JANR

Here in Afghanistan I work on a NATO base.  We work with representatives from the different NATO countries.  There are very few U.S. Navy personnel here at Resolute Support Head Quarters, Kabul, which makes us the minority.  To make the U.S. Navy personnel feel even more out-of-place, we are all Navy Reservists who for the most part are  performing jobs well outside of our traditional warfare areas.  I am trained as a Surface Warfare Officer, and as you know Afghanistan is a land lock country.  There is no need for a Surface Warfare Officer where there is no water.  What there is a need for is a warm bodied semi-competent officer to do the job.  I fit that criteria, so here I am.

There certainly is a cultural difference between the different services.  I sense the U.S. Army feels they are the superior service which I really just find annoying.  I am still a trained war fighter, just not a land warfighter.  I spent 7 years on active duty.  I deployed for 4 years continuously onboard 2 war fighting ships.  Yet, ask any Soldier here and they truly believe this is my first deployment.  They are correct this is my first deployment where I can video call my family every day or make a phone call at all, the mail gets here within 10 days (not 2 months), we don’t run out of fresh food after only 7 days, the treadmills don’t move while I’m running, and I sleep more than 4 hours at a time.

Once a month the group of Navy black sheep get together for a few hours.  While I was there I was asked if I wanted to be part of the JANR.  Being curious I asked, what is that?  Well JANR stands for Just A Navy Reservists, and that is what we are.  I need to just embrace who I am here.  We, the JANR, are not going to change the pride of the U.S. Soldier, so we just need to embrace it.  Plus I’m sure the Soldier’s pride helps them perform their duties as Soldiers.  I am a JANR.  When I leave here I go home to my family and my civilian job.  I’m not competing against anyone else here for the next promotion or billet (job).  The next promotion board will look at my fitness report (equivalent to a year-end evaluation) and say check she deployed and did something.  I have no pressure other than to come home in one piece and do my job.  I will do the best I know how here.  People’s lives depend on it even though I am a JANR!

I’m not here to say one service is better than another.  We all have our duties to perform and our part in this fight.  You can’t forget the people at home either.  My mom is a JAMAG, Just a Military Mom and Grandma, but without her sacrifice we couldn’t fight this war over here. TJ doesn’t want to raise our babies for a year by himself, but he’s an awesome JAMSAD, Just a Military Spouse and Dad.  It is very military to make an acronym out of everything.  We all are embracing who we are and that’s the best part.  I’ll continue to own being a JANR!

So, I miss my job at home.  I miss knowing what I’m doing.  I miss knowing who to talk to when I have a question.  I miss teaching class.  I miss my cross functional team.  Most of all I just miss my friends there!   When I’m there I have nothing to prove, I can just do what I’m good at and I find a lot of job satisfaction.  They know I’m not a JANR!

This video makes me so happy.  Ending the workout with a 3 minute wall sit….that’s how you do it when I’m teaching.  I really am so touched and inspired by all of you.  Two years ago we started this small group and it’s grown and changed, but one thing has stayed the same.  The athletes who show up each week inspire me to be better and stay strong.  I want to quote a note I received from Christina Moritz who is helping keep this group going.  “I talk about you every class where I’ll say in honor of Darchelle or right when we are in the thick of it and I can see the class starting to get tired or near failure I say, “Darchelle isn’t giving up, neither are we!”  I realize that can be quite different but what I love seeing is them dig a little deeper and push through just as I’d imagine you have to (but of course on a far different level). So… keep going lady!”  It’s notes like that and videos of wall sits that help me get through and give me something awesome to come home to.  Know all of you are JUST something and I can’t wait to be back with JUST all of you, because you are all JUST AWESOME!!!  Ok, I need to stop I’m getting emotional.