For those of you who took the time to read the post on what my job is here, first off, congrats for making it through that post, and secondly, here's a little more to add to that. As a lieutenant in the Field Artillery, there are three jobs I am supposed to have before I make CPT (usually takes 3ish years): Fire Support Officer (FSO), Fire Direction Officer (FDO), and Platoon Leader (PL). I'll spare you all the boring details of what these jobs would entail if we were back at Hood. I'll just fill you in on what they mean here. Basically you know what I do right now as an FSO. The PL and FDO, as far as I know, have both been turned into patrol leaders with the mission of escorting important guys around baghdad. It's a very interesting and ever changing job. Obviously there's a reason I'm explaining all this (no snickering, I heard that), that I'm due for a change in jobs here soon. I've been an FSO for about as long as I could manage and they're telling me it's time to move on. Partly I do want to move, but partly I want to stay doing the job that I'm doing. I'm right here in the thick of everything that's going on. You cannot find a more central location than the Green Zone. But, I keep seeing lieutenants who have no leadership skills or understanding of how an officer is supposed to act, running platoons right into the ground. So, I want my own platoon, so I can use all the things that I've been seeing, good and bad, to run a platoon well. Well, at least I hope I can.
The big news, and what prompted this entry, was that one of my fellow LT's might get relieved here soon, and since I'm next to move, that would mean I would take his platoon. So, this could all change very shortly, OR at the scheduled time in 3 months. I'll definitely keep you informed. B
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