Check-in: Mobilization and Processing

I spent this morning at the Naval Mobilization and Processing Site (NMPS), co-located with ECRC in Norfolk. Our group, made of about 120 personnel, will only spend the next four days or so together before going our separate ways to different training locations throughout the country. The purpose of this center is to review the medical and administrative readiness paperwork for sailors about to deploy in IA or GSA roles. The sailors are quite a professionally diverse group. Rank wise, they range from very junior enlisted Petty Officers to senior Commanders and Captains. Just by estimates from a class-welcoming show-of-hands poll, I'd say about a third are reservists called up for active duty. As Lieutenants in the Navy tend to stick together (partly out of a similar cohort attraction, partly for defense in numbers against more senior officers), I sat in a row in the briefing room with about eight other active Lieutenants. There was one other Surface Warfare Officer, three helicopter pilots, one Medical Corps Officer, two Supply Officers, and one Submariner. Not all were headed to Afghanistan; some were headed to Iraq, others to Dijibouti, and others still to places like Bahrain, Qatar, Germany, Ecuador, and yes-even being deployed to places as familiar as Tampa, Florida. Why people 'deploying' to Tampa are required to put on Army uniforms and get trained on how to kick down doors and take detainees, I haven't figured out yet. NMPS is really just the clearing house for IA sailors passing through and returning home, I won't really know until Saturday who will be coming down to Ft. Jackson for training for deployment to Afghanistan with me.

The day was filled with briefs on legal readiness (wills and powers of attorney), transportation and travel claims, standing orders and business rules while at NMPS, contact information for next of kin, and the uniform fittings. Aside from the estimated 110 pounds of gear and weapons I'll be issued in Ft. Jackson, I'll be issued 32 pounds of new uniform items while still at NMPS in Norfolk-which allows me only 8 pounds of personal items not issued to take with me. The staff recommended having Amanda mail the rest of my stuff to me in Afghanistan once I get there. I'm being outfitted in the Army's newest uniforms the FRACU (Fire Retardant Army Combat Uniform). The thought process behind issuing Army uniforms is for the sake of friendly force identification and to not stand out to enemy forces looking to take a cheap shot at something different; that its better to be a zebra in a herd of other zebras when there are lions around. They'll have my embroidered name tags and all my issued uniforms ready to go by the end of the week. At least I get a new pair of comfortable desert boots out of this deal.

Location:Norfolk, Virginia