Individual Augmentees/Global Support Assignments

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Comment by Barbara in CO on December 7, 2008 at 10:10pm

I'm surprised there has not been more discussion in this group. I heard from my son today. His calls every several days are so wonderful. The hard part has been the frequent assignments at different bases in Iraq, so sending him goodie packages has been hard.

Comment by Barbara in CO on November 16, 2008 at 12:23am

HI Ruth, Thank you. He's been deployed in Iraq for 2 months. It's supposed to be for 6 months total. Can I believe that? There always seem to be changes in the plan! He says he's ok. Just lots of long hours that he can't talk about. He was a CTI Linguist before he volunteered for the IA duty. He's been able to call every few days, which is GREAT. I'm sure I'm not the only mom who senses the weight of the responsibility our guys are shouldering, and you can't help but wonder how this experience is going to shape their lives going forward.
Actually, my biggest fear is the increased probability of more problems over there with the change of the US administration.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on November 15, 2008 at 10:53pm

Welcome, Barbara! How long has your son be there? How's he doing? How are you doing?

Comment by Barbara in CO on November 15, 2008 at 9:11pm

I'm happy to find this group. My son is IA in northern Iraq.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on October 26, 2008 at 7:09pm

Welcome, Pam and Dawn! My son is a GM and volunteered as that for Afghanistan. He, too, was sent to combat school at Ft. Riley, Kansas, before he left in February. Volunteering for IA is a good thing for career advancement. In fact, he was supposed to be there for a year, but he requested and got his first choice of next assignment--he never thought he'd get it. He's divorced with two little girls in Illinois, so he asked for Great Lakes and got it. He has to be on duty as an instructor by Feb. so he's coming back early to go to school in Norfolk. He probably won't be home for Christmas, but he'll be in the States! He'll be up for the PO1 test too, so a promotion is coming we hope.

He had two assignment places in Afghanistan, both relatively safe. He did volunteer for convoys for a while, but didn't tell his momma. I would guess as a aviation tech that your son wouldn't have the opportunity for that. He'll be most likely on the big base, so don't worry too much.

Comment by Dawn on October 26, 2008 at 4:19pm

Hi Pamela, thank you so much for your answer to my questions. I'm a nervous nelly about this decision of his. He's not finished with A school until January and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that he'll change his mind, however right now he's pretty set with proceeding in this direction. Thanks for your prayers, and my prayers go at to you as well. "Good luck to you and your son".......lol.

Comment by Pamela on October 26, 2008 at 3:54pm

Hi Dawn. I don't know the definitive answer to your questions, but I can certainly share with you my son's story. The position he is filling in Iraq is very directly related to his Navy position, just required some additional technology for the land based version of the gun he was trained on. The additional training was done on two Texas army bases. One was for army "boot camp/combat training" as there are things they need to know as ground forces which was not addressed in Navy training. The second base was specific training on the gun. So, yes, he volunteered for something which was in his field. However, the CWIS operators (his position) were all trained to do maintenance on the C-RAM since they had a working knowledge of that gun. The rest of the Navy volunteers for this assignment were NOT trained in that field, so they were trained to fire the C-RAM. Career advancement...the IA volunteers will receive that. Good luck to you and your son. I don't know if I was of any help. Prayers going your way.

Comment by Dawn on October 26, 2008 at 1:59pm

My son is in A school now as Aviation technician. My question is do they accept you based on the job you are training for or do they train you for something else? Where do they do additional training? I'm very nervous about this and I don't want him to do this, but at the same time i don't want to discourage my son. His purpose for joining this program is for career advancement.

Comment by Pamela on October 20, 2008 at 1:09pm

Hi. I am new to the group and the technology of online chatting! My son, who has been in the Navy for three years, just left for his assignment as ia in Iraq, so this will be a good support group for me. He is going to be manning a CRAM on a heavily bombed base. He is currently in transit. Was able to call me this morning, thanks to the USO for handing out phone cards!

Comment by Kim - Proud Navy Mom on October 16, 2008 at 6:31am

Eric called a couple days ago and he's not allowed to volunteer as they don't need GSs in Iraq. We may end up revisiting this later on but for now, he's staying where he is.

Thanks for all your help.

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