Why is building a unit so complicated?

This is great experience for you at this stage of your career. Getting to see big Army at work and everything it entails. I stood up 1-10 ATK (a trial unit of Kiowas-not used as recon) as well as 3-17 CAV. Both units were at Fort Drum in the mid-90's. We had to take them to CAT-B (4 month deployment to Fort Hood to be certified). Now, the Kiowa units are dropping like flies. A good friend is dropping off some of our acft for the boneyard here at Davis-Monthan on WED. He is standing down the units and talk about nightmares. The most comple units are mixed units include ground scouts, mixed with Apaches, Kiowas, and Blackhawks. Zoinks!

Kiddo, you'll be okay. Keep working your tail off (no whining), get it right, and when it's done you will have far more working experience than any of your peers; in some cases, NCOs.

I empathize with you, but I have no pity. Welcome to the Army Logistical Family. This is a good place to ask for tools of the trade, use us as a resource.

Welcome to the bureaucracy. You don't usually see it until you're in a leadership position, but there is a lot that go into just maintaining a unit, let alone setting one up.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to get used to long days, and just roll with it. They will happen many more times, no question. Remember that you don't see everything that is going on behind the scenes, and often times there are reasons behind things that don't seem to make sense.

DOTMLPF Analysis... enough said.

18 days is nothing man.....MTOE Units will always be understrength in terms of manpower. You have it maid, I am trying to come back in to the military and its nearly impossible. It will never be easy, but you have one of the easiest jobs.