The Drama of Deployment
Well, where do I start?! Corey was supposed to deploy for Afghanistan on December 29th, but it didn’t happen. The Friday before, he was in the emergency room with a massive, dehabilitating migraine and a fever of almost 103°. Mindful of his deployment, they pumped him full of antibiotics and fluids and called it a day. He felt better for awhile, but by Sunday night, he was feeling worse than when we started. We ended up back in the ER the morning he was to deploy. They ended up admitting him with viral menengitis and he was taken off the manifest for that day. I spent a good portion of that day on the phone with the 1SG, trying to get things in place for when he was released. The next flights were January 4th and 6th and he wanted him on the 6th to fly with some lower enlisted. Fine, not a problem. So, he was released late the night before New Year’s Eve and didn’t have to report until Friday morning. And when he did? The acting commander, another SSG, informed him that he was deploying THAT EVENING! WTF?!! This was 1000 and he was to be back on post by 1530. So, he came home , grabbed his gear and we loaded up to go back to post and see him off. As it turns out, he had been manifested with 4 MPs and no one bothered to tell him that was a possibility. But that is the Army and you adapt and overcome! So, with moments to spare, we said our goodbyes and he was gone.
Or so we thought,…! 0130 and the phone rang. Apparently there was an issue with one of the engines of the C5 and it was grounded. By 0200, they were released and told to go home and standby for recall. So at 0300, I was in the truck headed back to pick him up. Not long after we got a call that he needed to report back at 1745 for weapons draw, a seemingly ridiculous idea, since the Air Force crew had said it would take at least 2 days to fix the plane. But when the Rear Detachment battalion commander says to report, you report. So we did, this time without the kids because there would be no time to spend with him. No sooner did we get there, and they were told to stand down because ::surprise::, the plane wasn’t ready. After an hour or so, they were released AGAIN and told to standby. So we went home and not 15 minutes after we got home, he got his call,… report and weapons draw at midnight. Once again, we drove to post. The guys drew their weapons and got ready to load up to head to the airfield. And got another call to stand down because the plane ::surprise:: was still not fixed. Once again, he was released and we headed home. By noon the next day (yesterday), we got the call that he had to report at 1745. He had just gotten ready to go when we got the call that we needed to be there at 1715. We were and finally they were able to deploy. He called a few hours ago and he is in Germany, awaiting his next flight.
Yes, we got a couple extra days, but it was in a constant state of anticipation, and not the good kind. The uncertainty and the up and down of going and coming back was really hard on the kids and it definately sucked for both me and for Corey. But he is gone and the countdown to his return begins.
I land-mined my blog!
I don’t know how, but there were some kind of server issues and it blew up my blog. So, I had to start over from scratch with a new SQL database and a fresh install of WordPress. I still have all my old content from my old blog, but for some reason, I can’t import it into this one. So, I need to rebuild my reads list, which completely SUCKS! So, leave links, people!
Ok, typical Army BS but yup it totally stinks to have to deal with that. Hugs to you on the start of yet another deployment and the start of a new blog.
Ahhhh the joys of Army life. What a screwed up mess!
Ugh! Gotta love the “hurry up and wait!” that the Army loves to do! I’m sorry you guys kept getting yanked around. Sending thoughts and prayers to you all though! *hugs*
Ah, I see another commentor knows the “hurry up and wait” routine as well. Its times like this when you remember back on your own experiences as a soldier and it makes it more bearable. We have the luxury of of having “been there and done that” and we know never to expect any smooth sailing…or flying…or anything else for that matter. :) So now its back to the single mom routine for you…..but you are good at that….so am I, welcome back. :)
Ugh on the landmined blog. Reminds me I need to do a back-up ;)
*hugs*