Germany Bound

This is almost like me writing on Janelle's blog. I think it's my first post. But I had to say, it's true. We're taking a leap of faith and heading to Europe next summer. We'll have a report date of around August 15th, 2009. That's a little more than a year past my 20-year mark. Yup, I stayed way past my initial 3-year tour which was going to be it. Now I'm going past my eligible retirement, which was never going to happen. But this is an opportunity I've been looking for since I joined the Army - and I'm excited that Janelle and the kids get to experience it with me! I know there will be major adjustments to make, but we'll have a ton of fun! It's ironic that this opportunity comes at the end of my career and is used to extend my time on active duty - voluntarily of course.


To address some folks' concerns for us: I'll be assigned to the Headquarters of US Army Europe. That particular command does not deploy because it's there to command the Army in Europe, not Afghanistan or Iraq. It's true some crazy things are going on in eastern Europe - Russia's trying to relive her glory days and is rattling the sabre, so to speak. And we, the U.S., just agreed with Poland to station some missile defenses in Poland with U.S. Forces there to man them initially. It all sounds very menacing. But if Russia decides to be aggressive toward other nations, including the U.S., where I am stationed really doesn't matter. I'm in the Army and as long as I wear the uniform, the needs of the Army come first when it comes to assignments, jobs, deployments, etc. That's what we do. Besides, I don't think that will happen all that fast if at all.

Being in the Army doesn't include a lot of perks. I can't negotiate much other than where I'll be assigned and how long I'll stay. This is a voluntary assignment and there are others who would take the job if I turned it down. Yes, there are some folks who want me to stick around, but there is nothing they can legally offer me in the way of financial perks aside from what we already get in Europe. And they don't really need to offer me anything else. The chance to live in Europe for a couple of years and keep doing what I enjoy doing is good enough. We'll call it my last hurrah!

• Aaron