On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 15:20:30 GMT, Ed Rasimus wrote:

I sympathize with your point of view that if someone really wants to
get into the battle they can take the initiative, but it doesn't
happen the way you describe and hasn't since 1964 when I entered
active duty.

I was in the Philippines when Desert Shield started. We'd been under a
severe terrorist threat for a couple of years before that, and when the
Desert Shield deployees started getting Imminent Danger pay the same thing
was quickly approved for us (at the PACOM admirals insistence).

Soon after that there was an urgent call from my command (Electronic
Security Command) for people in my AFSC to volunteer for the deployment.
Many people in my unit (including myself) immediately sought out further
information to see how this could be done. Turns out it couldn't for us.

The Air Force wouldn't allow us to go from one "combat zone" theater to
another (and I believe that's military-wide). Our command wouldn't even
attempt to process volunteer request coming out of the PI.

Oh, and it took less than 24 hours for the command to call for volunteers
before amending the message to say that those of us in the PI wouldn't be
considered.

-Jeff B.
yeff at erols dot com