less then a week ill eb going on my second deployment they say it should be 7-9 mo. for those of you who would like to keep in contact via email my email is james.vanpatten@lpd7.navy.mil. well about 4 months ago a billet came in for a IA billet (Individual Augmentation) which is where you work with the marines and army in Iraq, Kuwait, Dijubuiti(or how ever you spell it lol) etc. me and one other person volunteered and he was put as primary and me as secondary. two weeks ago Orders come in with my name on them saying im going to Iraq for about 10-14mo because the primary person forgot to do some paperwork, so i was like ok. My chain of command though said they werent going to let this happen because i have 3 critical NEC's (Navy Enlisted Classification) (damn the military has so many abbrv.) what that means is im trained in that specific equiptment. and 2/3 NEC 's i have im the only one on board so they wont let me go to the IA billet. either way im still going to iraq with or with out the ship in less then a week except the ships deployment will only be 7-9 mo. I've talked to my parents and well im thinking im going to reenlist for four more years for 26K signing bonus (because of my NEC's) and am going to get TRY to get stationed in STUTTGART, DE!!!!!!!!!!! I have very good chances because there are many bilelts to there. i start my first college classes here in less then a week so im excited about that. im doing Intro to Biology, 1877 to present US history. i have 67 college credits right now from my NEC's alone. As im sure all of you have heard the fires in SO-Cal yes we were there they miss my house my about half a mile. we were askd to evacuate but as you all know VP is crazy so me and a couple buddies threw a fire party for 72 hours of beers! we were asked to evac three times lol i have pics of the fire on facebook they are pretty cool.. ashes were falling everywhere as if it were snowing and the smell of a fire in the fire place was everywhere you went!
