(To start at Part 1, CLICK HERE)
With the powerful endorsement from BG Lessel in my possession, combined with the letter of recommendation from MG Wagner, I thought sure that I was on my way. I didn't see anything that could possibly get in my way or derail my plans...in the end the one thing that did me in was one simple piece of paper, the one thing that should have been the easiest to acquire.
As I reviewed my packet, I noticed that I was missing one thing: the conditional release form from the Army. Since I was technically still under contract with the Army, my packet had to include a form from the Army personnel office that basically said "If the soldier is accepted to Air Force Officer Training School, the US Army will release him from his contract with us." It was just a formality, really., and it should have been the easiest thing in the world to do however in typical Army fashion, they made the simple into the near impossible. It took me a couple months to even find a point of contact to request the form from, I had to start with my local personnel office and then work it all the way up until I finally received the name of the person who processed the form that I needed. According to my notes, it had been a few months since I sent the official request yet I had not received anything. I guess I just got so wrapped up in trying to get my letters of recommendation, school transcripts and everything else that I hadn't noticed that I was still missing that one simple form. Time was running out and the deadline for submission of my packet was only about two months away so I started scrambling. I managed to get the phone number and email of the Army Sergeant Major who was supposed to send me the form and I called him and emailed at least once a day for the next several weeks with no reply. I tried calling other numbers that I could find but ran into constant dead ends. At one point I actually got a hold of one person who said he sort of knew the SGM and that he'd "give him the message" but I still never heard back. I could not figure out what was going on...was this guy on extended leave? Had he moved to a different job? Was he dead?! Why was I getting no response? I tried everything I could think to do short of getting on a plane and flying to the Pentagon to personally track this guy down but kept coming up empty.
I was less than two weeks away and panicking...HARD. And then it happened. Some time in mid January the recruiter from Aviano called me and said "I've got some bad news for you...the Air Force just filled all the OTS slots for the year so you'll have to wait til next year to submit your packet."
Nine days. The deadline to submit my packet was a mere nine days away. I was completely crushed, devastated, defeated. For once, I finally had a goal, a mission, I knew what I wanted and I went after it with everything I had and I came up short. Nine days changed the entire course of my life.
So what was my next move? I'd formulated a plan when I started the OTS packet process the year prior. My ETS (End of Time in Service, the day your enlistment ends) date was December 2004. The OTS packet deadline was in January 2004. As I saw it, I had two options when I began the process: either go to OTS and finish my career as an Air Force Officer or, failing that, get out of the Army and parlay my JOPES experience into a high paying civilian job. After missing out on what I saw as my only shot at OTS, I decided I would indeed just spend the remaining 10-11 months of my enlistment looking for a civilian job. I contacted the recruiter and informed him that I didn't want to wait an entire year to submit my packet and he tried really hard to get me to change my mind:
"Let me explain something to you...all of the packets we submit are in plain brown envelopes with a cover sheet attached. That cover sheet is a checklist of all the documents and forms that required, to ensure that nothing is missing. One of the boxes on that sheet says 'General Officer Recommendation' and if that box is checked, your packet goes right to the top of the pile...you have TWO General Officer recommendations! So trust me, you will be one of the very first people accepted once they see that! Just wait a year and submit, you are guaranteed!". He was right but I was so disappointed that I could not see the forest through all of the trees. All I could see was that I was about to turn 33 years old. If I waited a year, I would be turning 34 which meant that if I got accepted, by the time I graduated OTS and pinned on 2LT (the lowest officer rank), I would be 35 years old. Of course looking back on it now 35 still seems young but considering that most officers are pinning on 2LT around 22 years old, I just could not fathom being a 35 year old 'Butterbar".
I'd made my choice and was sticking with it. I was done with the military.
(To go to Part 5, CLICK HERE)
No comments:
Post a Comment