So I’m back in Bella Italia and am excited to hit up some new travel locations. On the agenda in the near future: Cinqueterre, Madrid, and Malta, all of which I hope to capture and discuss later. Now, however, I would like to do a Gitmo tribute. I figure I owe it to the people and the island since I was there for the past six months of my life. I really lucked out on this deployment. I made great friends/contacts and had experiences that I would never have gotten otherwise. This post is actually more informational for the Air Force members that will be working with other services in the near future.

The work:
I can’t talk about it in detail as it is all classified. Thanks to my opsec debrief there are a few things I can mention. I worked at the Joint Task Force (JTF) legal office doing lots of random things. Yes I went into the camps often. Yes I interacted with detainees. No I didn’t get poo thrown on me. I think that’s pretty much all I can write about. Oh, and I don’t have any pictures because we weren’t allowed to take cameras over to the JTF side. But I really did work there…trust me, I’m a lawyer.

The JTF:
Working in a joint environment was a truly great experience. Every service is represented there with the Navy and Army being the most prevalent. There were actually much fewer Marines than I expected but they were there, on that wall, vigilant as ever. As you can expect, there were a number of Col Jessep quotes thrown around for good measure. Mostly they involved one’s ability to handle the truth as well as the luxury of knowledge or lack thereof. And last but not least the Air Force was represented but very sparsely in comparison to the other branches. Since there were so few of us, it was really important to learn to thrive in a joint command.

I did want to throw out a few tips regarding interaction with other services. I really should have kept a running list. There are so many little things that I’m aware of now that I had to pick up quickly while there. If you’re going to a joint command, definitely learn the Navy enlisted ranks. I still have problems with some of them and I’ve been at a NAVSTA for six months. The first and most obvious of my problems stems from the cosmetics of their ranking system. AF is easy…count stripes/bars. Naval petty officers (E4-E6) wear crows on their collars. When you’re not used to seeing crows, these crows look a lot like eagles from a distance… This is important to note if you’re new and trying to show the world that the AF does indeed have impeccable military bearing by saluting a group of O6s (they were actually E4s) from 15 ft away. This site was actually pretty helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Navy_enlisted_rates#E-4_to_E-6

Thanks wikipedia! It should also be noted that Navy petty officers merge their MOSs with their titles. So while it is technically correct to refer to someone as Petty Officer 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class, it’s more common to use their job specific title. For example, paralegals are “legalmen” so the E6 I worked with was LN1. Confused yet? Yeah it took me a while…

On a related note, Army enlisted wear their ranks on their covers. When you’re used to AF enlisted covers being without rank, an army specialist’s insignia looks surprisingly like a Lt Col oak leaf from a distance…just saying.

Regarding E7-E9, you should realize that they are all variations of a chief going from Chief Petty Officer (CPO) –> Senior Chief –> Master Chief. So calling an E9 simply “chief” is actually insulting. Same with Army NCOs and their variations of Sergeant.

Officer ranks are actually pretty similar throughout the branches. My only recommendation is to check the global to see if you’re dealing with an AF/Army Capt (O3) vs. a Navy CAPT (O6). Important to keep in mind when you’re replying to emails or making phone calls.

What this cross-service interaction really did was to bolster my appreciation for JAX (the AF JAG and paralegal handlers that coordinate our assignments/deployments/TDYs). When it came time to leave Gitmo, servicemembers from ALL other branches bemoaned their placement process. Navy had to stop in at some other base for post deployment, Army officer and enlisted were constantly having issues with orders. The AF didn’t seem to have any of these problems. We knew when we were leaving, where we were going, and why. <3 the AF!

Other quick tips: Coast Guard refer to their officers as "Mister [last name]" rather than their actual rank. Naval vessels are ships not boats. And the pipe used for Naval change of command ceremonies is a bosun pipe, not bosun whistle (despite the fact it makes a high pitched whistling sound).

Honestly what helped me learn the different services' decorum was making friends among the services. This was my first deployment so I don't know if this is the case everywhere we go, but everyone was so friendly and inclusive at Gitmo. Maybe it was because we were all stuck on a small piece of land and the JTF officers all lived in the same neighborhood, but I never met anyone that wasn't friendly and open. I do feel somewhat chagrined by the fact that it took me four months to realize that the coast guard has a pretty awesome mission. They're not part of the DoD so we rarely interact with them or hear anything about what they do, but they're constant enforcers. My short time in the AF has shown me that we do a lot of preparation/exercises to make sure that when the time comes we can execute our mission. The CG live their mission every day and it really seems fun. I made a few good friends in the unit there and they let me tag along for some of their training. On slow days at the office, I asked my SJA if I could do some "extra military training" in the form of going under way on/driving small boats and/or going to the CG range. He allowed it with the caveat that I not hurt myself or anyone else. Thanks sir!

On the Coast Guard range wearing a friend's gear

I think this would have been easier if I didn't have arms like a T-rex. =[

As an aside, the CG do have JAG placement options, however, they are very few and the JAGs get little court room experience from my understanding. They pull Navy JAGs for defense purposes. They mostly focus on the enforcement/operational side of the law, which is actually good if you want to eventually move to another govt agency like the DEA or FBI.

Another person I made friends with was the Marine officer who let me tag along for a fence line tour. Every couple of hours he went to check on his guys in the towers and he let me go with! The fence line drive was long but I recommend doing it at least once. I was able to go up in the towers and see what the marines actually do, how we were being protected, and I was able to look out into Cuba! While I found this all to be novel and exciting, I don’t think I would want to stand watch on a daily basis. Apparently the only exciting thing that happens is when an iguana or other small animal plows over an old Cuban ordnance and blows up.

The everything else:
As you can probably tell from the informational post, this wasn’t a typical hardship deployment. I actually had very little hardships other than the fact that I was away from my family, but even then, I was allowed to sponsor people onto the base as long as they obtained a clearance. Honestly this felt more like being PCS’d to a Naval station for 6 months rather than a deployment. The living conditions are very cushy; I wasn’t working long days like I had expected; and we had so many amenities that I wouldn’t have had in Iraq or Afghanistan. When I was going through JASOC, I really expected to go to TF134 or some other OPs related deployment during my second assignment…Gitmo was a pleasant surprise as far as location goes… The job was less responsibility than I had expected but I was the most Jr attorney so I really can’t complain. This resulted in me filling in for everyone else on busy days and me having more extra time there than I could ever hope for in Aviano. How did I fill this extra time? Well I already discussed the extra military training, but Gitmo also happens to be in the Caribbean. Pretty much every island themed recreation was available and we took advantage of that. My favorite past time was the diving. When I first decided to take up diving, I was dead set on buying a spear gun for fishing. Then I thought about the likelihood of me actually shooting something legitimate and not either myself, a dive buddy, or something endangered…so I bought a camera instead:

This turtle circled me for like 10 minutes

Nurse shark - doesn't eat people...which is the only reason I took a pic this close

The legal office also had a number of going away parties on the beach the last two months I was there.

Going away at Pebble Beach

I really will miss everyone in the office as well as the close friends I made there. The day before I flew out, we held an awards ceremony for six of us in the office that were leaving. Most all of my friends took a half day and came out in support. It was such a wonderful send off topped only by the next day’s pier jumping as I rode off on the ferry to catch my plane. I do feel really blessed to have had such a wonderful experience.

Lt McMahon and I just before the awards ceremony

The admiral giving me my award

Friends gathered to jump off the pier and swim after the ferry while yelling for those leaving to come back!

Aww I'll miss you guys

Advertisement