Staff Duty NCO

NCO stands for Non-Commissioned Officer – Sergeants. The folks that run the Army. Officers lead and command the Army, NCO’s run it. After a few months in country, 352nd Civil Affairs Headquarters decided that they needed to have Staff Duty NCOs 24/7. This meant that an NCO selected from a command wide duty roster had to sit in the entrance foyer of Command HQ for 24 hours. With no breaks. During the duty day. If you had to go to the bathroom or wanted to eat, you had to grab someone from an office or a buddy or passersby to sit at the staff duty desk so you could do your business. After a while, guys from your section would get a plate of food for you at the mess hall and bring it out to you. Normally, staff duty occurs after duty hours. You showed up at around 4pm and you’re on until 6am or so the next morning. Ours was 24 hours straight with no logical explanation as to WHY. During the day, the building is filled with people. Heavily armed people. And the reason for our presence is? So once a month or so when you name came up on the duty roster you had to drop whatever you were doing for the next 24 hours and do this duty. Whether or not you got any time off after was up to your supervisor. Most of the time, you got at least half a day off. So that wasn’t too bad. Anyway, you sat in a folding chair behind a green Army wooden field table (that had to be World War II excess) by the front door of HQ. We brought our laptops from work and they had an internet connection. This preserved one’s sanity. Also, you could bring books to read, although I didn’t have the patience while I was in Iraq. I think I read maybe three books the whole time I was there. At home, I read 3 or 4 books a month. So I made very elaborate powerpoint slide shows with background music using pics that I and others had taken while in Iraq. I still have them. Not bad if I say so myself. There was a field phone by the desk. You were the receptionist. At night, if there were any emergencies, they called you and you had to contact the appropriate person to solve the problem. You were also the Sergeant of the Guard for the River Guard (next post). So imagine sitting on your butt for basically 24 hours. Insane. After months of complaining that got us nowhere, there was a change in the Headquarters Company commander. The new guy had a brain between his ears. While we argued for a staff duty that began at the end of the work day and ended the following morning, he one-upped us and pulled in the guys and gals from the signal van parked out front in the courtyard. The signal van operated 24/7 and their job was to insure that the telephone/radio/internet infrastructure was running properly. Since they were already on shifts 24/7, he merely required one of them to sit at the duty desk and pulled the staff duty NCOs altogether. I still keep in touch with that commander and he has a standing marker with me.