Chicken Wire Canoe

Today there's a huge NCO meeting, and one of the things that is going to be brought up, is my infamous typo from this weekend. It's just a little bit amazing, you know.... I don't even know what to say about it, really.

Was I wrong? Yes. There is absolutely no denying that, and you won't hear it from me. Even so, I think we need a little perspective on this. For one, while I know as a former soldier that intention doesn't mean anything, that all that matters is what happened, it wasn't malicious.... even though that doesn't matter to anyone. On the subject of what happened, though, the incorrect information was up for a total of 40 minutes. I made it right. More importantly, let's think about what it was. I gave an incorrect date. The result of that would be a few soldiers in each unit thinking they could reenlist now, when in reality, they have to wait a few months. This is not a release of classified information, or even a violation of the often misunderstood OPSEC. Nobody is going to get hurt because of this. I didn't endanger anyone.

The other thing that occurs to me is how crazy it is that stuff like this goes on, and people still hold that all wives have exactly the same thing in front of them. Do you have any idea how many pieces of crap information, some of which was actually detrimental to people or units, I have seen and heard from other wives every single day? Yet ONE TIME I get a date wrong, our phones are blowing up with very senior personnel going nuts over it, and the brass calls nearly 500 people into a meeting over it. All wives have the same situation, though, right? I've always known that was BS, but today (and the weekend before it) proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

It also proves, once again, that someone is always watching. I was surprised in a way WHO was watching. I didn't really think we were THAT visible to those levels of leadership, but obviously we are. It also goes without saying, that this proves that what we do has a lot of impact on what happens with our husbands. Deny it all you want, but everything gets back.

I guess in a way, I just wish years and years of doing great counted for something. Instead, it's almost as if this one oversight, literally a typo, is indicative of the way I live my life. Anyone who really knows me knows that's not true, but that's the way I know it was portrayed in the meeting this morning. That's how it always goes with the Army. You do one thing that somebody latches onto, and all the good you did before that goes by the wayside, and everyone laughs about what an idiot you are. The Army, for all its custom and courtesy, is extremely cut throat all the way to the very end.

65 days until terminal leave. They can never make it easy. I just didn't think it would be through me that they'd make Thak's life hell.