Hey, guys ...

[cincymarsdad]

I have been away a while from the site and thought I'd check back in. Hopefully there are new members who wonder who the heck I am.

Anyway, brief update:

Laura is a soph at Ohio State and decided not to continue with NROTC. She told me she wasn't ready for a commitment and was worried about her knees. She was ranked fifth in her class overall with the Unit, and the brass told her something like "Well, sometimes we're not sorry to see people leave, but ...". She knows she could have probably earned a scholarship, but was not committed, and of course I fully supported her decisions and thinking on this. She hasn't ruled out a military career completely, but I suspect she won't head that way, which is more than fine with me. She gained a lot of benefit and friends from the experience, though I note she came home with some language that I'd prefer not to hear from a lady's mouth at times.

Sarah is technically a junior at OSU now because of taking overloads. But, she ran into health issues last year and at one point was hospitalized for three grueling weeks. This is one reason I have been gone from around here, that was kinda tough. She is back in school now, but has had some issues that may not yet be fully diagnosed. One thing she has is "athletically induced asthma", which meant her 3-mile times were unacceptable, and she had to disenroll from her scholarship. Meanwhile, her SRB has gotten lost somehow between the Unit and her Marine Reserve Unit, so she is in limbo. She can make the run times fine IF she has her inhaler with her, but that doen't work, so whenever her paperwork shows up (???), I guess she will get a med discharge after the Navy docs look over her some, but I don't know of course. Back in the summer, she had looked into transferring into the Army WOC program to flyl choppers, but the Army recruiters who seemed interested disappeared and wouldn't return phone calls even before her health problems really became apparent. My experience with Army recruiters on three occasions now has been not very good. To be fair, Chris' first Marine recruiter told us both a LOT of things that weren't at all true, but he was shortly thereafter returned to the fleet without completing his recruiting tenure, so apparently folks figured that out.

At any rate, here I am again, doing mostly OK myself. I have been working on a book about all that happened with me, Sarah, and Chris from the perspective of a parent, but I hafta put it away for a while because it gets to me. I have about 70 pages and worked some more last week on it. I may have some technical questions about some things if I may ask them here at times. The guys at Lima of course have been more than hospitable etc. Hope everyone here is well and doing something useful with themselves.

Semper Fidelis.

[ClutterbusterNY]

Hey John,

It's good to see you. Sorry to hear about Sarah's health problems. I hope she is diagnosed and treated properly soon. She must be disappointed that they have hampered her desire to be in the Military. As for Laura, we
wish her well too. The Service is not for everyone.
I look forward to reading your book when it comes out. I can imagine that it takes a lot out of you writing it, but it's probably therapeutic and will serve to help a lot of other people.
Glad to have you back.
All the best,

cincymarsdad welcome back and Happy New Year to you and the family.

[Vulture6]

Welcome back John - Good to hear from you. I hope that Sarah can work things out to her satisfaction. There are a lot of way to serve one's country - the military is but one of them. Glad to know that you're doing "okay" too. We think about you and your family often.

Semper Fi, brother.

[Covertness]

Glad to see you're still around and doing OK John.

[SGRock]

Welcome Back John

[cincymarsdad]

I could use a bit of help on how Marine Reserve Infantry companies are organized. I was told Lima 3/25 deployed with 186, augmented with some Recon Marines from Montana. They had the standard three platoons. I was talking with a gunnery sergeant up at the unit who said he commanded 3rd platoon until he was injured (badly, but he has recovered 100% and gone to active duty now). I had a notion that a lieutenant would "command" a platoon.

The Company was commanded by a major. Would he be an active duty officer who was attached to the reserve company when they activated? When I visit Lima, the only officer is the I&I, also a major, who did not deploy with the unit. I am led to believe the I&I staff are all active duty Marines who basically keep the thing running and organize the drill weekends etc. [The major attended Chris memorial service and is the one who pressed his "Expert" badge into may hand afterward - I had told the story about how Chris thought he shot 220 at the range in boot but the pits had him at 219, and the major told me "They never have the score right in the pits.". I keep that next to my bedside now. I have gotten to know him over time and needless to say he is a fine gentleman.]

Anyway, I have the notion that a reserve company doesn't have it's own officers outside the I&I and picks them up when activated out at the Stumps.

I also spoke with the sergeant who initially commanded 1st squad, but was transferred away middeployment, basically he swapped jobs with Sergeant Hoffman who had been working with an ING group. Hoffman of course was KIA when the squad's track was destroyed. Hicks told me a lot of "stuff" about the squad and said he was sorry to leave that group, though he said they were constant pranksters.

Anyway, any general comments about structure of a reserve company would be appreciated, anything, including ancillary thoughts or opinions or comments.

Thanks much. I want to avoid making myself look silly about this stuff, though I guess no civvy would be expected to know such things.

[Field_Sailor]

John,

Good to hear from you again.

[Vulture6]

John - here's the best summary that I can give for a Marine Reserve Rifle Comapny (I was in Kilo, 3 / 23 for a few years after leaving active duty).

First - the I&I staff is the "Inspector & Instructor" staff for the reserve unit. They are all active duty personnel and are responsible for ensuring the training and proficiency of the reserve unit. They are responsible for all of the property of the reserve center (including weapons) and sign it out to the reserve company staff. Typically, the reserve company commander and his staff will plan training and, of course, carry it out. The I&I assists by maintaining personnel records, processing requests for transportation, training ranges, ammunition, & etc. In reality, most of the I&I time is taken up doing duties not necessarily associated with the reserve unit (Toys for Tots, color guards, funerals, etc).

Reserve Company Officers: Every officer in a Marine reserve company served at least one tour on active duty. As a result, most platoon commanders and company commanders are senior to their active duty peers. In my case at K/3/23 the company commander was a good friend of mine from active duty and was a couple of numbers senior to me. There are six officer billets in a rifle company (CO, XO, Wpns platoon commander, and 3 rifle platoon commanders). In our case, four of us were captains who had been company commanders in the fleet, three of us having come in off a MEU(SOC) deployment in the last 18 months. When I was promoted to major, I was filling the role as a platoon commander. At that point I chose to leave the rifle company for an independent reserve billet rather than be a field grade platoon commander!

So, it is not unusual for the company commander to be a grade higher than normal. Likewise, it's not unusual (actually, pretty standard) for the platoon commanders to be captains. However, reserve company assignments are not driven by the manpower office at HQMC. No reserve officer is going to get orders to tell him to start drilling with a specific reserve company to fill a slot. Therefore it is entirely possible, and quite likely, that a staff sergeant or gunnery sergeant would be in the position as a platoon commander.

Does the I&I deploy with the unit? That seems to change every couple of years. When I took over the mobilization center in Memphis the I&I was to deploy if the unit got called up. By the time I left Memphis they were to stay behind and handle "rear party" matters. What was the status for I&Is deploying in 2003? I have no idea.

When a reserve unit mobilizes they take their reserve officers with them. Generally these are the men who will take the unit overseas. It is possible that one or more could be replaced with an active duty officer before deploying, but that would be the exception rather than the rule (the reserve officer is undeployable for some reason or is relieved for cause). As far as not seeing the reserve officers at the reserve center, there could be any number of reasons, ranging from "there weren't any" to they were on temporary active duty orders - ADSW - or they live a long way away. At one point I was driving about 6 hours to drill with the 2ndMARDIV staff at Camp Lejeune -- one of my peers was flying in from Boston for drills.

So, a reserve rifle company will have the same structure and organization as an active duty rifle company with the exception that certain key billet holders may be a grade senior to their active duty counterparts or there may be unfilled shortages of key personnel requiring that an NCO or SNCO be bumped up into that billet. 186 Marines is a big company -- even with attachments. That is the size of the reinforced company that I took into Somalia in 1993.

Hope this helps -- feel free to PM me if you have other questions.

S/F

Mike

[cincymarsdad]

Very helpful. I was told Lima 3/25 was short on the rolls for deployment so they augmented with a Reserve Recon unit from Montana. Perhaps with that, they were over-strength. I have seen the 186 number in a number of places, which is not to say they weren't wrong, and I didn't ask any of the Marines the question.

Incidentally, on May 23, a set of paintings is to be unveiled at the State Capitol Building, to remain there until November 11, 2008, whereupon it will become a traveling memorial. Here is the web site if anyone wants to view the paintings, which are 8 panels of large size of the fallen:

Lima Company Memorial

I was told the Silent Drill Team may perform as part of the ceremony.

[cincymarsdad]

Y'all might see "my smiling face" on CNN sometime over the next week. John King was by last night for an interview (our third since ...). He's a stand up guy IMHO and asks good questions. Since I live in Ohio, it was about political stuff.

I told him I thought we should abandon our positions in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, disband the military, give Texas back to Mexico along with California, NM, and AZ, and let the Brits burn DC again.

OK, I didn't exactly say that, but I am still laughing over spongie's plane flight story.

I think a couple of C-130 pilots though some ups and downs might be fun with a load of Jarheads in the back.

A friend of mine once said I couldn't make him sick in my Cessna. He gave up that bet after my first slightly negative G manuever, though he had been drinking the night before. And that's a Cessna 172, not exactly an aerobatic creature. You can spin'em, which is a weird feeling, but no inverted flight and nothing over 60° up angle on the bow, as I recall.

How tough is it to clean out Chefboyardee from a Kevlar?