Real Will Be Realer

Milestone: My Department of the Army Mobilization (DA Mob) orders came through today. It refers to me by a code called a UIC (Unit Identification Code.) A UIC is how the Army identifies units in various systems. I have my own UIC. Since I am mobilizing as an individual, the Army has subdivided me from my unit and created an individual subunit with its own unique UIC. In effect, I am a unit of one. I think that's a scream... it's just how it works. The state will generate individual orders to active duty.

The significance is that, up to now, there was a sense of unreality (see prior post.) This makes it a lot more real. As the girl with the elephant says, "Real will be realer."

It is real.

I couldn't sleep last night as the reality began to set in. Then there was today. I was on the phone with the LT when the call came on my cell. We were talking about getting together with his family after Christmas so that they knew who was going with him. He said that he's beginning to get pumped for this, and how we are going to work together. I ignored the call in the background, figuring that whoever it was would leave a message. The LT and I were wrapping it up anyway.

My desk phone started to ring. I ended the call with the LT and answered it. It was the State Mobilization Office with news. My DA Mob (pronounced "mobe") orders were in. My world changed just a little in that moment. There are milestones, and this was a big one. It's a dose of reality in the unreal. The SFC up at the Mob Office emailed me the orders. It was weird to look at them. A historic document... in my history, anyway.

The world will little note, nor long remember... but I will. Forever. I think I will remember that moment just as I remember watching the smoke pouring out of the World Trade Center, seeing Flight 175 fly into the South Tower, watching the towers fall. This is my history, not world history, my history. I will remember it.

It's funny; that document doesn't resemble a can opener in the least, but it sure does open a can of worms.


HUMOR NOTE: After my last post, I wondered if I had made too much fun of the French. Then today I read that the French were pulling their special forces out of southern Afghanistan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1974323,00.html

Surrender Monkeys. With French like these, who needs enemies?

In 2003, most of my unit deployed to Kosovo. Just as my unit was preparing to leave Germany for Kosovo, there was a riot in the French sector. A French soldier was killed. Within two weeks, the French had evacuated that sector and handed it over to other forces.

Old joke...

For Sale: French Army rifle. Original issue. Never fired. Only dropped once.