Getting my feet wet

I have not been involved with a unit Family Readiness Group (FRG) ever since having a VERY bad experience with one right after Thak and I got married. I didn't touch it after that.

In this new unit, it really isn't a choice, though. OK, that's a lie. It's always a choice. It's just a choice of whether to participate as expected, and make Thak look good, or refuse to participate and leave him to make excuses and look like crap. The reason it's different now is because he's on the Colonel's staff, and in a very visible position within the unit. If I don't play ball, so to speak, it definitely comes back to bite him.

The Colonel gave my name along with a few others to the leader, who's another Field Grade officer's wife within the unit, and she called around. I said yes, hesitantly, and found myself on the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee consists of five people, four wives of the unit plus one paid civilian employee whose job is to facilitate the running of our FRG.

Today, I went to my very first Steering Committee meeting. I'll admit, it felt a little weird. I am not the only NCO wife, but I am definitely the youngest. I wonder how that's going to go. I think it's going to be fine, though. For one, I believe that there SHOULD be representation from the Enlisted side on this committee, and that it should be from wives of Staff Sergeants or Sergeants First Class. Much lower, and they don't have a clue. Much higher, and they are too disconnected from the rank and file, to be an asset in the way of representing them. It needs to be those of us who are above the bulk of the rabble, but still have one foot in the day to day platoon business to at least know what that business consists of.

I like the way this committee is set up, but boy do we have our work cut out for us!! Next week, we have to fill the leadership positions within all the company-level FRG's, and we're even doing platoon-level!! After that, we've got events to plan all the way through the end of the year. We have SO unbelievably much to do, and it's our job to coordinate ALL OF IT!!!

It's a tall order, and makes me wonder, once again, if I am ready for that kind of responsibility. Most of the others there today have obviously been at this much longer than I have, but then I remember that I have something they don't have. I was a soldier once. They were talking about making this FRG for EVERYONE even the single soldiers, and I jumped right on that. I can help figure out the single soldier programming. I know what it's like to be a single soldier in a unit that does nothing but family-related activities, to be on detail when everyone else is having fun, and all that. We've already got it planned that our Halloween event will include a poker tournament for the single soldiers, and I'm trying to get it through that our first fund raiser can be selling beer. Hey, it worked in my old unit! We made the most money off beer! Everyone liked the beer idea. We just have to work out the logistics of it.

I like how much influence I'm in a position to exert at this level. There are some things I have absolutely loved over the years, and other things which I have absolutely despised, and at this level, I have a pretty decent chance of helping this unit to keep the good and cull the bad for the most part. I like that. I also think the odds are good because everyone else was saying things that I really agreed with, so I think we're really on the same page.

It's really exciting how things are coming together. We've got our Halloween event in the works. There's talk of a holiday bazaar. We also talked about getting some services to these girls who need them but aren't ever going to ask for it, like financial counseling, and the like. I told about the Private's wife from our brigade that I met not long ago, who's just spending money like it's nothing, and banking on her husband's bonus coming through imminently in order to pay it all off. (This is the same girl who thought it was unfair that I live in a big house while she lives in a nasty apartment, because hey, our husbands are both in the Army. Everything should be equal!! [gimme a break].) Anyhow, I also managed to correlate one of my biggest concerns for military families in this area in general, with recent events within the battalion, and use that as a way to bring up more programs that we can bring in for these lower-enlisteds. Of course, we're going to have to lead by example, and go through it all, too, but that's ok. I expected that.

I think this is going to be good. In a way, I'm kind of sad that Thak is getting out now. We've come so far.... who would ever have thought we'd be at such a level? Special Staff and Battalion Steering Committee? If our old First Sergeant could see us now...