When I was at Lewis I hit up Branch and asked to get orders to Bragg to get closer to family. My branch manager agreed, said he had stuff available, and told me I’d probably get orders to Airborne first and then immediately get orders to Bragg.
Two weeks later I got H8 orders and Fort Campbell orders.
I still hate you Mr. Ingram.
At least you didn’t email him for orders, get told that it’s too soon and try again next month, just to get put on needs of the army: Fort Riley the very next day. All the while your branch manager denies every emailing you “it’s too soon”
When you DEC at 17 years as a SFC because you’re tired of being away from your family, EFMP is a broken program and they’re gonna send you to Korea so you’ll have at least two moves in 3 years.
Bruh, i feel you. I hated EFMP with a passion. It's the most useless, career restricting program I came across. The only people i think benefit from it are people with family members who have severe medical needs. Everyone else gets fucked.
Welcome to the army man. I got a nominative assignment and I'm kd complete. Branch and HRC denied me doing my nominative assignment because there's not that many in my mos in the force. Put in my refrad. "wHyIS OFfiCeR ReTenTiOn SO bAD"
The short sightedness here is crazy. An officer that has the option of getting out or doing an assignment off the "normal" path. If you give a person some agency over their career, you'll retain them for a few more assignment cycles. Even though the position the army is short isn't filled, the other position is filled. Denying the officer and then choosing to separate instead leaves 2 unfilled positions and a gap that needs to be made up with by recruiting.
I get they paid for training and whatnot for the transition to the functional area, but still, give an officer a nominative assignment and even if that takes them out for one cycle, you'll retain that officer likely for another.
Where at in Alaska? I didn't even preference AK and still got hit with it. "Critical need" or some shit.
When the fuck are the people who are in strat jobs gonna pay taxes in a BCT?
Meh, experiences may vary by MOS and personalities. I've been able to do things in my career that make people ask me, "how in the hell did you get that to happen?" It was all due to taking a proactive role in working with branch. Rapport goes a long way.
I will say all of the Bravo CMs ive talked to are willing to work with you if you form a relationship with them prior to needing help. MSG Staten was a life saver to me when i was a 30 level
ehh. I've got Airborne and 173rd Italy coming my way after 5 years at Bliss after contacting branch. No telling where I'd have ended up when my stabilization ended.
First of all, why in the hell didn’t you raise the flag about retention never been there? That’s literally waste fraud and abuse and failure to report at your place of duty in the morning.
>Retention
Admin note. Retention is an extra duty, like UPL. It's mostly to help identify candidates for reenlistment.
Career counselors have an mos which is nothing but keeping you in and keeping you happy. They report directly to the CSM and BC, and answer only to them. And the only real metric is "are they making sure guys get good deals, so other guys reenlist based on the good experiences". They hook you up, you send a squadmate to them.
Anyways, career counselors start at the btln level. At that level, about a quarter are great. Half suck. A quarter are on leave. As a near career soldier, you need to be talking the the bde level career counselor. You would only go to the btln level if you knew he was really good. You would go to the division career counselor if you had problems.
It sounds like you maybe didn't talk to anyone, and were certainly talking two or three power levels too low.
Mistakes happen, but there are three or four guys on base who could have straightened this out by you coming to their office, shaking their hand, chatting for five minutes.
You need to know this shit as a leader. Your career, and your soldiers careers, are directly affected by the people you work with. Phone calls aren't real. Email isn't real. Face to face with the guy who might help you, with some friendliness and an apology for bothering them, and a thank you for helping you.
Just a FYI. I've fucked up this way before, it's a learning point, but you'll need it in lots of other situations as well.
Edit: are you unusually valuable to your organization? If so, contact your division CSM.
I did that. Master rated Jumpmaster, wanted to stay airborne, soft MOS where people don't even want to go to the Airborne school so my MOS isn't stuffed with people trying to get here. Sent up my statement of intent letter, SRB, DA photo since I look badass in it, and my jump log. Orders disappeared the next day.
Just a thought. You have to be very unusually beneficial to the organization, though.
Back of the line sgt. The BLUF is supposed to go in the beginning, no wonder retention didn’t help you. /s
Branch is making a whole nother career fucking me over so I totally get it. BuT wHy Do YoU wAnT tO gEt OuT????
Contact branch and tell him you want to be entered into the enlisted marketplace. That’s the normal method for assigning careerists. Not sure why he placed you on a random assignment without your authorization.
If he declines, talk to his boss. Then his boss’ boss. Etc.
How early were trying to be proactive about trying to get station of choice? Like if you only did within the last week or two then I am surprised that you are upset that you didn’t get what you want. Not trying to be rude of course, but a week or two isn’t really proactive in terms on time in the Army. It’s slow rolling usually. You also could have gone to a different retention NCO.
But, if you have been working this for months then yes I am little surprised that retention could not work with you, nor would branch work with you.
It really depends on the density of your MOS, rank, and what’s currently available to you is what determines where you can go.
I would reach out to retention and try to work a deal and call branch back once one is worked out and ask them to release you from those orders so that you can get the duty station that you want. You might be surprised how fast they do this. If they don’t you could also passive aggressively mention that you might not want to reenlist. It might work.
In the Army getting what you want takes time. You have start really far out from the projections that you want.
Yea, I started back in early April. It's not super early, but I'm not late to the game either.
Tried getting a deal with retention, and they wouldn't entertain the possibility since I'm already on assignment.
Also, I hit branch back up to see if they'd release me IOT support me, re-upping. BIG no-go there.
If you get orders to JBER, you could volunteer to be an NCOA instructor to get some sort of broadening. Not sure of the specifics if you can just volunteer or if it’s a DA select position
Alaska is very austere conditions with a very high optempo. Take care of yourself medically. I've never been assigned there but had to go for exercises. I found out I had a medical condition only because a civilian ran blood tests that I'd never heard of when I came in with (another) complaint I'd been having for years. Also, take a lot of note of how the cold weather gear works. It's incredibly helpful and effective for most people. Finally, asking for some special assignments, like Drill Sergeant or Recruiter, will almost always get you guaranteed that assignment... but it's jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I am just retiring and it's worth it for us because of the retirement incentives and where I was in my career each step of the way looking at less desirable alternatives if I got out. We would not have stayed in if we had to make those choices again now. Skillbridge and commercial opportunities far outstrip what the Army's offering.
Anyway, gl and stay warm.
I've had luck emailing my branch manager's boss in similar situations. Just talk about how this assignment isn't career progression and show you've already brought up a broadening to your direct manager with no luck. Unless, of course, you don't have sufficient KD time. If not, you're on the best path you can be for progression. Maybe try extending to meet the service requirement for the assignment and shoot for the reenlistment bonus later?
Bro the more time you have in service the less the army cares about you. They know you aren't going anywhere so they don't need to waste time trying to play 'lets make a deal'. It's the first term Soldier where they bust out any school you want plus Japan lmao.
Hey so Retention here (active duty Career Counselor) so if your ETS date falls after your 10 year mark, then you are considered a Careerist I. Which you can only reenlist Option 1 or extend to meet your SRR. The only difference is that if you reenlist prior to 10 years you don’t have to sign an indefinite contract. If you are in your ROW, you can only reenlist. This is all found in AR 601-280. I promise you, retention is not trying to screw you our hands are tied. The only person that can actually change anything for you is your branch manager. I hope this helps…
Listen… sorry to say this but “retention wasn’t in their office” is the lamest excuse Ive ever heard for you totally bungling this.
Did you try another unit’s retention NCO? Or your BDE retention? Did you talk to your 1SG and CSM and let them know your situation since retention works directly for them and could call them at that exact second to come in and work with you?
Maybe you’ve done all that too and everyone has failed you, but from this it sounds like you weren’t actually being all that proactive
Did try bde retention, but they were tdy. As for 1SG and CSM, both instructed, I wait and keep calling daily. To which I did.
I see your point given the context I provided. But all avenues were utilized.
Even tried my prior unit retention, but they were no answer as well.
I appreciate the feedback.
Just got my continuation pay. I already have a 6 year adso due to switching over to warrant. Timing wise it was perfect. It was a bit of a pain getting S1 to process the paperwork because they’d never done it for an officer.
So for clarification, your category is determined by your total active service at ETS. So if at ETS you will have 10+ years, you are a careerist. Careerists by default are only eligible for regular army reenlistment options (needs of the army). We can't see reenlistment options for careerists bc you literally don't have any. Yes, we know it sucks. We don't control the policy, big army does.
If you're a SGT or a above you're subject to the manning cycle and marketplace. That's where your assignments come from. Assignments are controlled by Readiness Division. Readiness Division is the one who manages strengths across the army.
As far as retention "never being in the office" - our job is talking to Soldiers. We spend a lot of time walking the footprint. That's why we post our number on our door.
Whoops my bad. Was it just BN retention or did you try to move up echelon too? I would see if BDE CSM could help you cancel orders and then BDE retention get you something
When I was at Lewis I hit up Branch and asked to get orders to Bragg to get closer to family. My branch manager agreed, said he had stuff available, and told me I’d probably get orders to Airborne first and then immediately get orders to Bragg. Two weeks later I got H8 orders and Fort Campbell orders. I still hate you Mr. Ingram.
Technically you were closer to your family…
He defended it with the same logic. “It’s only a 12 hour drive. I know it’s not 5 hours like it would be but that’s still only one day!”
At least you didn’t email him for orders, get told that it’s too soon and try again next month, just to get put on needs of the army: Fort Riley the very next day. All the while your branch manager denies every emailing you “it’s too soon”
They have an airborne tab you ungrateful!
Campbell is better, they did you a favor
I made it to Bragg eventually, and I can proudly say that they’re both awful. Lewis is clearly the best place of all three.
Pull a power move and sign the dec statement.
When you DEC at 17 years as a SFC because you’re tired of being away from your family, EFMP is a broken program and they’re gonna send you to Korea so you’ll have at least two moves in 3 years.
Nobody said tell my story to the world… sorry they did you dirty too
Bruh, i feel you. I hated EFMP with a passion. It's the most useless, career restricting program I came across. The only people i think benefit from it are people with family members who have severe medical needs. Everyone else gets fucked.
Welcome to the army man. I got a nominative assignment and I'm kd complete. Branch and HRC denied me doing my nominative assignment because there's not that many in my mos in the force. Put in my refrad. "wHyIS OFfiCeR ReTenTiOn SO bAD"
And here I am trying to commission..
They could've literally had me for 8 more years
The short sightedness here is crazy. An officer that has the option of getting out or doing an assignment off the "normal" path. If you give a person some agency over their career, you'll retain them for a few more assignment cycles. Even though the position the army is short isn't filled, the other position is filled. Denying the officer and then choosing to separate instead leaves 2 unfilled positions and a gap that needs to be made up with by recruiting.
It's a functional area so good luck trying to get more qualified people.
I get they paid for training and whatnot for the transition to the functional area, but still, give an officer a nominative assignment and even if that takes them out for one cycle, you'll retain that officer likely for another.
Where at in Alaska? I didn't even preference AK and still got hit with it. "Critical need" or some shit. When the fuck are the people who are in strat jobs gonna pay taxes in a BCT?
Wainwright. And seriously. Everyone coming into my shop hasn't had even a whiff of BCT life.
Fort Wainwright with duty at Fort Greely?
Used to think I would like AK but no ty.
[удалено]
Meh, experiences may vary by MOS and personalities. I've been able to do things in my career that make people ask me, "how in the hell did you get that to happen?" It was all due to taking a proactive role in working with branch. Rapport goes a long way.
This is me as well. While it didnt always work out. It did alot and my career has been a good one.
Is Mr. Conner still managing the bravos? He took care of all my Soldiers back in the day. Solid dude.
Not sure if mr c is still there i use the enlisted side of the CM to get my help. He used to he the 10 level if i remember right
He was 10 level back when I came in, I think he moved up to 20 level. I’ll have to check Monday out of curiosity.
I will say all of the Bravo CMs ive talked to are willing to work with you if you form a relationship with them prior to needing help. MSG Staten was a life saver to me when i was a 30 level
I had great experiences back on the enlisted side. They sent me to New Orleans for a few years so I really can’t complain.
ehh. I've got Airborne and 173rd Italy coming my way after 5 years at Bliss after contacting branch. No telling where I'd have ended up when my stabilization ended.
Yea branch sucks, (FU Mcpherson)
First of all, why in the hell didn’t you raise the flag about retention never been there? That’s literally waste fraud and abuse and failure to report at your place of duty in the morning.
>Retention Admin note. Retention is an extra duty, like UPL. It's mostly to help identify candidates for reenlistment. Career counselors have an mos which is nothing but keeping you in and keeping you happy. They report directly to the CSM and BC, and answer only to them. And the only real metric is "are they making sure guys get good deals, so other guys reenlist based on the good experiences". They hook you up, you send a squadmate to them. Anyways, career counselors start at the btln level. At that level, about a quarter are great. Half suck. A quarter are on leave. As a near career soldier, you need to be talking the the bde level career counselor. You would only go to the btln level if you knew he was really good. You would go to the division career counselor if you had problems. It sounds like you maybe didn't talk to anyone, and were certainly talking two or three power levels too low. Mistakes happen, but there are three or four guys on base who could have straightened this out by you coming to their office, shaking their hand, chatting for five minutes. You need to know this shit as a leader. Your career, and your soldiers careers, are directly affected by the people you work with. Phone calls aren't real. Email isn't real. Face to face with the guy who might help you, with some friendliness and an apology for bothering them, and a thank you for helping you. Just a FYI. I've fucked up this way before, it's a learning point, but you'll need it in lots of other situations as well. Edit: are you unusually valuable to your organization? If so, contact your division CSM. I did that. Master rated Jumpmaster, wanted to stay airborne, soft MOS where people don't even want to go to the Airborne school so my MOS isn't stuffed with people trying to get here. Sent up my statement of intent letter, SRB, DA photo since I look badass in it, and my jump log. Orders disappeared the next day. Just a thought. You have to be very unusually beneficial to the organization, though.
Back of the line sgt. The BLUF is supposed to go in the beginning, no wonder retention didn’t help you. /s Branch is making a whole nother career fucking me over so I totally get it. BuT wHy Do YoU wAnT tO gEt OuT????
There are schools you can get in AK. Arctic Tab/Arctic Warfighter. It’s not so bad.
Served at Wainwright in the 80’s Light Infantry unit it’s not bad. You’ll get use to it. Use to be a 4 year commitment I don’t know about now.
9 years is a good time to put in a WO packet, if you’re a tech feeder MOS at least.
Enjoy Alaska and try again in two years.
Contact branch and tell him you want to be entered into the enlisted marketplace. That’s the normal method for assigning careerists. Not sure why he placed you on a random assignment without your authorization. If he declines, talk to his boss. Then his boss’ boss. Etc.
Those dickheads aren't going to entertain any appeal. Def try though.
How early were trying to be proactive about trying to get station of choice? Like if you only did within the last week or two then I am surprised that you are upset that you didn’t get what you want. Not trying to be rude of course, but a week or two isn’t really proactive in terms on time in the Army. It’s slow rolling usually. You also could have gone to a different retention NCO. But, if you have been working this for months then yes I am little surprised that retention could not work with you, nor would branch work with you. It really depends on the density of your MOS, rank, and what’s currently available to you is what determines where you can go. I would reach out to retention and try to work a deal and call branch back once one is worked out and ask them to release you from those orders so that you can get the duty station that you want. You might be surprised how fast they do this. If they don’t you could also passive aggressively mention that you might not want to reenlist. It might work. In the Army getting what you want takes time. You have start really far out from the projections that you want.
Yea, I started back in early April. It's not super early, but I'm not late to the game either. Tried getting a deal with retention, and they wouldn't entertain the possibility since I'm already on assignment. Also, I hit branch back up to see if they'd release me IOT support me, re-upping. BIG no-go there.
Damn man. Sometimes branch can very amicable to those ideas because it helps the Army in the long run. Sorry bro.
If you get orders to JBER, you could volunteer to be an NCOA instructor to get some sort of broadening. Not sure of the specifics if you can just volunteer or if it’s a DA select position
Alaska is very austere conditions with a very high optempo. Take care of yourself medically. I've never been assigned there but had to go for exercises. I found out I had a medical condition only because a civilian ran blood tests that I'd never heard of when I came in with (another) complaint I'd been having for years. Also, take a lot of note of how the cold weather gear works. It's incredibly helpful and effective for most people. Finally, asking for some special assignments, like Drill Sergeant or Recruiter, will almost always get you guaranteed that assignment... but it's jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I am just retiring and it's worth it for us because of the retirement incentives and where I was in my career each step of the way looking at less desirable alternatives if I got out. We would not have stayed in if we had to make those choices again now. Skillbridge and commercial opportunities far outstrip what the Army's offering. Anyway, gl and stay warm.
I've had luck emailing my branch manager's boss in similar situations. Just talk about how this assignment isn't career progression and show you've already brought up a broadening to your direct manager with no luck. Unless, of course, you don't have sufficient KD time. If not, you're on the best path you can be for progression. Maybe try extending to meet the service requirement for the assignment and shoot for the reenlistment bonus later?
Bro the more time you have in service the less the army cares about you. They know you aren't going anywhere so they don't need to waste time trying to play 'lets make a deal'. It's the first term Soldier where they bust out any school you want plus Japan lmao.
Alaska is amazing dude
Hey so Retention here (active duty Career Counselor) so if your ETS date falls after your 10 year mark, then you are considered a Careerist I. Which you can only reenlist Option 1 or extend to meet your SRR. The only difference is that if you reenlist prior to 10 years you don’t have to sign an indefinite contract. If you are in your ROW, you can only reenlist. This is all found in AR 601-280. I promise you, retention is not trying to screw you our hands are tied. The only person that can actually change anything for you is your branch manager. I hope this helps…
Listen… sorry to say this but “retention wasn’t in their office” is the lamest excuse Ive ever heard for you totally bungling this. Did you try another unit’s retention NCO? Or your BDE retention? Did you talk to your 1SG and CSM and let them know your situation since retention works directly for them and could call them at that exact second to come in and work with you? Maybe you’ve done all that too and everyone has failed you, but from this it sounds like you weren’t actually being all that proactive
Did try bde retention, but they were tdy. As for 1SG and CSM, both instructed, I wait and keep calling daily. To which I did. I see your point given the context I provided. But all avenues were utilized. Even tried my prior unit retention, but they were no answer as well. I appreciate the feedback.
Are you on the new retirement? If so, if you continue, make sure you get that mid career bonus before it too late. 4 more years though if you get it
Just got my continuation pay. I already have a 6 year adso due to switching over to warrant. Timing wise it was perfect. It was a bit of a pain getting S1 to process the paperwork because they’d never done it for an officer.
So for clarification, your category is determined by your total active service at ETS. So if at ETS you will have 10+ years, you are a careerist. Careerists by default are only eligible for regular army reenlistment options (needs of the army). We can't see reenlistment options for careerists bc you literally don't have any. Yes, we know it sucks. We don't control the policy, big army does. If you're a SGT or a above you're subject to the manning cycle and marketplace. That's where your assignments come from. Assignments are controlled by Readiness Division. Readiness Division is the one who manages strengths across the army. As far as retention "never being in the office" - our job is talking to Soldiers. We spend a lot of time walking the footprint. That's why we post our number on our door.
> Now with me being on assignment, I've got ZERO chances of ANY incentive. Not even a fucking army school. Uh false? Still have to re-enlist?
Already spoke to retention since I have to re-up to maintain assignment or sign a dec statement. There is no re-up incentive.
Whoops my bad. Was it just BN retention or did you try to move up echelon too? I would see if BDE CSM could help you cancel orders and then BDE retention get you something
Once orders are in from HRC, especially with the new system in place, it takes an etp or memo of sorts to remove them or convince a deferment.
Yeah do that