De-mob orders

I received my re-deployment orders a couple of weeks ago. They have me leaving Kuwait right at my 350 day boots-on-ground date. However, I knew the dates in my orders weren't realistic because they are too ambitious about travel times. I finally received an email from NAVCENTFWD in Bagram. They gave me a schedule as soon as they received the dates for the Warrior Transition Program in Kuwait. Then they back up the schedule a few days for us to out-process in Bagram. Then I backup the schedule a couple more days according to the MRAP schedule from Eggers to Bagram.

With those factors considered, I'm either leaving Eggers shortly after Christmas, or New Years. I am TACOM to NTM-A at Eggers so I have to get a signed Letter of Release (LOR) from the Chief of Staff (CoS) before I can leave. Unfortunately, the CoS has a policy to automatically extend people if they don't overlap with their replacement for 10-days. According to the Navy, I don't have a replacement because they discontinued filling my billet - so they didn't factor in replacement turnover time. However, the Army is taking over filling my billet and no one knows what the status is of the MAJ who's supposed to replace me. So, the bottom line is that no one knows if the CoS will sign off on my LoR for the dates I requested or hold me longer. I'm waiting for my Director to return from travel so he can sign the paperwork and forward it over to the CoS. The other caveat is the the CoS typically holds on to LORs until the final day. Ensuring that we stay in a state of uncertainty about our departure date.

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet for me. The Today Show was over at the Goat DFAC filming live. Since I wanted to avoid that craziness I got dinner at the Marshal DFAC for the first time in ~8 months. The meal was alright. Nothing different than their normal menu but it was more festive.