One of these days when I'm a General...

I've got two main things that I want to blog about tonight...one is my R&R and the other is an upcoming visit from the General. I have finally been here longer than the time left until I take leave. As of right now I've been in country for approximately 120 days, my leave begins in 110 days (or so). The good news is that I'm 54% of the way to R&R and over 40% of the way through the entire deployment!

The other item I wanted to discuss is our upcoming visit from our "distinguished visitor" as some like to say. I've been an officer in the military for just a shade over 7 years now and the trouble some people will go through to please a General never ceases to amaze me. I have full faith that I will serve 20+ years in the National Guard and my goal is to attain the rank of Brigadier General...a lofty goal, but within reach.

A General commands a great deal of respect by the very nature of the rank. The person has put in their time and obviously earned their rank...kudos to them for sticking in there and thanks for the years of service! On the other hand, when it comes down the pipeline that the General (any General for that matter) is coming in for a visit it's like the ranking officers freak out all of the sudden and want to put on a show. I understand their reasoning for wanting to impress their commander, but there's no need to remodel.

The General will be here within the next 24 hours and over the past 5 days we have washed baseboards, painted, cleaned like Danny Tanner (Bob Saget from Full House), cleaned more, hung pictures, removed pictures, swept, installed computers, and had a briefing about what is/isn't expected. We've all been instructed to clean off our desks, which makes absolutely no sense since when they are covered in papers it typically means that we are busy. As the vehicle control officer I had to call in a favor from another unit and swap vehicles with them so that we have one large enough to taxi her entourage. We've been told how she likes her coffee, how she likes her bagels, and even where she wants to eat upon arrival...which we're all expected to attend.

I would assume that she doesn't request or demand any of these actions, however her entourage ensures that these things are known before her arrival. To say that her visit hampers normal operations is like saying that the ocean is wet. Tomorrow we'll all smile and shake hands and act like everything is normal, when she leaves the next day we'll all breathe our long sigh of relief and hope she doesn't drop by anytime soon.

So, the title of my blog for tonight is "one of these days when I'm a General" and to finish that thought...one day when I'm a General I think I'll fire the guy that puts on a show just because I'm coming for a visit!