The Transition

Well, just as we have gradually been making our plans to return to Ft. Campbell, our replacement unit is making their way to theater. Actually, their Boots On Ground (BOG) date was the middle part of last week. It's somewhat of an incremental process, where a few people show up to get a lay of the land and report back to the rest of the unit what to expect and how best to prepare for the process of getting everything organized and situated. About two weeks ago, the first phase of troops touched down and began making preparations for the rest of their unit to arrive, with the first main body showing up last Tuesday.
It's been interesting experiencing the "battle hand-off" between the incoming and outgoing units. Unfortunately, there are no Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for this process, so most of the time you're loosely adhering the transitional process of your predecessors. This is more important for the line units, who are responsible for fully briefing the incoming unit on the events that have transpired in their AOs, as well as the trends they have seen over the past year. On the support side, it's more a matter of just telling them where everything is and updating them on certain issues that have come about during our time here. Those individuals running the CROs will be briefed on those areas of concern to them, while maintenance focuses on informing the mechanics of the various malfunctions they are likely to face while operating the vehicles. Yes, this is all as exciting as it sounds (sarcasm emphasized).
Throughout the rest of my time here in theater, I will serve mainly as an "advisor" to those individuals replacing me in the motor pool, as well as the patrol leaders for the CROs. After a few days of that, they will officially take over and we'll be prepping for our one-way ticket outta here! We're getting closer, but we're still not done yet.
Take care.