It's Official!

I heard from ITT-MEO (Middle-east Office) around noon today (3-26) that I had received my initial temp clearance! This means ITT will employ me and send me to Iraq. With a 1 week "lay-over" at Fort Bliss for orientation first.

Come Monday I will send in my employee paperwork to the Kuwait office.

After that its wait for my sweet HP laptop, due to arrive around Mar 31st, or so, and then wait until the 9th when I fly out to beautiful El Paso.

Mmmmm, can't wait for my days at Fort Bliss that start at 5am. Right...

I Think I'm Cleared

I got my official Welcome Packet from ITT this morning. According to my TEKsystems recruiter, they wouldn't send one to me until I had my clearance. However, noone has yet been able to verify that I officially have my interim clearance. I also have no word yet as to when they want me to deploy to Ft. Bliss.

I just thought I had paperwork before! My packet was literally about 1/2" thick. This time I'm not waiting to get the stuff filled out and sent back to ITT. Hopefully I can get it all sent back on Wed or Thur.

The cool part is that I will be issued Kevlar and body armor at some point in Kuwait, before I deploy into Iraq. Hopefully it will only be used for decorative purposes!

One Down, One To Go

Yes! My passport finally came in. I signed it, scanned it, and emailed it in to ITT. Now all that's left is to wait for the up/down vote on my interim clearance. This is also going to make my cruise just a little easier.

Markin' Time

Not much going on right now. I got some luggage and slacks from Kohls during their big sale over the weekend. I found out that the CRC is doing an orientation every week so even though I will not make the one on the 3rd, I should be able to make the one on the 10th.

One item of particular interest, Hogan's Heroes has finally made it to DVD. I just bought the complete 1st season and am refraining from watching it so I may do so in Iraq.

I bought a Sony Cybershot P200 for the Iraq trip and so far it has been excellent. I took some 7MP pictures the other day and they made great 8x10's.

Going on a farewell cruise this 17th-21st down to Cozumel and back to Galveston. I'll post some pictures once I get back.

Posting will probably be pretty light until I get my interim clearance or get rejected. Still hoping to hear on that during the week of the 21st.

By the way, if you haven't yet, rent Deckchair Danny.

The Clock Has Started Ticking

As of yesterday, March 8th, ITT finally got all of the 'stuff' they needed to begin the clearance check. I should know in 10-14 business days if I get my interim clearance or not. If not, the gig is off. If so, then I still need to be at least two weeks out from my time at Fort Bliss for orientation. This is because Bliss, currently, needs a minimum of two weeks' notice that I am enrolled.

After missing the deadline for the class on the 28th of March, I had quasi-planned on attending the one on the 3rd of April. Given the head's up lead time Bliss needs and the fact that from the 8th, 10 business days is (if you include the 8th) the 21st of March, the earliest ITT could notify Bliss about me would be 13 days before class starts.

I assume the military is not in the habit of cutting people slack, so right now I assume I will attwend the class after the 3rd. Might be the 10th, might be the 17th. I have no idea at this point.

On a better note, I found out that in addition to my 70lb checked bag, I may also bring a carry-on plus a laptop. Ofcourse I heard so many different "facts" about allowed luggage, lead time to notify Bliss, how often the classes are held, who documents should be sent to and in what format, that I am taking the luggage info with a grain of salt. I'll try to pin them down about a week before I leave.

A Visit to The Man

I took my cards to the Williamson County Sheriff's office and got fingerprinted today. Also got the word that there were some discrepencies with the SF-86. I need to correct them and resend the info. The prints will be sent tomorrow via DHL.

Left finger, right finger

Got my fingerprint cards today. I have to get with the Georgetown Police Department tomorrow and have them print me. I know its for the FBI investigation, but it is still a little unsettling to walk into a police station and ASK to be fingerprinted. What''s next, "May I please spend the night in jail?"

Other than that not much going on, Iraq-wise.

We're going on a "farewell" cruise during the middle of the month. Five days four nights.

More Changes

found out last night that instead of having to wait until possibly late April for the next CRC orientation and having to give 30 days notice, they'll be having one on April 3rd and I only have to give them 2 weeks notice. In essence I need to have received my interim secret clearance at least 14 days before whatever CRC orientation I want to attend.

I wonder how many more times all of this stuff will change before I actually leave the country.

EPSQ: Finished!

Finally got the EPSQ information finished. Faxed signature sheets to my SO. Then started faxing other sheets to other places. And emailed scanned sheets to still other places. I have no idea how ITT is going to get all of this straight.

I have two TEKsystems contacts in Colorado Springs, 1 ITT contact in Colorado Springs, 1 ITT contact in Qatar and 1 more ITT contact in Kuwait City. And I'm going to Iraq! Yeesh!

After this things will probably calm down and I won't be posting much. The main thing now is to get my new passport back.

My ETD Has Been Deeeelayed

I found out Monday night that the window to get me into the March 28th orientation had passed. I probably could have gotten all the stuff to them, except for the new passport info. However, I had no idea that there was a 1 month notification window. So I had basically 3 1/2 days to get everything in order, including my expired passport.

My next orientation opportunity will be mid-late April.

Looks like I'm stateside for awhile.