Fred the Red Shirt wrote:
Dweezil Dwarftosser wrote in message ...
....

The smart guys filled in all the blocks with countries to which
they couldn't be assigned... they had volunteered, but not been
selected for any location in the world.


How woud it come about that a person couldn't be assigned to some
particular country?


There are many countries to which there are no military personnel of
certain specialties assigned- e.g. no US Army M113 maintenance
specialists assigned to the American Embassy in China (but which you
COULD list on your preference form). If your specialty wasn't posted
to a specific country, then listing that country was in essence
volunteering to not go there, and there are typically enough "not there"
places to volunteer to go so as to not leave any slots open (which,
under the system, would essentially be an "I just want to go whereever
you think I should" entry). Besides, if they did somehow come up with
a slot for your specialty in that country, you likely did your homework
and picked a country that you figured you might actually want to be
stationed in...

Mike Williamson
USAF