When I deployed the first time, it was scheduled to be a standard twelve month deployment. About two months in, things were shifted and they began moving some soldiers leave around to accomodate the possibility of a shift to eleven months instead of twelve months. Originally my leave had been scheduled for July, but because it was in that 'end of the tour' time frame, I was shifted forward to taking year in January.
At the time I wasn't the happiest about it, but I was still getting to go home so I made it work. Shortly after arriving back from leave, the surge had been the hot topic of the news and most of the soldiers who were deployed and those getting ready to deploy. At first when questions were asked, the information was that the units deployed weren't going to be affected by it.
A few weeks later, things changed and our new orders came down. We had been bumped up to a 15 month deployment.
The way our deployment fell, we had deployed in October, so originally we were supposed to have arrived back home in time for the holidays to start. With the additional three months, now we were going to be there for a second set of holidays and that also now meant that I had a full year between the time I had my 'midtour' and when we would redeploy.
As time was going on, of course, it wasn't the best place to be but we were all staying busy so the time was moving quickly for the most part. Even though at we hit month 12, we knew the holidays were coming up, it wasn't something you really wanted to be reminded about. Most DFACs (dining facilities) try to do something special for the holiday meals, so we tried to make the most of it. Somehow, the group of soldiers I went and ate with for both Thanksgiving and Christmas ended up targeted by the Public Affairs. As we sat there being asked what it was like going through our second set of holidays deployed, everything really started to sink in. That's one thing about being deployed, you can try to look past a day and try not to acknowledge what it is, but it never fails that something happens that snaps you back to reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment