Now that I’m the NCOIC of the 17th Fires Brigade public affairs office, I get to attend another transfer of authority ceremony.  I do like ceremonies, but once you’ve seen one of these you’ve seen them all.  They aren’t challenging from a photography or video standpoint.  You know which shots you need.  The story shoots itself.

It was my job to escort the local media onto the COB.  I was lucky enough to be the one in charge when the local media decided they’d had enough of us and walked off the COB.  Really, I was working on getting them onto the base and as I get back to the bus their ringleader announces he’s tired of being treated this way and wants to go home.  I can’t think of when I’ve been more embarrassed in my life, but this has to be a top 5.  Maybe my sister, wife and mom can conspire to come up with an Adam top 5 most embarrassing moments.  I can’t go into detail over what happened because some very capable officers are trying to mend fences. (All of this happened on August 27th.  In typical Army Public Affairs fashion, not only have I released it two weeks late, but I’ve tried to put a happy spin on the days events.  I may need more than 6 hours of public affairs training that broadcasters get at DINFOS?)

One cool thing about working at the 17th Fires is having a relationship with combat camera.  They are the people we get mistaken for most often.  They roll around with just about anyone trying to take pictures and get some video.  They don’t use tripods, mostly because they roll out with a lot of patrols.  They must think camera shake is artsy or something.

Even though it’s now September sixth our section still doesn’t have a phone of our own.  It makes me laugh at this point.  It’s just hard to be “public affairs” if we only have secret e-mail.  We’re working on it.  If anything it’s my fault for not crying loud enough.  I like to blame the previous 17th FiB NCOIC who setup his section and soldier for failure, but I won’t….in public.

In the meantime, I’m watching college football.  The early games come on at 1900.  The OU game that’s on at 7pm central time, comes on at 0200 on Sunday morning.  The late West Coast games start at 0530.  I’m not sure how I’m going to work college football.  I do find myself watching the afternoon game while it’s almost one in the morning.  My commander went to Georgia, and I hate Oklahoma State, so we have a vested interest in the Georgia v. Okie State game.

The best part about this being September, I can see redeployment on the horizon.  We know our replacement’s mobilization date, and are tracking all the way to their arrival in Kuwait late next month.  I wish it were then now.

The photos below are by our fine journalist, Spc. Maurice A. Galloway

Here are some photos of our ComCam friends.

This post is tagged 17 FiB, 17th Fires Brigade, 343rd MPAD, College Football, TOA, Transfer of Authority