argument. Whatever. It is entertaining sometimes to see what people do when they’re not working with all 6 cylinders. Alchohol is a fundamental part of entertainment, relaxation & enjoyment of life here in America. I don’t have to be a drinker to appreciate that culturalism about America.
An Iraqi friend pointed out a contradiction to me once. In the Koran, Mohammad says “don’t go to prayer drunk.” Later somewhere he is quoted saying “alchohol is evil.” So,,, many Muslims selectively interpret his later words to mean he was against alchohol. Others interpret the first part to mean, “just don’t be drunk when you go to pray.”
Anyways- few Muslims hear the seemingly contradictory statements together. That’s one mans explanation why Muslims have strict policies about alchohol.
Just being in a place like this,,, by Indonesian countryside standards, is bad.
Here in PB, it’s life as normal, if not encouraged as the social meeting place of choice.
It’s funny how cultural norms are so different from one place to the next. I knew some Baptist friends in college too who were taught that alchohol is evil, but as Americans, the social baggage they carried was much different.
(insert pic of Becc at Cass St. bar & grill) [1]
posted by jonathan adventures at 11:52 PM
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