Month 8 Day 19

Notebook Entry
Ten reports given 10000 hours to be an expert Garrison Support Unit S1 and Kandak commande Personnel Statistics collection, Excel Class, SAlima from Regimental Combat Team, Assadullah second kandak

Journal Entry
I am listening to the book Outliers. It says there is a standing body of work that says it takes about 10,000 hours (about 10 years worth of work) to become an expert at any given task. When I say that the military is run by amateurs, I mean it in the fullest sense. There is not a military expert among us.

I spoke to the GSU s1 [Garrison Support Unit Administration Officer] and the GSU commander. They wanted me to try to convince the General to give them more seats on the flight. I told them that the Major had decided that the Marines were not going to weigh in on the issue and that the GSU commander would have to convince the CO by himself.

They changed the date that the Personnel Statistics were due without telling me. So they were upset when they didn’t come in on time. They don’t have any idea how long it takes to get the Afghans used to coming out, showing up, etc. To them it is just a day. Annoying.

The S2 [Marine Intelligence Officer] came over to give a class, again they were late, and again they didn’t give me a heads up.

Asadullah, the guy who scored the best on the literacy test of all of the Sgts was sent to 2nd Kandak. Awesome, this is why I didn’t want to train guys who were not assigned. He was my smartest one. Fuck.