Back from my last 'reserve' weekend in Fort Worth - at least for the near term. Strange how things change in a month - last month I was deeply involved with what was going on and getting ready for the next big fleet exercise, and this weekend I was handing my job over and was pretty much disconnected from the unit as they did preps for the exercise while I prepped for my 'mob'. On the bright side, I did manage to take care of all of the reserve paperwork I need to transition to active duty, so I will not need to trek back to Texas again. I still have some things to do - training courses, power of attorney, etc, but I will fit that in over the next several weeks.
Title of the post refers to my reserve 'mobilization status' code. On a unit's roster, everyone has a code (MAS code, in Reserve lingo...) which indicates their status... examples include 'RC1' (mine) which means person is called up and waiting to start active duty, 'RD2' - which means someone was called up and has returned (and also means you 'in sanctuary' and cannot be called up), and 'RDA' which means you were called up a while back and are now available to be a called again. Lots of folks called up more than once (e.g. Sept 2001 then again for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003) were RD2, but now find themselves on the hot seat again in 'RDA' status... lucky them. As an aside, there are other codes - 'VOL' - volunteer to be called up (yes, people do that!), blank (available for call up - I used to be there), and also codes which refer to single parents / families where both parents are military. NOTE - single parents and both parents of a child can and will be called up - that status does not protect someone from a callup. People in such situations have to have a plan in place to take care of their child / children should big Navy come calling... it is not an excuse to get out of a mobilization. To a civilian, this policy may sound REALLY harsh, but the fact is if you are serving in the reserves, you are volunteering to be ready to be called. Plenty of cases of that happening, too...
Spent Saturday night (Valentine's Day) with several friends from my unit - we were all stuck away from wives since we were at drill in Texas. Tried one restaraunt for dinner but it was packed, so we figured the local 'Hooters' would not be crowded - did not envision it to be a romantic dining place for couples. Oddly enough, it was packed - with couples and families! (maybe it is a Texas thing...) Anyhow, one of the guys with us is on 'the list' - he is most likely going to be called up in the next year. One little caveat is that people in his status HAVE an option - they can 'transfer to the IRR' - go to a non-pay status and they drop off 'the list' and WILL NOT BE CALLED up. Though they will not get paid and will not get promoted in this status, they can still work towards retirement via correspondence courses. AND, they can come back to paid status in the future, once they are 'clear'. I bumped into a guy from our unit at medical who was doing that - opting to hide rather than do his duty... But, the guy at dinner is NOT going to do that - even though his first child is a few months away and odds are he will be called up in the next few months. Working with guys like him is why I still like serving in the Navy... most of us really don't want to be called up, certainly aren't going to volunteer to go, but will go if their number is called.
Oh, and just in case you are curious, I already have orders in hand so I cannot transfer to the IRR even if I wanted to. But, I wouldn't.
Finally, the title refers to a 1998 Simpsons episode - Homer and his buds join the Navy Reserves and one of the jokes is "The Navy Reserve is the country's seventieth line of defense between the Mississippi National Guard and the League of Women Voters"
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