I'm Going Where?

In mid August, 2007, I flew to Honolulu on Navy Reserve business to attend a planning conference for Fiscal Year 2008. As the plane pulled into the gate, I turned on my cell phone and saw I had a voice mail. It was my reserve unit's executive officer telling me my name was in the cross hairs for an involuntary 450-day mobilization to Baghdad, Iraq.

Buzz-kill can't even begin to describe how I felt. Although technically not a surprise (my name had surfaced the month before on another mobilization) I still didn't really think it was going to happen to me. Yet here it was, five years after the invasion of Iraq, an my number finally came up.

Not surprisingly, no one in my reserve community volunteered for this peach of an assignment. My orders were cut and I received them, via email, on 27 AUG 2007. The orders said I was off to support Multinational Force Iraq in Baghdad for 450 days, 350 of which would be Boots On Ground (BOG). I was to report for pre-screening at my local Naval Operational Support Center (NOSC) in Alameda, California, on 5 OCT with follow on stops in San Diego, California, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Kuwait, and, ultimately, Baghdad.