I've missed it. Even though I wrote 7 papers for my English class, it just wasn't the same. I find clarity here in these posts. Sometimes it just helps to wade through the jumbled muck in my mind and get it out.
Things have changed quite a bit since the last time I was writing religiously. Other than going back to school and the most recent layoff, I have other fairly large news.
At 30 years old, my dear hubby re-signed into the PA National Guard.
( 10 Years Ago - So Young!)
We have about 9 months until he deploys to the middle-east for a year. He's going to be doing an administrative job so he'll be staying in a stable area thankfully.
It's strange. Last time we were in the military was before the guard was deploying. Only deployment Mike ever had was Katrina. Guard definitely does not mean 'weekend warriors' anymore... Most of the guys in his squad have already dealt with at least 3 deployments.
So what can I say?
Well, for starters, we have never dealt with deployment of this kind before... So naturally I'm a little frightened. It seems odd when Mike has a group of younger guys under him who have been deployed a few times already. But, I think we are in MUCH better shape to handle this than we would have been years ago.
This mission he's going on was actually on a a volunteer basis. I know.. You're thinking we're crazy.
But, we made this decision because we knew another deployment was happening within the upcoming year, besides this mission. The second mission is combat zone and frankly, if the Guard is giving a 'rare' option, my feelings are for him to take the peaceful, administrative mission.
So... even though many people believe we will be pulling out shortly, it's not happening. Not looking for a debate here but I KNOW if there are deployment plans for the Guard (unheard of for years before the middle-east war), it's not done. Also, bonuses are projected to go up. When that happens, it means more deployment possibilities.
Why did we re-sign?
Mike missed it. He's good at it. He has 7 years in, 4 years away, and is a great Sargent. Extra money doesn't hurt either.
Mike had to prove he can do it. The physical tests are much harder for an older guy trying to re-sign than a young-just-out-of-high-school kid. He had to get approval from very high people to be able to come back. He's still in good shape and his last physical (PT) test, he ranked 4th in his group. I don't know if that's a good thing, because he blew away most of the younger 'more agile' guys; or a bad thing, because an older guy beat them. I'd like to think, it's just because he's good. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment