LTC Young relates his experiences with receiving a recall notification for mobilization after an 11-year stint in the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR). After his recall at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Young reported to Fort Rucker, Alabama for "re-greening" before reporting to his unit. Young describes his dismay at finding a complete lack of experience and knowledge how to manage an IRR call-up when he arrived at Fort Jackson. Young then relates how he had to reach out to his gaining unit by phone and email, and do considerable legwork to link up with the 38th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) at their mobilization site. Young deployed as part of the unit advanced party (ADVON) element and started the RIP process with the outgoing LNO team from the 449th Theater Aviation Brigade (TAB) ten days early. Young notes the importance of replicating the real world LNO staff products -- reports, spreadsheets and Air Mission Request (AMR) forms -- during the pre-mobilization CPX and ATX. He also describes the critical importance of having representatives from the 449th Theater Aviation Brigade (TAB) -- the outgoing Corps Aviation Brigade -- in order to impart an understanding of the pipeline flow of information between parties. Young observed that the III Corps joint operations (J3) treated LNOs as decision makers; as a result several of his peer LNOs made tactical decisions best left to unit commanders. Young closes his vignette noting the importance of LNOs to understand their role and place within the command structure of the represented unit: "Remember what your job is -- to give opinions, not decisions."

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