Individual Augmentee or IA

That's the name given to someone in the Navy going to Iraq, Afghanistan, or some other place to help out the other armed services. Well, it's my turn now. This post is the story of what it was like to make the 5 (or 7) day transition from reServist to Active Duty Navy. The story actually starts at Day -2, but that was uneventful. I'll start with Day 1.

Day 1:
Showed up by 0730 per the orders. Apparently some people got word to show up by 0545. Didn't have time to get uniforms fitted prior to heading to the auditorium for briefs (about 0815). There were a couple of times that groups were singled out to stay in the auditorium. Others were able to take a break during those times. I was in the group that had to stay at every break. Didn't get out of my seat until 1140 when they sent us to lunch to return by 1230. Did I mention most of the morning briefs were a rehash of the ECRC checklist?

After lunch we were told we could go get fitted for uniforms during the first brief. We waited for the fitting folks for about 20 minutes. After they got there and got started, we were told to do it the next day and head back to the auditorium. Maybe 10 people had been fitted at this point. Some of us opted, based on the morning briefs, to get fitted before going back. It seemed like a good choice.

A couple more briefs finished off the day, except for being broken up into our groups. We waited as a CS1 read off the four groups using everybodies last 4, and each person responded. They were then told whether or not they had to fast for a blood draw. A little tip...those who had the most to get done had a 0615 muster. The next group was 0630. Those of us who completed things ahead of time were given 0730.

Day 2:
Medical. Did I mention medical? You basically bounce around medical all day.

Day 3 and 4:
Check in at 0800. Go home. Oh...maybe get fit for a gas mask. Then go home.

Day 5:
Get your uniforms and your travel brief. We congregated in the courtyard of the BEQ until our uniforms were ready. Then we inventoried the sea bag of uniforms and ensured everything fit properly. The problem? No one knew just how the ACUs had to look, so some uniforms ended up being exchanged when we got to Ft Jackson.

Day 7:
We flew out of NAS North Island at 0845 on Sunday. We had a 0615 show time at NMPS to get transported by passenger van to NASNI. The flight was a USMC C-9. We landed in Topeka for fuel. We landed in P-cola to drop some people off (another group of PAX headed in the same general direction) and fuel. Then we landed in Columbia, SC, where one of our buses broke down so we had to wait for another. We got in to Camp McCrady after the DFAC closed, so we got bag lunches while we sat through some introductory presentations. Some time after 8pm, we made it to our barracks where we got to settle in and hope we could sleep...before the 0500 wake up for Monday morning.


That's enough for now. Thanks for reading if you're still here ;)
The next post will talk about the next two weeks and includes pictures. Heh.