When I think about how long I have actually been away from home,
I can’t help but get frustrated with the Army for keeping me here
this long.
When I think about how long I have actually been away from home, I can’t help but get frustrated with the Army for keeping me here this long. I’m not complaining about serving because I am proud to be a soldier and I am proud of what I am doing here, but I think that I have done my part and it is time to bring in some fresh troops. We just can’t figure out why we have not been rotated out of the country.
Like so many others, we stay and watch units move in and others leave. In the time that I have been here I have seen two rotations come and go, and before I leave I will see another one. Even though I knew when we first deployed that there was a possibility of staying longer than six months I never though that I would be away from home for a year and a half.
If we leave after this extension (and that’s a big ”IF”) I will have been away from my wife and family for 18 months. When you think about it a year and a half doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you are away from your wife and family, your job and your life for that long, it is an eternity.
Luckily I do not yet have kids that I miss, but for my friends that do this has been much worse for them. I have only my wife, my parents, siblings and extended family who are all old enough to understand why I am here, what we have been through and what it’ll be like for us when we get home.
In the 15 months I have been away from home, my father has suffered a minor stroke and almost completely recovered. My nephew, Max, who was three months old when I left, has started walking and talking. Both my younger sisters have graduated, one from Gilroy High School and the other from San Francisco State University, along with the countless birthdays and other family celebrations that I have missed.
Because of our situation our company morale has hit an all time low. We have been extended twice, once after our first six months and again after a year here. Every time our command tells us that we are going to leave, we stay. We have given up on asking when will we be relieved, we just live it day to day and hope that some day in the future we will get on a plane headed back to the U.S. I can’t tell my family when I’m coming home because we have no clue, and even if the Army told me I was leaving here I couldn’t bring myself to tell my family because too many times I have had to tell them that the situation has changed here and I wouldn’t be coming home after all.
The only thing that has made this deployment easier for me is the support of my wife, Jenny, and my family back home. Through thick and thin they have always been there for me. Jenny especially because she has never once gotten angry at me for joining the Army, even though it has kept us apart for longer than we’ve been married; and I wouldn’t blame her if she did.
When you’re feeling low a phone call home to say ”hi” and just to chat for a short while can make a big difference. I know that I can walk away after only a few minutes of talking with Jenny or my parents and feel a million times better. Just being able to touch base with a loved one and know that everything at home is well is a great thing; it helps me to regain my focus on the mission at hand.
