And the ride begins....again!

We are rapidly approaching the beginning of deployment #2 and I need to vent.

After the last deployment, Tanker stayed on Active Duty for three years and just returned to the Guard at the beginning of this year. When he returned to the Guard, he was listed as non-deployable (by the Army). Now as the deployment approached, he was required to go through SRP and now, according to the great state of Louisiana, he is deployable! It is obvious they must need numbers! His feeling is that once they report to Camp Shelby in January, the Army will, once again, deem him non-deployable, and send him home. The sad thing is, he would be thrilled to go again. And if send him home, they may make him retire.

I have really accepted this whole situation. Find it rather funny to be honest. Maybe funny isn't the right word...but I am okay with it. If he goes, we will be fine. God has everything under control. My problem...and need to vent...comes from the way this deployment is being handled by his unit. Last weekend, I sat with him and went through my phone tree list from the beginning of the first deployment. Most of the guys are out. There are a couple of old timers like Tanker and only one or two young guys returning. So, that means that the majority of the troop are new guys who have not been through a deployment...and neither have their families.

So, when they had their pre-deployment briefing I would hope to find alot of folks there. I admit I don't know alot of these folks, but with three troops there and based on the number of soldiers, they were looking to have in excess of 575. Guess what? There were less than 100. And I knew 4 other families...who all had been through a deployment already! Where are the new folks? But then again, where was the command? I understand the commander isn't married, but it was a perfect opportunity to get out and get to know the family members. No show! Everyone complains about the lack of support from the FRG while they are gone but noone does anything to encourage communication either before or after deployment. And that is a whole other soap box I could get on!!!

We have a get together next weekend that the troop has planned for the families. Hopefully more will be involved! If not, I will probably vent about that too!!

Enough for now...