And for my followup… July 14, 2009
Posted by imfb in Deployment.trackback
IA. It stands for “Individual Augmentation.” Not necessarily a well known program, but it takes Navy and Air Force personnel and attaches them to Army/Marine units operating overseas. It’s a way of filling gaps without calling up reservists and national guard units, given how things are still stretched a little thin over there (and have been for a while now).
So, I’m going on one, leaving soon, for Iraq.
There are two competing ways that I look at this. The first is that I’m excited for the opportunity. It’ll be great professionally, giving me a leg up later on. It’ll be a great experience too, to be there, to work in theater, to do some good in support of everything going on there.
The second is that I’m spending a lot of time deployed. A whole lot.
I once said to a friend that I wish I could pause time while I’m away, things change and there are memories you miss. You miss your birthday, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. Then you miss another birthday. It’s a lot of time spent away from home, missing holidays and special events. Sometimes you realize the magnitude of what you’re missing and it just hits you as being very sad.
So there are two sides to it all, and so it makes it bittersweet news. It’s a lot of time preparing to go or being gone, and not a lot of time enjoying home.
Must be so difficult having two such different lives. I love getting your insight on it all
the flip side is that you probably appreciate home a lot more than those who spend 365 days there.
as exciting as having the adventures seems i can only imagine how awful it is for those who have children. i mean just think about how tough it is just for you, missing the daily life of what you used to have and that of your fiancee. i can’t even imagine how hard it is to be a mother or a father deployed… it would kill me to say goodbye to my child in a cradle and come back to see them walking and talking (and not knowing who i am).
oh man, i am really so thankful there are you people willing to do this because i just know i couldn’t.