Ding Ding...LITS Arriving.

[LineInTheSand]

I'm back, positive, and looking forward to contributing to the forum and discussions in a positive way.


Also....




Enjoy this little CG message which has me jumping at every phone call...



R 111937Z APR 08 ZUI ASN-A00102000013
FM COMCOGARD PERSCOM ARLINGTON VA//OPM-2// TO ALCGOFF BT UNCLAS //N01301// ALCGOFF 052/08
SUBJ: AY08 SITREP SEVEN - ASSIGNMENT SEASON UPDATE A. ALCGOFF 002/04, JUNIOR OFFICER FIRST TOUR ASSIGNMENT (JOFTA) POLICY (MY 081625Z JAN 04) B. ALCGOFF 042/08, AY08 SITREP SIX - ASSIGNMENT SEASON UPDATE (MY 282027Z MAR 08) 1. THIS MESSAGE PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON THE AY08 ASSIGNMENT PROCESS AND TIMELINE FOR THE REMAINDER OF SEASON.
2. THE O-6, O-5, O-4, CWO, AND OCONUS ASSIGNMENT PROCESS IS NOW COMPLETE WITH ALL ORDERS ISSUED. ANYONE EXPECTING THESE ORDERS WHO HAS NOT YET RECEIVED THEM SHOULD CONTACT THEIR ASSIGNMENT OFFICER (AO).
3. FOR O-3 AND BELOW ASSIGNMENTS, WE ANTICIPATE ALL CALLS TO PROGRAMS, UNITS, AND MEMBERS WILL BE COMPLETE BY 15 APRIL WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS. ORDERS WILL BE ISSUED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE THEREAFTER.
4. CONSISTENT WITH REF A, THE COAST GUARD SENDS FIRST TOUR JUNIOR OFFICERS TO OPERATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT POSSIBLE.
THIS RESULTS IN SECTORS AND CUTTERS BEING OVER-BILLETED WITH JUNIOR OFFICERS. IN AY07 WE OVER-BILLETED OPERATIONAL UNITS BY APPROXIMATELY 275 JUNIOR OFFICERS AND WE ANTICIPATE OVER-BILLETING SECTORS AND CUTTERS BY APPROXIMATELY 150 JUNIOR OFFICERS IN AY08.
THIS WILL RESULT IN APPROXIMATELY 100 O-3 AND O-2 STAFF BILLETS BEING LEFT VACANT IN AY08. THERE WILL ALSO BE A FEW SECTOR JUNIOR OFFICER BILLETS LEFT VACANT, HOWEVER, THESE VACANCIES WILL BE MORE THAN OFFSET BY THE OVER-BILLETING (DOUBLE-ENCUMBERING) MENTIONED EARLIER. OVERALL, SECTORS WILL BE OVER-BILLETED BY 80 JUNIOR OFFICERS IN AY08. AS PER REF B, WE HAVE WORKED CLOSELY OVER THE LAST TWO WEEKS WITH COMMANDS AND STAFFS TO IDENTIFY THOSE BILLETS THAT WILL NOT BE FILLED AND GREATLY APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S INPUT, FLEXIBILITY, AND UNDERSTANDING.
5. WE UNDERSTAND THE STRAIN OF REASSIGNMENT AND RELOCATION PARTICULARLY AS OFFICERS AWAIT ORDERS. WHILE WE ATTEMPT TO OFFER THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE POSSIBLE, WE REQUEST EVERYONE'S ASSISTANCE IN MINIMIZING INTERRUPTIONS DURING THIS CRITICAL PHASE OF THE ASSIGNMENT PROCESS. IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY AWAITING ORDERS, PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT YOUR AO TO REQUEST THE STATUS OF YOUR ASSIGNMENT AS THIS ONLY TENDS TO DELAY THE OVERALL PROCESS.
INSTEAD, WE ASK THAT YOU PLEASE RESERVE CONTACTING YOUR AO ONLY FOR SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT STATUS OR EMERGENT ASSIGNMENT NEEDS.
6. OFFICERS SHOULD ENSURE THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION (INCLUDING HOME/CELL PHONE/E-MAIL) IS ACCURATE IN DIRECT ACCESS. AS THE ASSIGNMENT SEASON SPEEDS TO CONCLUSION, AO'S OFTEN NEED TO CONTACT OFFICERS AFTER NORMAL WORKING HOURS. IN ADDITION, DIRECT ACCESS WILL AUTOMATICALLY SEND YOUR ORDERS TO YOUR BUSINESS E-MAIL ADDRESS. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO ENSURE THIS INFORMATION IS ACCURATE. TO VERIFY AND/OR UPDATE THIS INFO, LOG INTO DIRECT ACCESS AND SELECT SELF-SERVICE: EMPLOYEE: VIEW: PERSONAL INFORMATION.
7. WE ANTICIPATE RELEASING THE AY08 FINAL REPORT AND SUMMER 2008 ROADSHOW SEASON SOLICITATION MESSAGES BEFORE 30 APRIL 2008.
8. INTERNET RELEASE AUTHORIZED.
BT
NNNN

 

[Zaphod]

I'm back, positive, and looking forward to contributing to the forum and discussions in a positive way.

Good. Don't blow it. The Site Staff is in a right foul mood at the moment.

 

[LineInTheSand]

Eh....Mondays.

 

[navy_clarinet]

smile everybody....it's just monday. hey Z, at least you're not a NAPS with me! it sucks here.

 

[Pima]

Yes, it's Monday, but it's also April 14th...24 hrs left to file

 

[Zaphod]

Yes, it's Monday, but it's also April 14th...24 hrs left to file

Don't remind me. While I filed weeks ago and have long since gotten my "refund", what was left behind was enough for me to have been left almost totally debt-free, including the damned mortgage.

 

[Zaphod]

hey Z, at least you're not a NAPS with me! it sucks here.

Damn! NAPS in April was BEAUTIFUL back in my day and what the heck, you're almost DONE!

So stop yer whinin' and get back to work!

 

[LineInTheSand]

Try a Monday you are OOD, and all you can think about between armory rounds is when the detailer is going to call you....I could stand to sleep until that call comes.

I actually had a nightmare last night that I had called the Assignment Officer and had given him the wrong information, so I was going to go to some terrible assignment. Hey, it could still happen! I woke up at 4 AM thinking I should call the Assignment Officer back...


....not a good way to start a Monday.

 

[Zaphod]

R 111937Z APR 08 ZUI ASN-A00102000013
FM COMCOGARD PERSCOM ARLINGTON VA//OPM-2// TO ALCGOFF BT UNCLAS //N01301// ALCGOFF 052/08

As a public service, I will attempt to translate the above into civilian English...

R

The first character above denotes that this is a ROUTINE message, as opposed to IMMEDIATE ("O") or FLASH ("Z") traffic.

ROUTINE traffic is used for the vast majority or routine (hence the name) administrative messages. On average, the message is expected to arrive at the intended recipient within 24 hours.

IMMEDIATE traffic is used for higher-priority traffic that ROUTINE, but which does not meet the level of FLASH traffic.

FLASH traffic is reserved almost exclusively for extremely-urgent communications of an operational nature that must reach their intended recipients within MINUTES. When the FLASH message bell (or whatever they use these days) goes off, PEOPLE BEGIN MOVING. Pity be unto the poor CO whose command releases a FLASH message when it should be a ROUTINE one.

111937Z APR 08

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a "Date-Time Group", otherwise known as a DTG. It is the standard format used throughout the Navy and (obviously) Coast Guard to tell the date and time.

- The first two digits are the date, in this case the 11th.

- The next four digits are the time (in 24-hour format), followed by the Zone Designator "Z", which denotes Greenwich Mean Time. All messages in the Navy and Coast Guard are coded based on Zulu Time.

- The next five characters are the three-letter month and the two-digit year. In this case, April, 2008.

So, if a message was sent out at 7:36 AM GMT on the 13th of December, 2001, the DTG of the message would be 130736DEC01.

Believe it or not, I actually still use a version of this to file my stuff in my computer. Can you say "geek"?

FM COMCOGARD PERSCOM ARLINGTON VA//OPM-2// TO ALCGOFF BT

The best way to explain this is to simply read it out loud in English: "From Commander, Coast Guard Personnel Command, Arlington Virginia to All Coast Guard Officers. Break"

The code //OPM-2// denotes the office within COMCOGARD PERSCOM. The BT is litterally read as "Break", and denotes the end of that section of the message.

UNCLAS //N01301// ALCGOFF 052/08

The message is UNCLASSIFIED (or else we'd currently be chatting with the FBI about this). IIRC, the //N01301// is the ID of the sending station.

The remainder identifies this as the 52nd ALCGOFF message sent in 2008.

"OCONUS" is mil-speak for "Outside the Continental United States".

"NNNN" means "End of Message". In the old days of teletypes (yep, I'm old enough to have seen those), this would be where the RM's (Radiomen) would tear the Teletype Paper. The next message would skip a few spaces and begin to print.

I speak only for Navy and CG, here, but I assume most of the above applies equally to the other services.

So now you have no excuses that you "missed the message".

 

[LineInTheSand]

Zaphod quote:
"The message is UNCLASSIFIED (or else we'd currently be chatting with the FBI about this). IIRC, the //N01301// is the ID of the sending station."


And I would be having a VERY bad day at this time...


I also would not have posted it had it not contained the "Internet Release Authorized."


I have to say, breaking down the parts of the message....that's very impressive.

 

[Zaphod]

And I would be having a VERY bad day at this time...

Yeah, that would definitely not be a career-enhancing move.

I also would not have posted it had it not contained the "Internet Release Authorized."

They didn't have that in my day.

I have to say, breaking down the parts of the message....that's very impressive.

Thanks. It's been a while.