Iraq Deployment 3.0

On Saturday, October 27th, my family and I will start the 30 day countdown for our third Iraq deployment. I “affectionately” call it, Iraq Deployment 3.0.

Unlike his first deployment, that lasted about 6 months, and his last deployment, that lasted 12 months, this deployment will last “at least 15 months”, but “not more than 18 months”.

This deployment will be the longest we have ever been apart, since we met back in 1997.

His first (ever) deployment was back in 1999, where he was deployed to Bosnia for 6 months. His next deployment, wasn’t actually a “deployment” per se, but he was stationed at a remote base in South Korea in 2002 for one year. Six months after he returned from Korea, he was deployed to Iraq in 2003. He was home for over a year when he was redeployed to Iraq, for one year, in 2005.

Almost two years to the exact day that he left for Iraq Deployment 2.0, he is leaving for his third tour.

Fifteen months is only three months longer than his most previous tour, but that’s three more months of playing “single mom” to three children and reminding the youngest ones that “Daddy is at work”. They don’t need to know that Daddy is in danger. Sure, he doesn’t come home for months at a time, but they don’t need to know that’s not normal for average Daddies. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we live in a community where lots of Mommies and Daddies go to work for months, so they think it’s normal.

It will be nice when this “normal” life is no longer part of our every day existence.

It will be nice when Daddy isn’t missing (literally) every other birthday or anniversary. It will be nice when Daddy comes home every night for several years rather than being at work every day/night for several months. It will be nice to not have to hold my breath when I hear “bad news” about Iraq on the news.

Of course, one has to think positively. I know that for 15 months, the music in the van cd-changer will be only music I love to listen to. I know that I won’t have to watch any movies or television shows that I don’t like. If I want to go somewhere, I don’t have to take into consideration whether or not he wants to go. Less laundry? Whoo-hoo! A totally tidy master bedroom? Whoa, Nelly!

Of course, it’s hard to accentuate the positive when your entire daily routine is a mix of anxiety about how he is doing and animosity towards those who keep this illegal war going. I have grown tired and annoyed at otherwise “thoughtful” people who pat me on the head with some nonsense about how he’s over there so we can have freedom over here. I know that’s not true. But, I just smile and walk away instead of ranting about how much bull that is.

Thankfully, I have things to keep me occupied. Care packages to send, friends and family to call, a business to run, and children to care for and a blog (or two…) to rant on. We will pretend like Iraq Deployment 3.0 is a normal part of our every day lives. We will go on for 15 months as if it’s normal for Daddies to go to work war, every other year.

Truthfully, we will be just fine. The thing isn’t so much that he’s going, it’s that this is the third time. It will be nice when we can start counting the number of years he is home against positive milestones the way we count how long our troops have been in Iraq (four years since I started my business).

In the meantime, we begin the big countdown to Iraq Deployment 3.0 (T-minus 33 days).

(Graciously cross-posted at Dizzy Dayz and The Katrinacrat blog and The Sirens Chronicles.)

tags: iraq war, redeployment, family