“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
Against US Army policy
Our son had been through basic training and was in the final stages of training to be a US Army Cavalry Scout when his Christmas leave came up one year. We were excited that the Army would allow him to visit us overseas for the holiday. The US Army doesn’t have a lot of enlisted people based Stateside who travel overseas to see their families at Christmas, so their protocol doesn’t fit well. I felt like a mishap father as I didn’t know what advice to give him on getting to us.
First, he was told what clothes he could wear to leave and return to the Stateside base and even what he could bring in a small backpack to take on his Christmas holiday. Our son would wear his full camo uniform, cap, and boots for the three flights and four airports to get to us. Also, he was required to bring cold weather gear on holiday, even though we don’t have cold weather where we live overseas and it filled up most of his small backpack. When he got to the first airport from the base, I told him to ask the airline desk if US military could get bumped up to business. My son informed me that it was against US Army policy to ask any questions like that
An Army uniform is something we Americans are proud of, but not necessarily those from other countries. He would be wearing the uniform through places that were not friendly to the US Army. I asked him about removing his patches attached by Velcro to his uniform to blend in as a local military man when going through foreign airports. He told me it was against US Army policy to do this. Ironically, a captain in the US Army in civilian clothes was in one of these airports and saw our son. He encouraged our son to not wear the US Army uniform for his wellbeing, but then realized the drill sergeants had not allowed our son to even pack any civilian clothes for the Christmas holiday. Our son said he was quite an attraction in some airports where people would unashamedly stare at him.
However, his uniform became less of a concern as his hunger mounted. When one flight away from our overseas home, he had a day layover. He went to McDonalds in the airport to get breakfast. His debit card did not work and he had no local currency. He had no credit card as his recruiter/sergeant warned against him taking it to the first base he was posted. It didn’t help that his last flight was to be delayed. He called us and light heartedly laughed with us about his predicament. I told him to sit Indian style on the ground with his beret open and sitting in front of him to beg for food money outside of Starbucks. Surely any Americans in the airport would eventually make their way to Starbucks for an overpriced coffee. Again, he reminded me that it was against US Army policy, even though he knew I was joking.
We then lost phone coverage with our son until he arrived to our local overseas airport. He had no charging adaptor for the foreign outlets and had to get off the phone – not allowed to bring anything on the Christmas trip that wasn’t on his official Army packing list.
On or off duty, being an American soldier isn’t always easy with US Army policies.
Something similar ever happen to you. Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
