Last night I wrote a blog about the usual. However today I got reprimanded for it. I stated my financial problems and mentioned that I want to get rid of my car. Its a 2007 that I just bought, the 2008’s are starting to come out and I have some negative equity from the Mazda that I wrecked.

I have full coverage, a $0 deductible and Gap coverage. If the car is totaled then the insurance will cover 100% of the vehicle. If I sell it I still owe $6,000-$8,000. That is a car payment. So if I sell my car, I still have a car payment and no car. Doesn’t make much sense to me. Totaled, then there is no car and no car payment. However to total my car would mean that I would have to risk my life. As much as I want to be rid of my car, I don’t want to kill myself. I may sound stressed and give someone the impression that I am at wits end, but I guarantee you I am not suicidal.

I come home every day to this beautiful little girl who runs up to me and clings on my leg with excitement to see her daddy. I don’t care what kind of day I have had. When I pick her up and see her smiling from ear to ear just from the site of me, I have forgotten all of my problems.

There are days where I may hate my life, but I love my daughter and care for her life more than my own.

I thought I was simply getting chaptered without having to deal with anything else. However today I was read the first part of a field grade Article 15. Not sure what too expect. Could just be a formality in the chapter or give me a chance to argue my case. I am very unfamiliar with these proceedings its hard to say.

I am hoping its not just a method to further humiliate me, or try and take more money. I have maxed out my credit cards and have a negative balance of $400 in my checking. Even a single rank reduction would be a significant reduction in my already low pay.

I am now going around the house finding stuff I no longer need and looking at putting them on eBay. I have so much negative equity on my car that I can’t even sell it. I have full collision and gap coverage so economically the best thing would be to total it. I just don’t want to be in my car when it gets totaled.

Right now its one thing after another and I am beginning to welcome the fact of leaving the Army more and more, simply because I want to have control over my life again.

I have seen this one tabby cat walk around my house for a while now. I have always written it off as being one of the neighbors cats and if my daughter is nearby I grab her and let her see the cat. At her age looking out the living room window to see a cat is almost as fascinating as going to the zoo.

With the heat we have been having I try to avoid spending too much time outside. We are even having a drought which has turned my yard brown, eliminating the need to mow it. No complaints there.

Today we were coming home from Nashville doing some site seeing. (The Hermitage in Nashville is free admission with a valid military ID card). As we were getting out of the car that cat was there again. My daughter saw it and wanted to catch it so ran after it. My wife followed suit as I got the “baby luggage” out of the car. My wife yells at me telling me that the cat went into the house. Seeing I am standing in the door and was certian I saw no cat, I give her a puzzled look and informed her that she was wrong. Needless to say, I was wrong.

I walked around the house and she showed me where the cat went in. The foundation of the house has vents around it and in one location the screen protecting the house from allowing animals to get in has been damaged by the cable company. (They intentionally broke it to run a cable instead of drilling a hole). As a walk around I see the cat hop out then right back in. I try to look inside the hole but with no light it was simply a black hole. I ran to my car to grab a flash light and hear my wife scream again. This time she said “a kitten”. I run back and see this little kitten no more than 5-6 weeks old. It quickly ran under the A/C unit right next to the hole. I got my light and looked around and could not find it. I then peered into the whole and found the mother cat and a second kitten.

Seeing we just came back from site seeing in Nashville my wife had her camera with her. I grabbed it and was able to snap this shot after about 20 shots of nothing. I couldn’t find the second kitten, I am afraid that it crawled up inside the A/C unit. At least this is a rental, otherwise I might put forth some effort to get them out of there.

Over the past couple weeks my 1SG has been giving me little tips as too what they are going to end up doing with me. He has told me things like “they are no longer pursuing placing you in confinement”. The fact that they were looking into it or even considering it kinda scares me a little. The most recent thing he has told me, is that they are going to chapter me out of the Army. This should be done and completed in approximately two months. I should know by some time next week.

My wife’s mother has two bakeries that she own in Korea. She has asked my wife to manage one of them. In return we get a percentage of the income from the bakery that she runs. The running estimate is about $10,000 a month. I believe that my mother-in-law will pay her about 60% of that. However because we weren’t making any plans on getting out of the Army until about April of next year, we are uncertain that she will be ready for us to move there and take the business over. Also because of the amount of money the Army has taken from us in the past couple months ($820 for a BAH error in June, $921 for the UCMJ in July, and $1,580 for the difference in E-4 to E-5 over the next couple months), we have absolutely nothing in savings right now. On top of no longer getting any extra income from ShamSchool. I am bringing in a little more than $100 a month which is barely enough to pay for the server.

I am not being chaptered for the whole ShamSchool thing. Its for the “Impersonating an NCO” that they are chaptering me for. I have been given the impression that they don’t even care about ShamSchool. At the same time they appear to be wanting me out of the Army. The whole impersonating this I feel is bull-shit. Yes, I received an Article 15 in Korea. Half of my platoon did, including 3 other NCO’s and an LT. Because I was so close to leaving Korea and one of the only ones that was staying in the Army, my chain of command, processed the Article 15 themselves. Or at least they told me they did. They said the only thing they had done was they removed my flag. Then told me “If your ERB still says E-5 when you get to Fort Campbell, put it back on”. The E-6 that also received a rank reduction had his ERB updated that very same day. I received the Article on December 22nd (we thought they were going to wait until after Christmas). I left Korea on January 20th (not enough time to complete 45 days of extra duty). Then I signed in off of leave an into reception at Fort Campbell on March 6th. ERB still said E-5, Orders said E-5, ID Card said E-5, LES (pay-stub) still said E-5, every single piece of paper I came across said E-5. They even screwed up my leave paperwork at reception, and called me and said that if I wasn’t an E-5 they would of reported me as AWOL. It was a simple error where they didn’t see that I had 10 days of permissive TDY, but if it said E-4 I would of had an AWOL packet drawn up.

So after all that, I made the conscious decision that what my NCO in Korea told me was true. That I was still an E-5. Did I feel that it was wrong? NO! I trusted my NCO and that he took care of me. Isn’t that what NCO’s do? Take care of their soldiers? They fought to get me to the board so I could be promoted. I had more additional duties in Korea than anyone else in the entire company. I was the orderly room NCOIC, primary COMSEC sub-hand receipt holder, commander’s driver, company NEO warden, and after I went to the board I was removed from the orderly room and placed back on line, but still kept all the other duties. I was as high speed as you could get, and then put together videos for the company Christmas party, was known for counseling soldiers that weren’t mine, and ran websites that everyone in the company knew about. Why wouldn’t my NCO’s want to take care of me? I busted my ass for 3.5 years and wouldn’t get a PCS award because of the recent Article 15 just before I left. My PLT SGT personally wrote me an ARCOM, but flagged personal can’t receive any awards. They wouldn’t even process it until after the flag was lifted, the flag was initiated in October.

I don’t feel I did anything wrong. I thought I was being rewarded for 3.5 years of hard work and not being able to receive an award. No one in Korea agreed that we should get an Article 15, except the BC. Even in the article 15 while being read no one recommend me to loose my rank, but I got the max.

For all of this I am being kicked out of the Army? And with 6 months before my ETS. How is this in the least fair? I guess I could tell them which NCO’s made sure I could keep my rank, but if they are kicking me out for acknowledging that it happened, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen with them. Also because they went out of their way for me like that I am not going to return the favor by getting them in trouble.

I do know one thing. If the Army kicks me out they can no longer legislate my website. I can put the ACCP answers back on there without having to worry about anyone telling me to take it down again. However if they don’t kick me out then I will be obligated to keep the answers off until I reach my eight year mark with the inactive reserve, which is February 19, 2011. So it would be safe to say that I won’t even put them back online.

I just hope regardless of whatever happens that I will have enough time to save enough money to move to Korea, and get everything else in order.

Me and the wife got into a little argument this weekend…, which happens. I decided to lock myself in a room cause she wouldn’t stop yelling. In the process of closing the door she stood in the way and blocked the door from being able to close. I gave her a little push and locked the door.

My wife has the problem with getting too mad too fast, and can’t calm down. No matter what I do she will stand there and yell all night repeating the same thing over and over. Saturday was no different, I just wasn’t in the mood to just sit there and listen.

Having no choice but to either shut-up or yell at a door, she decided she was going to call my 1SG. Which considering the amount of trouble I am in and the amount of attention I get from the media and other soldiers, when I have a problem, he does everything by the book and then some. He hears my wife tell him that I pushed her…, so he labels that domestic abuse. Orders me to pack my bags and move into the barracks. No questions, just move out of my house. Also seeing I pushed my wife, he calls the police. My wife mad but not mad enough to send me to jail sends them on their way and no charges are pressed.

Meanwhile I am living in a stank-ass room with no food. There is only one bathroom on the floor, which also holds the showers. So now I have to get up and take a shower with the rest of my unit, if I have to piss in the middle of the night I have to get fully dressed and walk down the hall. If I want to eat, I have to go across post to the 24 hour shopette.

OK, yes, me and the wife argue. But can you honestly tell me you have never been in a relationship where you have never argued? I pushed my wife but I did it slow and soft, I just wanted to close the door. I didn’t push her on the ground or down the stairs…, I gave her a rude, “excuse me” push.

I swear if my life gets any more “interesting”, as some of you put it. I am going to have a stroke or something worse.