RANT POST!!!

This weekend was TJ's first Ball. it was, well, awful. it was nice. things were elegantly set and well planed, almost too planned. i mean, planned to a T. even down to what time we were supposed to be en-route to the ball.
so what made it so awful? let me just indulge in a little bit of fit throwing if you don't mind.

there were 2 sets of students at the commissioning ceremony. the "traditional" students, which numbered somewhere in the 3o's. theses students were the ones who took 18 months to finish OCS. they went one weekend out of each month for 18 months for training. and then there were the "accelerated" students, which numbered somewhere around 15. this is TJ's group. the 15 folks that spent 8 solid weeks away from home, doing ALL of their training at one time.
the ball was all about the "traditional" folks. well, the whole entire weekend was about them actually.

the only ones who got ANY kind of special award were traditional students.(now granted some of the guys in TJ's group probably wouldn't have been in excelent enough shape or have super super smarts -you can't tell me out of that group of 15 that NO ONE was eligible for some kind of award!)

we had to pay 35$ a piece for the banquette. that was 70 bucks of our money for a damn dinner that wasn't even that great.the traditional students got to eat for free.

there was supposed to be a breakfast this morning of breakfast tacos for the group. somehow the "accelerated" students (US) ended up paying 10$ a piece for someone to order 160 donuts.(would that many donuts really cost that much?)

oh, all of the "traditional" students spouses got a special gift for supporting their soldier through all of their hard work and dedication. we got nothing. we were separated for 8 solids weeks - my man worked ten times as hard as the "traditional" guys. they were only gone one weekend a month -which is normal anyway b/c i'm sure that was used in place of their drill weekend!! and i got nothing from the instructors showing their appreciation to me for my endurance and support to help my man be a better officer. BAH!

oh, talk to me about the drink tickets.
when we got to the ball the first hr was just a social hr with a cash bar. our first round of drinks -a jack and coke for TJ and a bottle of H2O for me - cost us 9.25. HOLY COW WE ALMOST LEFT RIGHT THEN. well then this dude was going around handing out free drink tickets. he actually gave us 2 and said "2 free drinks on behalf of the class"
ok.made it sound like he was doing us a favor!
so we spread the word to all of our "Accelerated" friends. they all took turns getting up and chasing the guy with the drink tickets wanting their fair share since we got some. the first guy that asked for his was told "the tickets are only for the traditional students." the guy had to sweet talk the guy to get his. the ticket guy said the same thing to the next guy that asked and he told the ticket guy "i am sick of this traditional student crap. i want my 2 tickets. you gave each of my buddies theirs and i want mine."

while we were waiting for dinner to be served they played this nice slide show put together by the class president of all their hard work and dedication over the last 18 months. even going as far as to show each student and list their rank, name, and state what they were branching. NONE of the accelerated students were anywhere in that video.

oh!!! and all of the accelerated students had a graduation from the accelerated program on July 26. they were told their date of commission would be then. which would mean 1500 dollars in back pay for us. only yesterday they decided to tell them "oops. didn't anyone tell you?? your new date of rank is today. it's only fair since the traditional students are only graduating today." and then when someone had the balls to stand up to them and question it he was told "well 2LT in actuality you are part of class 52(which would be graduating within the next year and a half) so you graduated from calls 52 early, not class 51. which means you are still getting commissioned earlier than you would be." when he said again that he was going to get to the bottom of that they asked him "do you really want to start your new career with a fight?"
come on! it's all b/c someone didn't want to do all the extra paper work.

SO NOW! none of the accelerated guys have any orders yet b/c they have to be FEDERALLY recognized before they can actually start getting paid as 2Lt's. it will be ANOTHER 60 days before we even see the 900$ increase in pay. TJ has been working for the last month in a 2LT slot doing all the regular 2LT work. had he known he wasn't going to have orders until november to actually work as a 2LT he would have stayed in his old slot in austin.
AUGH!

TJ is going to file complaint forms anyway. it's the last step he can take to try and get it straight. they were denied once by some department. but there is a soldiers corrections department they can be submitted to and maybe get it fixed.
a good friend of TJ's told him that it wouldn't look whiny if he filed a formal complaint.it would actually make him look like less of a doormat. show them that you can stand up for yourself and you won't be played!

there was other stupid retarded stuff that happened. but that's the major stuff.

basically we were just all singled out as the black sheep of the group. like they thought we weren't important. and truth be told, our guys are alot smarter and stronger and will make much better officers for getting it all done in one fail swoop!! and not spread out in piddly weekends over a year and a half!!!

i am so mad i could scream!!!!!!

it was totally unprofessional and unfair for them to act that way!

it was worse than high school!!

AUGH!!!

things are going to change.
one day.
with my husband in charge.
things are going to start happening for soldiers they way they should.


ok. i'm done ranting. i just had to get that all of my chest. i thought we were all on the same team. all part of one big group that made some huge accomplishiment. but since they chose to ignore us, i choose to believe that my husaband is a better man than they are.