Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Dan G. from left field

So, an old Army colleague randomly found me the other day and sent me an email. I am still not sure how he found me- it has been almost 9 years since I out-processed. As my Sgt Major at the time said, "We gonna give you a ham sandwitch & a road map- and put you out da' Army." That they did.

Turns out that he is looking to rejoin as a JAG officer. I had questions about why a practicing lawyer would do this, but I will get to that later. The point is that his military record from the time we served together has a blemish. Don't get me wrong, he had an honorable discharge- but without getting into the details- attached to his record was something that was completely false and misleading to any third party reviewer.

Dan has spent the last few months tracking down Army buddies to write letters to the Dept of the Army JAG Corps and "testify" that no such situations/issues existed. He even found my first company commander, Captain Slaughter (yes, that is his real name- straight out of G.I. Joe comics). Now Colonel Slaughter, he also wrote up a memo and had an amazing memory of both Dan and I- which was impressive. I told him I would absolutely write something up. Knowing how the military works, I guess it is no mystery how once sentence on someone's record can screw him over.

Glad to do it, Dan- let's see if we can't get this squared away and "put you back in da' Army."