10/90

Typical, no briefing prior to arrival.  To my huge relief, my company sergeant-major is Amina, a friend from the Cyprus tour.  We settle in with tea.
"So Wahida, what'd they tell you?"
"Square root of minus one, start from scratch."
"This is a 10/90 company."
I groan aloud.
"Ever had the joy of commanding one of those?"
"No, but heard plenty."
Professorial tone, "I like sports analogies, people understand quick.  Surely you had a boyfriend who insisted you watch football."
"Football is outside my experience."  my hot blush gives away the rest.
"I see," she says sympathetically, "now the Canadian Football League and the American NFL are different.  NFL, polished, professional, passes click, guys on the same page of the playbook.  CFL a litany of missed passes, miscued handoffs, unnecessary penalties and the like.  Why?  The NFL is fulltime, all week it's attend meetings, practices, watch videos of the opposition. CFL boys arrive after their day job, do a short meeting or practice."
"And a 10/90 is the exact parallel to the CFL?"
"You got it.  Regulars are used to working together polished, girls like each other.  Now in a 10/90 no one is happy.  The 10% regulars, they just wannabe back with their real friends.  The 90% reservists are scared.  They'd been hoping to fill that draft obligation with one weekend of training a month, praying they never get the call."
I groan aloud.
"Next week, we go out the hatch over Cape Gloucester, New Guinea. Lotta work to do."
"That would qualify as understatement of the year."
We both laugh.
"The ancient Americans were there, after Guadalcanal, before Okinawa.  Now look at these casualties for illness."
I gasp.