Kansas Army National Guard Veteran soldier trying to go to officer school treated like dirt Topeka Kansas

Before I continue further, I just want to stress that this diatribe is in no way meant to disrespect the vast majority of the members of the US Military who are serving honorably and trying to do a good job despite the lack of support from the Bush administration who initially placed them in harm's way. My beef is with a few individual members of the Kansas Army National Guard and, most specifically, Bravo Company 3/137th Infantry based in Wichita.

I am a Cold War veteran and also served during the 1st Gulf War. (Let me say right here that Dad Bush was absolutely 100% right NOT to go to Baghdad and to "fire" Stormin' Norman for shooting his mouth off otherwise). I have a college degree along with electronics technical training along with two years of ROTC (I changed schools and it didn't have ROTC, thus the reason for not completing the program).

Since 2001, I'd been watching the world situation. I'd also not given up my aspiration of becoming an officer. Therefore, at the age of 38, I discovered that the National Guard would allow its members to attend OCS if they could get their commision before their 40th birthday. The "catch" was that you had to ENLIST in the ARNG and be assigned to a unit first. That's quite understandable in that OCS is an "in house" program. Then, of course, you are assigned to a unit whose commander "sponsors" you to OCS. I had been out of the military for 14 years.

Nevertheless, in the spring of 2004, I began a very rigorous physical self-training program to get into shape. I then made inquiries as to my suitability for re-joining and was contacted by one of the OCS procurement officers, CPT Robert Wood, who was then the commander of my former unit.

CPT Wood, in my estimation, was a consummate professional with whom I quickly developed a good rapport. Although the Infantry wasn't really my cup of tea, I thought it would be "good politics" to join the unit whose CO had recruited me for OCS. The only "knock" I have on CPT Wood (excuse the pun) was that he neglected to tell me that the unit might be getting mobilized in the coming year. Maybe he really didn't know for sure himself, I don't know; I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that score.

There was one thing that I really didn't like that he told me early on. And that was, because I was over age 35, the State Adjutant General's office could not grant the appropriate age waiver; only the NG Bureau in Washington could do so. Thus, what I thought would only be a minor inconvenience at best turned out to derail the whole train. The chain of problems actually began in the recruiting office in Wichita.

A Class II(?) physical was needed for Officer Candidate School. At one time in the past, this could either be done through a civilian contractor or at a MEPS (mil. entry process station). What the idiot recruiter didn't realize, however, was that this regulation had changed and that this physical could ONLY be done at the MEPS. This was not discovered until December AFTER I had taken a civilian contractor physical in August. Furthermore, a security clearance was required. OK.

Since I live in Topeka and the unit was in Wichita, we arranged to do the preliminary paperwork request via the telephone. It was supposed to be done on a Friday afternoon. Instead, it ended up being done on Saturday afternoon causing me to miss my pastor's going away party that I'd dearly wanted to attend. Three hours + of my life was wasted that day because, later that fall along with my "bogus" physical, the AG's office discovered that I "didn't exist" in the security clearance system. Thus, I had to do this all over again with one of the clerks in Topeka.

Now, as to the timetable here: bear in mind that I enlisted in late August and these little surprises are coming to the surface in late November (wrong physical) and security clearance (December). Finally, I take the right physical 5 days before Christmas at MEPS in Kansas City and get the right security clearance request forms filled out the week between Christmas and New Year's. In October, I turned 39. Thus, I had less than one year to go to obtain my commission. Also bear in mind that I am not in the Guard on an OCS contract but rather a regular run-of-the-mill enlistment contract. This meant that, while I was concentrating on trying to prepare for OCS, my unit was pressuring me to go to Infantry school in Arkansas during the middle of the winter. (I did boot camp in the winter - no way!).

During this time also, the word came down that the unit might be getting mobilized "sometime in 2005". There I was with my pants down and without the proper contract for what I'd originally come back in for. Nonetheless, CPT Wood assured me that if everything came back from Washington OK and if I passed my physical etc... he'd see to it that I could attend OCS and not go on mobilization knowing that I'd be too old for OCS when we returned from it.

Next thing that went wrong - CPT Wood was reassigned and the new commander (who knew my situation) was less supportive of my OCS aspirations. All he wanted was as many "grunts" as possible for the impending alert and mobilization. Originally, I'd wanted to go to active duty OCS but, as time was getting short, requested to change that for the 7-week accelerated summer version given by the NG.

I thought everything was fine until the first weekend I attended "Zero Phase" at the state military academy. That weekend, the unit was alerted for mobilization and I was told that I was not "officially" an officer candidate until June (this was March). Again, I had no contract assuring my attendance at OCS; this would be entirely up to the Battalion Commander as Stop Loss (aka The Backdoor Draft) was now coming into play.

Just after Easter, I notified the first person in my Chain of Command, a Staff Sergeant Tracy, that I was concerned about this situation and what should I do. He was very abusive, started calling me a coward and all sorts of other vile crap and said that I knew when I signed up that this could happen and that if my head wasnt in the right place then "Mr. Iraqi Insurgent wouldn't be my biggest problem". All of this was done via e-mail which I forwarded to the unit commander, CPT Denney.

To make a long story short, he sided with this half-literate NCO. I explained that my whole purpose of coming in was to be an officer and that I would never be satisfied, with my background and education, to just be a rifle-toting grunt. He was "offended".

The net result of this was that I got my tank full. I told my family that I was going to "take care" of these two idiots. They advised me to go to the local VA hospital while my dad, a retired reserve LT Colonel, phoned CPT Denney and raked him over the coals. I was so upset by this treatment that the VA decided to keep me for a couple of weeks. They were likewise horrified at the abusive correspondence I'd received from BOTH an NCO and a commisioned officer. They agreed that I shouldn't be there and requested a discharge.

In the end, I didn't get on the list for mobilization and was asked to do 4 hours of drill every 90 days until Stop Loss was lifted. I thought that was reasonable and did this until December of 2005 when my discharge became official. I was honorably discharged and left in "good standing". However, I still haven't completely emotionally recovered from this.

I will say that the VA came through for me very well and I owe them a great debt of gratitude for their help. I doubt that I'll ever get over the disappointment of not getting to be an officer - especially as I was hoping that this would help to bring my father (a retired LTc) and I closer by doing "officer stuff". Bottom line: join the military if you must but understand that, once you raise your right hand, there are NO guarantees of anything afterwards.

Brandt
Topeka, Kansas
U.S.A.