Engineers in Exile

[jeb6294]

To be honest, I'm not even sure anymore. You used to be able to go to http://www.cpol.us.army.mil and look jobs up there that were exclusively Army (USACE), but they've changed it. They forward you to Army Civilian Service now and you can do a job search there but when I searched for "deployable" there was only one position that showed up in Chicago. There are some that show up as SA-OA - The Middle East that look like they are overseas positions in Afghanistan/Iraq for Schedule A's (contractors working for the USACE). We've got several Sch. A's here and quite a few of them end up getting a Gov't job after they leave here. It looks like the USACE is trying to go through USAJobs now also.

If you are looking in a specific area, I'd say check those two sites in the area you're looking for. If you're open to relocating and do a search for Civil Engineers, it comes up with several in quite a few different places. Even though there aren't many "deployable" positions showing up, if you can get in with the USACE, you can always volunteer to come over.

 

[rktman]

To be honest, I'm not even sure anymore. You used to be able to go to http://www.cpol.us.army.mil and look jobs up there that were exclusively Army (USACE), but they've changed it. They forward you to Army Civilian Service now and you can do a job search there but when I searched for "deployable" there was only one position that showed up in Chicago. There are some that show up as SA-OA - The Middle East that look like they are overseas positions in Afghanistan/Iraq for Schedule A's (contractors working for the USACE). We've got several Sch. A's here and quite a few of them end up getting a Gov't job after they leave here. It looks like the USACE is trying to go through USAJobs now also.
If you are looking in a specific area, I'd say check those two sites in the area you're looking for. If you're open to relocating and do a search for Civil Engineers, it comes up with several in quite a few different places. Even though there aren't many "deployable" positions showing up, if you can get in with the USACE, you can always volunteer to come over.

Thanks Jeb. I've been reading your posts, would you do it again?

 

[jeb6294]

I would definitely do it again. In fact I'll probably see about doing it again in about 8 months or so, just not sure if I'll do a year again or 6 months this time.

The worst thing is being away from the family. If I wasn't married I would have already been over here a long time ago. Even if I was married, if we didn't have kids she would have tried to come over as a Schedule A...they put you in the same area.

 

[ElCid03]

Saw Mechanical buddy off to the 'stan today. Crappy day to say the least.

Does he know where he's headed?

He's in Khandahar. I tried to go with him as an Navy IA but my chain of command was none too receptive. I feel truly ashamed of myself for not being over there right now.

 

[jeb6294]

Saw Mechanical buddy off to the 'stan today. Crappy day to say the least.

Does he know where he's headed?

He's in Khandahar. I tried to go with him as an Navy IA but my chain of command was none too receptive. I feel truly ashamed of myself for not being over there right now.

That's where a lot of the fun is at the moment. Khandahar is a pretty big place though so not too bad. I'm in Bagram on the other side of the country although we do stop at Khandahar on our flights to Dubai when we're headed out for R&R's. He should be having lots of fun come summer when the temps are up over 100 every day. It gets hot here, but at least we're up around 5,000ft so it's not quite as bad.

 

[jeb6294]

The days are getting short. Supposed to be flying out of here in a few days (not allowed to say exactly when we go) for Kabul so we can get our conrats from a Colonel who's never even met us...I suspect he's more interested in getting his picture taken as much as possible. To do that requires two armored convoys from and to the Kabul airport and a hotel stay for the day in Dubai; not for a day, for THE day as in get there at 7-8 in the morning and they have to put us up in a hotel for 16 hours during the day until it's time for our midnight flight back to Dules. As opposed to walking from our office over to the PAX terminal at our nice secured airfield and catching a flight straight to Dubai with no hotel required.

 

[maryannette]

You all will be in my prayers. Hope all goes well and safely.

 

[ElCid03]

We'll folks it looks like my time arrived and I am now deployed to a combat theater (Afghan) of operations. I'm in a very strange place in RC Capital but the boards are accessible so please keep up the funny posts; it's a welcome diversion from the weirdness of the day.

 

[FLBuff PE]

We'll folks it looks like my time arrived and I am now deployed to a combat theater (Afghan) of operations. I'm in a very strange place in RC Capital but the boards are accessible so please keep up the funny posts; it's a welcome diversion from the weirdness of the day.

Stay safe, get home in one piece, and thank you for your service. :unitedstates:

 

[snickerd3]

stay safe!

 

[Dark Knight]

Stay safe Cid

 

[Jacob_PE]

We'll folks it looks like my time arrived and I am now deployed to a combat theater (Afghan) of operations. I'm in a very strange place in RC Capital but the boards are accessible so please keep up the funny posts; it's a welcome diversion from the weirdness of the day.

Thanks for serving our great nation.

 

[ElCid03]

Thanks everyone! All is well so far on the safety front; if anyone has any insights on how to deal with Afghan Contractors please PM me with your advice.

 

[maryannette]

Stay safe, Cid. You'll be in my prayers.

I only know how to deal with (dirty, rotten, cheatin', lyin') American contractors.

 

[maryannette]

Stay safe, Cid. You'll be in my prayers.

I only know how to deal with (dirty, rotten, cheatin', lyin') American contractors.

 

[csb]

Stay safe! Let us know if you need anything sent over...I seem to remember we're pretty good at care packages.

 

[ElCid03]

Saw Mechanical buddy off to the 'stan today. Crappy day to say the least.

Does he know where he's headed?

He's in Khandahar. I tried to go with him as an Navy IA but my chain of command was none too receptive. I feel truly ashamed of myself for not being over there right now.

That's where a lot of the fun is at the moment. Khandahar is a pretty big place though so not too bad. I'm in Bagram on the other side of the country although we do stop at Khandahar on our flights to Dubai when we're headed out for R&R's. He should be having lots of fun come summer when the temps are up over 100 every day. It gets hot here, but at least we're up around 5,000ft so it's not quite as bad.

Bagram, land of the big PX. One day, when I had nothing better to do and I was waiting for a plane or helicopter to take me from Bagram to Sharana so I could try to get on a rotary wing flight back to OE, I decided I was going to walk Disney Drive from one end of the flight line to the other. It took me half an hour or so. Compare that to OE where it takes you half a minute to walk across the HLZ to the DFAC.

You aren't kidding about the length of Disney Drive. We did it in body armor trying to find the temporary billeting office in the dark which was not so fun. The PX there is really nice, especially when you can find Diet Mountain Dew. The only bad thing about Bagram is trying to sleep right next to the flight line. I thought the jets were loud when I lived in VA Beach but Bagram takes the cake.

 

[MA_PE]

stay safe you guys. thanks for serving and check in when you can....we worry.

 

[ElCid03]

You aren't kidding about the length of Disney Drive. We did it in body armor trying to find the temporary billeting office in the dark which was not so fun. The PX there is really nice, especially when you can find Diet Mountain Dew. The only bad thing about Bagram is trying to sleep right next to the flight line. I thought the jets were loud when I lived in VA Beach but Bagram takes the cake.

Huh, what was that I can't hear you... I had the joy of sleeping at Bagram for a few nights. I also had the joy of sleeping just under the chopper approach vector for birds coming in from Sharana at Orgun-E, I swear they hovered over my room for a couple seconds on purpose.

Stay safe and let me know if I can send a care package, I've recieved many of them, but have not sent too many.

I'm pretty well suited with the exception of D-Rings. I have broken quite a few of them already. If you also have a spare M-4 cleaning kit around the house PM me and I would like to take that off your hands.

 

[jeb6294]

Well, in case you didn't figure it out from my recent absense for a little while there and from some of my recent posts, I am back in the 'Stan. I'll be here for a year again...at least (more on that in a bit).

At least I was able to get back to Bagram. I figure if I'm going to be here for a while at least I get to be some place with some room to move around and more stuff going on to keep occupied during our very few off hours. I was also able to get right into a single wet (code for my own bathroom) room as soon as I got here which is a huge plus. For those that are interested, Bagram is a much quieter place now. It appears they've moved all the A-10's here from Kandahar which aren't nearly as loud as the 15's and 16's that were here last time...the Warthogs were always my favorite anyway. I'd say it's nice being someplace with a good PX too but right now they are all looking pretty bare because of Pakistan's bitching and moaning which has the pass for the main road route into the country closed. Last time we schecked, the North PX had about 800 cans of Pringles and 150 cases of Red Bull and not much else.

So as I said right now I'm scheduled to be here for a year, but it may end up being longer than that. Apparently with budgets being cut the construction crunch is finally starting to catch up on the Government side of things. A few months before I left they started looking for people to take early retirement which isn't a good sign. Then a week or so before I left they had a "town hall meeting" at the office. I took leave my last 3 weeks at home to hang out with the family so I missed it, but word from the guys was that they were looking to ax a number of Con-Reps, Engineers and Admin people from our office by FY13. As long as I'm over here I'm off their books so hopefully I should be fine, but I told them I'd get with them in 8 months or so and see if things have improved at all. Hopefully they'll have their act together by then but if things are still iffy then I may be sticking around here a little longer and in the meantime I can also keep an eye out for other Gov't positions close to home.