Hello from Afghanistan (non-Ranger introduction)

[MJones97E3LPF]

Someone pointed me in the direction of this site because they didn't believe that I was in the military (some people just drive me nuts) and wanted you to "vet" me .

Anyhow, I was poking around the site and decided to register for my own interests of BSing with other Army guys regardless of what that moron thinks of me (being in the military or not).

So about me...I joined in January 2001 (E1) as a 13M (MLRS Crewmember). I stayed with B Btry 1/14th FA for a few years, doing a short tour in OIF 1 (Mar - Jun 2003). About a year later I reclassed into 97E (Interrogator / HUMINT Collector <-- as we are officially known) and spent a year at the Defense Language Institute learning Persian-Farsi (graduated with 3/3 DLPT) and was sent to Ft. Hood. I was there two weeks and volunteered to go to Afghanistan because they needed experienced NCOs, and left Ft. Hood two weeks after that.

Once arriving in Afghanistan I ran a Field Detention Site near the border of Pakistan for about six months as a Sergeant, and then after being promoted to Staff Sergeant moved up to the Joint Interrogation Facility at Bagram where I am the Night Shift NCOIC until coming back home sometime (hopefully) in December.

The Warrant Officer packet is being submitted in December for January, so hopefully I will be WO1 Jones by next summer. If not, the selection for SFC in our MOS is around 94+%, although currently the selection for Warrant Officer in our MOS is 100%.

As the screen name implies, you have my name (MJones), my MOS (97E), Staff Sergeant (3), and my identifiers (L - Linguist, PF - Persian-Farsi).

Nice to meet everyone, looking forward to BSing with you guys in the future.

[LRP1]

Welcome here..

[MJones97E3LPF]

Wow. I just read through every single Poser thread. I cannot believe some people. Words fail me to go beyond that.

[Ranger Bill]

Welcome and come home safe. But please clarify... you are here becasue somone does not think you are in the military and they want you vetted? I do not notice you claiming Ranger status.

[AbnRgr289]

Someone pointed me in the direction of this site because they didn't believe that I was in the military (some people just drive me nuts) and wanted you to "vet" me .

Welcome.

1) Who?

2) We only Vet Rangers.

[Towedjmpr]

And be careful about OPSEC.

No shit. For your sake, I hope no one on the MI WOC board reads this site.

[Silverback]

Has anyone told you to go fuck yourself? Welcome and go fuck yourself!

[RTO]

I'm torn between Tenn-RGR & Silverback's welcome as my favorite for you so far...

[42L5V]

I'm 42L5V2BCX. Figure that shit out. Under the V is a L,S,G,X. I've got one of your top ribbon, two between that and your next, and one above it.
Plus, a small serving of sta-brite all around. I'm not pulling out my tallywhacker to compare sizes. I'm just saying that you went a bit overboard on your intro. Don't fuckin' worry about someone else telling you to "vet yourself". You know what you are, what you want to be, and who you ain't.

One thing I've learned (painfully, it seems) about this site, is that no one really gives a fuck about who you are, what school you've done (note above, I'm a 3/3 as well), where you're assigned, how many overseas bars you've got or much of anything else. That's because someone else has certainly BTDT, x2. Take a look at some of the signature lines. Can't help but calling them "Sir", can ya?

There's members here who are not Rangers, that are valued members. Read some. Read some more.

Quit posting that you're in the JIDC at Bxxxxxxx AF, Axxxxxxxxxxxx. Jesus H. Christ - I almost have a grid to you.

Oh yeah. Welcome.

[MJones97E3LPF]

Welcome and come home safe. But please clarify... you are here becasue somone does not think you are in the military and they want you vetted? I do not notice you claiming Ranger status.

That's right, I don't. (shrugs)

[MJones97E3LPF]

Sorry for some of the confusion, let me answer some questions both from my avatar (which I changed, since I see that it caused some uprising) and from PMs, etc.

Although, first allow me to say thanks for the warm welcome. Haha.

Anyhow,

1) I am not a SSG(P)...the PF is part of the language code. I was saying that I would hopefully be looked at for SFC and picked up since they have a high selection rate. I apologize if either of those were confusing or misleading.

2) I do not have two joint awards. I have one joint award. Technically my "tour" at DLI was joint but I didn't get an award for being there, just a 1059. I looked at the picture again and I don't think I made a mistake. I got the picture when I was showing my soldier how to use RackBuilder.com and I am pretty sure I checked all the correct boxes.

3) As far as the WOC board reading this site, I don't see why it would really matter unless I seem to be missing something that you are seeing. They know everything about me from day one (or they will as soon as they get my packet)...they know I want to be a Warrant...

4) AbnRgr289 - I have no idea who he/she would be on this board. This was on another completely unrelated board, and I told him after viewing your site you only vet Rangers but I don't think he really realized that. After looking around I thought, however, that this board seemed like a bunch of cool guys and figured I would join even though I am not a Ranger. I can see how well I was recieved though, so I guess I will probably take off.

5) Old Grunt - It's a DMSM. I probably don't deserve it but that's what I was put in for. It's better than leaving with a Bronze Star which I most CERTAINLY didn't deserve. My soldier who was killed got a Bronze Star, I would be pretty embaressed if I got the same thing. I think if NATO takes over our AO then we get the NATO medal as well.

6) I have said nothing violating OPSEC or anything you wouldn't find out if you didn't read the signature block on my NIPR emails.

Lastly, sorry for making such a terrible entrance. I was going to post something from when my soldier was killed but now I am afraid the thread would become a terrible clutter of fuck you and fuck offs.

Well, I guess I will just go back to lurking around your board. Keep up the good work, and thanks for your service (past or present).

[MJones97E3LPF]

Oops forgot one last unanswered question:

7) I left immediately after arriving at Ft. Hood. They had just stood up a new company where almost all the soldiers had just graduated from the Schoolhouse. I was assigned to go to a unit who was due to leave in about 9 months or so, but then went to the new unit that had just stood up. Actually the other unit I was initially assigned to is all new too (they made it to Iraq and some of them came to Afghanistan). There was no worry about them gladly pulling me off and putting me in country. The only hickup was that I had dual knee surgery in September (it was December) and had to have my doctor fill out a form so I could get through SRP.

If you really want to step back I was initially assigned to 4th ID but they had me in a life cycle unit and I didnt have enough time on my contract. So either way, within the first month of being at Hood I would have either been in Iraq with 4th ID, Afghanistan with this unit, or some time a short while later been in either place with the other unit.

They are talking about we might go back to Iraq within 90 days of returning for another year with a different unit but everything is pretty much up in the air right now.