5/8/2010 - A Day In the Life

NOTE:  Information below is public, so I'm not giving away any secrets.....

Brig. Gen. Camille M. Nichols, commanding general with Joint Contracting Command - Iraq/Afghanistan, visited Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq, March 27, to ensure that her unit, which is responsible for all of the contracts in theater, meets the needs of the service members who live there.



Why did I post this you ask?  Well, the RCC (Regional Contingency Contracting) office (this is where I work)here at Kandahar also had a drop in visit from our Commander.  I tried to post a picture, but bandwidth wouldn't allow it.  What's interesting about this, is there is a little history with a few folks that I'll keep anonymous.  BG Nichols presented in an Acquisition summit and voiced her concern over the readiness of the National Guard serving as Contracting Officers in Theater.  Well here we are and doing a fine job, if you ask me.

About the job:  Jeff and I are learning a lot as fast as we can.  We both picked up a predecessors night mare.  Meaning when a KO (contracting officer - not sure why we use KO, instead of CO) does not do a thorough job of maintaining their files and records, the new guy has to clean up the mess.  One thing we have learned over the last couple of years is that a good KO keeps good files.  KO's obligate the governments (tax payers) money and is 100% under the scrutiny of investigation by audit agencies, CID, FBI, etc.  Turds that leave a mess like the one Jeff and I are cleaning up should be slapped.

Our day at the office starts about 8:00am to 8:00pm 7 days a week.  Depending on workload, we may get a 1/2 day Sunday.  During these hours, yes we get to go eat and do PT, run to the PX, and get a haircut when needed.  In the evening time, we find time to get our laundry done.  That's another story.  Needless to say, we stay covered up busy all day and when we get through a day, we are slap tired and only want to give our pillow some head (hey, watch what your thinking).  The most important thing Jeff and I try to do as often as we can is Skype with the family.  However, this poses its on challenges due to the time difference, Internet bandwidth and if roomies are sleeping.  It is a task managers nightmare!

Back to the laundry.  So, there is thousands of troops here from all over the world.  But, there are only a few mobile laundry facilities.  I got up the other morning at 3:45am, thinking surely no one is doing laundry at 3:45am.  Wrong!!!  Everyone else had the same idea.  Later that night about 9:00pm, I simply waited my turn and finished up about 11:00pm.

Days are long and starting to go fast.  As though it seems.  Leaning is the key for the next week or so and then the workload will double again.  At present, I'm managing about $12M of commodities that range from beds to washers and dryers (ironic), gravel to forklifts.  $12M is only a start.  Once this gets to full speed, I imagine the value will be north of $25M.

I better wrap this up since it's about time to catch a shower and start the day.  If you have not read Renee's blog, you should.  Especially yesterday's.  She talked about our best friends, the Whitten's.  And she is 100% correct in how we feel about our friends and how are friendships have developed over the last 12 years.  We love them dearly and look forward to one day sitting on someones porch rocking in our chairs and drinking a beer or a glass of wine.  Thank you Whitten's for all that you do! 

And thank everyone, family, friends, commanders (COL Edge, I know your reading our blogs), work friends and anyone I might have missed.  Your support and love makes this whole deployment much easier to handle.

Love to all, R2