Deployment Notice

I promised to fill you all in when the timing was right, so here it is... K has received a deployment notice to Iraq.

Yeah...

We had to let some VIP's know before we put it out on the interwebs for everyone to read, and now I can tell all of you.  He is scheduled to be in-country on May 5, so he'll leave around May 1.  It is a 6-month deployment and he will return sometime in early November (all of this happens in 2011).

If you're wondering how I'm feeling, the answer is annoyed.  When K first told me, I was happily driving home on a Friday afternoon, looking forward to my weekend, and I called him to see if he wanted me to bring him any food because I pass by his work on my way home.  He let me know that he had just been notified by his UDM (Unit Deployment Manager) of the assignment, and I promptly hung up on him.  I immediately started crying and called my mom who helped me talk through some of my options for while he was gone, and then I cried a whole lot more for the next few days.  After it sunk in the sadness went away and I was angry for awhile.  Angry that he would be leaving me, that he'll miss my 25th birthday and our anniversary, and that we have to push our honeymoon even further back (all things that revolve around me, but hey, I think I'm entitled to those feelings).  Now that I'm no longer angry I'm just irritated and annoyed.  Everything is going to get turned upside down and I'm really not into it.  I know it is only 6 months, that as long as I stay busy I'll be fine, and that he will be safe, but seriously?  It would be whole lot easier if he just didn't have to go.

Putting my irritation aside, a big part of me is jealous of him.  Hard to believe, right?  But the thing is, he's going to do something that I never got a chance to do.  He will see a part of the world I will never get to see and experience things that a majority of the world never will.  He is getting a chance to truly serve his country instead of sitting on the sidelines.  My military experience was cut short and I never got a chance to REALLY do those things that only people in the military have a chance to do, and he's about to have some really amazing experiences.

6 months really isn't that long, but when we're standing on this end of the deployment, it seems like a lifetime.  I am incredibly thankful that he is not being sent away for 12-15 months like people in other services are.  I am relieved that he will be doing his job as an Air Traffic Controller which means he will be much safer than those being sent on missions in dangerous areas.  I am proud of him for what he is doing because many people who willingly enlist in the military will dodge (or go to great lengths to dodge) their deployment. 

I know this experience is not unique to me and there are many, many other wives (and husbands) who have had to say goodbye to their spouse for awhile.  I know I will be fine and when he comes back everything will go back to normal.  I still wish he didn't have to go, but I know that if he wasn't going, it would be some other wife, mother, girlfriend, or child that would have to say goodbye to their loved one for awhile. 

For now, we are still thinking over our options (well, MY options) for while K is gone and I will keep you all updated as we make our plans.  Let's hope for a very quick summer!