Military Service...

I miss everyone (well almost everyone) from our deployment…
In my attempt to fall asleep last night, I was doing Google searches of people I know. Of course I searched our own names, because I know there was stuff out there. I just wanted to see if there was anything new. In searching our names, I ran across newspaper articles from when Hubby and I were deployed to Iraq. I was able to find some links to pictures that were taken by the embedded reporters that were with our unit from New Jersey. I found a few pictures, which I did not know about, of other people in our unit. Makes me miss everyone all over again.



When we returned from Iraq, the state of Minnesota was restructuring its National Guard. Units/soldiers were being split up and reassigned to new locations. Talk about the most messed up thing ever. For returning soldiers one of the things that help you get through the adjustment period is the camaraderie you feel from spending time with people who knew exactly what you went through.
Being forced to return to new units whose soldiers either have never deployed or could not deploy for various reasons makes adjustment that much harder. There is the feeling of disrespect for those soldiers who weren’t able to deploy with the main body. Especially for the soldiers that purposefully sabotaged their chances to deploy at that time. I remember a couple of females who specifically got pregnant just so they wouldn’t have to deploy. I can only imagine that they are out of the service by now, but the hatred/disrespect is still there sometimes when I think back on it. These are the people that make military service so hard for the rest of us that are doing the right thing. We didn’t want to go either. We were also leaving families and children behind. We had things we wanted to do also. Spending time in the big sandbox was not what I had in mind for that time in my life.

We did our 90 days (3 drills) of reintegration training, collected our gear that came in the next month, and for some like me, turned in our gear that same time. I was done, I was out. I had been stop loss(ed). My active portion of my contract was up before I even deployed. (It only took another year and a half to get my discharge letter stating that I was honorably discharged with 8 years of military service.)

For the rest of the remaining soldiers, they had to move on to new units, new commanders, new everything. Thankfully most ended up in the same few units, so there was someone that they knew there. But returning to new units and spending weekends doing redundant time-killing work (we had no equipment, it was left overseas) does not help military morale, especially after the pace/experience of deployment. There is combat training “by the book” and then there is “the real world,” what you really do when you are over there. The book goes out the window for the most part. So training for one thing but knowing that this is not how it is done “in the real world” of combat makes weekend drills that much harder.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I miss many of the people I was deployed with. The sad thing is many of those people are recently deployed again for new tours to Afghanistan and Iraq. I am so thankful that my husband is not one of those deployed. (He has been medically discharged, another story for another time.) I can only imagine what the family members left behind are feeling. (I was lucky enough to be deployed WITH my husband in the same unit when I went overseas. Even though we did not get to live together while we were there, at least we knew what was going on and where we were at all times.) There were some welcome home events for some of our injured soldiers that we were all able to get together for. That was the last time I saw many of the people I was deployed with. One of the last get togethers we had, my little girl was still a tiny tiny baby bump in my belly. Many haven’t seen us since then.

It’s been 2+ years since I last saw some of the people from my platoon/unit. It would be nice to get together again and visit with everyone and see where they are at in their lives and their military service. But alas that will have to wait till everybody comes home again. I almost wish I was there with them, but then again I thank God I am not. They are constantly in my thoughts, and I pray for their safe return.