Finally here! My last day in the Army. Just now getting home and have this overwhelming feeling of relief. It didn’t come without more problems though.

I had previously mentioned to another sergeant that my wife may not give up her ID card easily. It gives her the right to get on post and use the commissary and utilize other services. Since neither her or my ID cards expired until June 1st of 2008, there shouldn’t been much of an issue anyway. The Army is supposed to keep us on for 4 months for insurance purposes, and I have other privileges on post up to 6 months.

Anyway, this one sergeant that has been escorting me around for the past couple days told my platoon sergeant about this case with my wife. I guess since I am no longer in the Army I can use names without consequences; his name is SSG Anthony Logablo. Should make it easier to understand too. Well, SSG Logablo acted in his normal manner, dumbfounded and over-reacting. Once he caught word of this, he called me yelling at me like it was my fault and informed me that I need to gain “control” over my wife. Only making it more obvious why he is single with no children and the oldest person in the company. Then he escorted me to the MP station explaining he wanted charges pressed against my wife. The entire time I tried to explain that if my wife would fully comply if she thought there was the possibility of either of us getting in trouble. I never said she wouldn’t surrender her ID card at all, only that she wouldn’t like it.

At the MP station we talked to the MP’s and he was very disappointed when they told him that at most they could only do something if they thought she was using the ID card to gain access to post. I learned this information after SSG Logalbo decided he heard enough and started to walk away and I ask the MP what could happen if she didn’t comply. SSG Logalbo looked back at me and started walking towards me like he was ready for a fight, which caught me off guard. Usually he has some anger issues and acts hostile but this was the first time I actually thought he may act this way towards me. He grabbed my arm violently and yanked me away from the MP I was talking to and gave me a push towards the exit. I was mainly stunned by this especially since he did it in front of an MP. At the time I was more worried about going home, and now wish I had done something to get him in trouble knowing the MP saw it.

SSG Logalbo has always been somewhat hostile; however I have never seen him act. Most of the time it has been reflected at the company XO, calling her a bitch or saying how much he would love to put his fist through the wall in his office, emphasizing that it wouldn’t be the first time. Lately he has directed his attention more towards me, with the exception of one small incident where he had someone cut a lock and the XO stated she was going to create a statement of charges for the $10 lock. The fact that it was the XO made him go into his normal name-calling spiel towards her.

After getting back to the company he threatened me stating that he would not re-instate my driving privileges on post until he got both of our ID cards. Had I known I would have left right then. I would still have an ID card, and I wouldn’t have to worry about my driving privileges as everything I need on post can be done in one day. I just would have had to use my brother-in-law’s car that has temp tags on it.

Thinking I still had to sign out at battalion I complied and still did what I was told, I had no clue that I was officially a civilian as of 10:30 this morning. I didn’t get out of there until about 3pm. All because this one sergeant wants to inform me on how my wife should do whatever he says. I think I argued with him most of the time trying to explain that she isn’t even an American let alone fall under military law. I thought this was an easy concept but even as I left he was still bitching about how my wife doesn’t follow orders.

I had to have my wife come on post and pick me up as they wouldn’t even give me a friggin ride.

While in Korea, I loved being in the Army. I had more restrictions that anywhere else in the Army, and was so anxious to come to the states to be able to feel freedom again. The chain of command I have had while on Fort Campbell is the only reason I got chaptered. Even before they discovered ShamSchool I hated it. I was expected to know all the equipment they had, yet I had never seen it before. My job is Multi-Channel transmissions, and they place me on a satellite system. Then I am placed under an NCO that refuses to task her soldiers out stating “I would rather do it myself” for the purpose of knowing it’s done right. The most work she would give me as an NCO was to inventory a box of shit, or some antenna’s that I inventoried two days before and haven’t been touched in months.

I have been in the Army long enough, had enough 1SG’s and commanders, to know that it’s not the Army which makes it so miserable. It’s the chain of command that you have at the current point in time. The most recent chain of command here at Fort Campbell is the worse I have ever seen. My only regret is that I didn’t call IG when I first discovered the problem. The biggest one being SSG Logalbo, who doesn’t want to do his job, including being the EO rep.