Four years ago, after a 15-year hiatus, I rejoined the U.S. Army Reserves.  While I didn’t primarily join for the money, the money has been good.  Really good.  They have a yearly bonus for PAs that comes to more than the salary and really, really, good health insurance for $51/month.  It amounts to excellent compensation for a part-time job.  The other side to that is that they can mobilize you at any time and PAs are a particularly hot commodity.  (Note that “mobilize” typically refers to a call to active duty for non-combat assignment, while “deploy” usually means going to a war zone like Afghanistan or Iraq.)  So far it’s been a good gig, and I’ve had no real complaints.  I missed being in uniform and, even though I am a lot older than the average soldier now, I’ve enjoyed serving and really love treating soldiers.  It is honestly a privilege to serve.

The initial word came about a month ago and was that the Army had an immediate need for a PA in Germany for a year.  Now.  Seriously.  No foolin’.  After two weeks with no further word, they decided that they had no open positions in Germany.  In fact, no open positions anywhere in Europe.  I didn’t want to be mobed (“mob” is the usually abbreviation for for “mobilize” and is pronounced with a long “o”), but Germany would have been very nice duty.  I had been told it would probably be Landstuhl, which is a beautiful area of Germany.

So I informed my civilian employer of all of this, that being the U.S Army at Fort Irwin, where I am a contractor.  They like me there.  A lot.  Go figure.  But still they could take no chance on not having a medical provider for next training rotation there, so I was forced to resign from my contract.  They did, however, promise that I would have work there upon being demobed.  That was pretty nice, and came directly from the hospital commander.

Then, after two weeks, Germany was off, but they now had my name and, by God, they would find something for me, as there is a shortage of PAs on active duty.  So it was now Fort Drum, NY, for year.  Fort Drum is supposed to be nice enough but for the lake effect weather in winter, home to the 10th Mountain Division.  It snows there.  Like a lot of snow.  Way.

So I finish my 15 days at Fort Irwin, place my newly acquired travel trailer in long-term storage there (bad timing on that purchase), and head home to Riverside to await orders,  Then, three weeks after getting tagged for mob, they decided that it wasn’t to be Fort Drum after all, but Fort Hood, TX, for a year.  Starting in August.  WTF???  I informed them, yet again, that I was already out of job over this and that an August mob would mean being out of work for months.  So it went back to Fort Drum, at some indefinite date, but hopefully soon.

My dedicated readers may notice that all this seems highly nebulous and rather haphazard.  It sure seems that way to me.  Granted I am somewhat unusual in that I am an independent contractor with no re-employment rights, but one might still be forgiven for thinking the Army could make a fucking decision and give me formal notification of when and where they were mobing me.