Common Sense in the Military

Having recently received orders back to the good ol' U.S., I now get to go through the time-honored hell known as "checking out."  Any time a military member gets orders to PCS (permanent change of station) to a new location, he or she must check out of various agencies at their current location.  

I've always looked upon the check out process with disdain, but I was truly blown away when I got my check out sheet this time.  Each location that I must go to is represented with a little spot for some representative to initial or stamp the sheet, which is two pages long!  Some of the agencies and such that are listed on this sheet are just absurd.

I like the Chaplain (the last one I actually met anyway), and think he's a great guy, but I cannot figure out why on earth I need to go see him in order to move to a new duty station.  The Red Cross?  Are you kidding me?  

Not only do I need to visit offices that I really have no need to visit, but they have certain hours (and days) for checking in and out.  Far be it from me to inconvenience these various support agencies...You would think that I'm here to support them, instead of it being the other way around.  

This entire process will involve me driving all over the island (all the offices are certainly not located on the same base) and wasting many hours that could be spent doing something useful.  At the end of it all, some disinterested PFC will glance at my checkout sheet and trade me a set of plane tickets for it, followed immediately by throwing the check out sheet in the trash can.  Brilliant!