Nothing wrong with that - it encapsulates the war, in many respects, and the transformation, in fits and starts, of DoD.

Any, meet Mr. T's Haircut- who will be posting here and over at the 'Phibian's place (but we're senior, we invited the Haircut first). He'll hone his skillz talking about getting ready to go and getting there, and then really start earning his non-existent pay...

A Haircut goes to war.

Note: I chose the Nome de guerre MR T’s Haircut as a way to express life in my contribution to the blogs. “In Short”, the Haircut really does make the man.

I am an active duty Sailor who has over 20 years in the Naval Service. I am the proverbial Son of a Sailor, so that makes my Son, the Son of a … well you get the picture. I am an aviation Warrant Officer and have flown as a crewmember in rotary and fixed wing aircraft. I am married, enjoy NASCAR and Fishing. I support the Constitution and in particular, I support the 2nd Amendment. My opinions are my own.

I am pleased to have been asked by John the Armorer to replace Joe as “the Man in the ‘Stan” Correspondent. I am due to deploy to Afghanistan in May – June of 2008. I will pass on my observations as an “Individual Augmentee” supporting the good fight as I join the sister service, the Army, as a “Fleet of One”.

Due to my sarcastic sense of humor and habit of crossing the PC line, I have decided to remain semi-anonymous when I make my contributions to the Castle. I also love to read and post on CDR Salamander’s blog and have been asked to contribute by our fine Phibian’ and agreed to contribute my observations from time to time to his fine website as well.

So please tune in as I give a Sailors perspective of a deployment of an Individual Augmentee, deploying to a combat zone singularly and with the normal cast of characters that a Sailor would be used to deploying with.

To put it in perspective, when a Sailor normally deploys, he does so after completing numerous mind numbing qualifications on a weapons systems or aircraft platform. He further must pass a series of drills and exercises as part of the crew or team in integrated combat scenarios. This usually consists of weeks of deployments leading up to a long duration exercise and then finally deployment. By this time the deployment is anti-climatic and the Sailor plans for the inevitable return home to port to turn around and begin the cycle anew… in other words, this entire IA thing is going to be fun! - MTH

Welcome aboard, Sailor!