Much ado about "Thank you"

If you read the Navy Times or the New York Times, you've probably come across a recent article by Matt Richtel called "Please Don't Thank Me for My Service."  You can also follow a VERY long discussion thread on Rally Point, and probably elsewhere, where plenty of service members are expressing their desire to not be thanked for their service.

Honestly, it's offensive and childish, almost on the same level as people who insist on a military discount anywhere they go.

We all know an idiot described above, the one military member that makes a big to-do about their service at every opportunity, when in reality there isn't much for them to talk about.  The "I don't want to be thanked" crowd would, on the surface, seem to be more noble than that, and certainly the NYT article plays to those ideas. 

There is a dark side to denying thanks though.  By not allowing someone to thank you, you deny that person the ability to give back.  You effectively say "I am so much better than you, you can't possibly understand how great I am, so your little efforts are meaningless."  I would call that sort of attitude a god-complex, similar to a brainiac pointing out how much smarter he is than everyone else around him.

PCS orders and the dividing of responsibility

Permanent change of station orders are a fact of life in the military, and in any given year 25-30% of the military moves.  You would think that by now executing the orders would be fairly routine, and yet how many people wind up messing up the process and causing grief for either the gaining or detaching command?  One of my friends recently had some bad experiences:

"As the gaining command, I had a sailor arrive without the proper security clearance.  The orders clearly stated that the security clearance was required.  As the command’s mission is conducted solely in a secure environment, this means the sailor is unavailable to be tasked.  Exacerbating the impact is that the sailor is a Chief.  Being shorthanded a Chief impacts everyone around him who now has extra tasking.  It is also personally embarrassing to the Chief, as he is unable to fill the role he was ordered to.  The mistake was not deliberate, as the clearance is common in the sailor’s rate.  The sailor had merely neglected to complete the necessary paperwork for his Periodic Reinvestigation, and had his clearance downgraded.  A simple mistake that a close eye on administrative requirements should have caught."

When you only have one job as the PAO and you blow it

 

I found this picture floating around Facebook, and it brought a smile to my face and demanded a meme be created. In celebration, I uploaded a new tracing page for PLA Navy Submarines on the Useful Files page.

DOD Announces Operation Freedom’s Sentinel Qualifies for Campaign Medal

Afghanistan Campaign Medal, from Wikipedia

The Department of Defense announced today Operation Freedom’s Sentinel as a qualifying operation for award of the Afghanistan Campaign Medal. Additionally, the transition from Operation Enduring Freedom to Freedom’s Sentinel also marks a new campaign phase, “Transition II,” for the Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Jessica Wright signed a memorandum authorizing these changes retroactive to Jan. 1, 2015. The qualifying Afghanistan Campaign Medal operations, campaign phases, and associated inclusive dates for each are as follows:

Operation:
• ENDURING FREEDOM (Afghanistan) – Sept. 11, 2001 to Dec. 31, 2014
• FREEDOM’s SENTINEL – Jan. 1, 2015 to Current

Campaign Phase:
• Liberation of Afghanistan – Sept. 11, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2001
• Consolidation I – Dec. 1, 2001 to Sept. 30, 2006
• Consolidation II – Oct. 1, 2006 to Nov. 30, 2009
• Consolidation III – Dec. 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011
• Transition I – July 1, 2011 to Dec. 31, 2014
• Transition II – Jan. 1, 2015 to Current

GI Bill Instruction and transferring benefits

 GI Bill instruction updated, located here:
https://doni.documentservices.dla.mil/Directives/01000%20Military%20Personnel%20Support/01-700%20Morale,%20Community%20and%20Religious%20Services/1780.4.pdf

No huge surprises, but it does go into detail on transfer of benefits: