Practice Makes Perfect?

Oh yeah, it's about that time again for our family. Honestly, my mind hasn't even processed that he will be leaving...soon. I've got all these things running through my brain. Number one: "Haven't we hit the quota on deployments?" I feel like deployment should be something your service member should eventually be able to opt out of, like living in cramped junior enlisted/officer housing or having 24 hour duty on holidays. Once you've checked that box a hundred times, then you don't have to do it anymore. I know I know. What a terrible military that would be! I understand everybody needs to deploy. Geez, can we put a limit on deployments? Pretty please.

You want to hear something strange? When it comes to deployments, my husband is constantly gone in August. I can only count on one hand how many times my husband has been around for the first day of school in 15 years. You want proof...here is my post from 2015... and 2014...and 2013...and magically he was here in 2012. I feel like every military family has that one occasion or month, when the military member will always manage to be gone. Does that happen in your family too? Ours is August. And it's going to happen again this year!

If you are seasoned military spouse, then you know pre-deployment briefs are the "only" way to prepare for a deployment. I think I could give a pre-deployment brief in my sleep! Topics covered: OpSec, American Red Cross, money, emergency care plan, power of attorney, and a bunch of acronyms. Did I cover everything? This command did things a little different, they went light on the dry info stuff and heavy on the communication stuff. It was kind of nice because it felt more like a date than a boring class. The instructors based their class on the What Color Is Your Parachute? book. The general jest of the book is personality tests and communication styles which the teachers applied to deployment. As a seasoned couple, I felt we took something away from the brief than the traditional way.

With deployment fresh in my mind, I am curious how many deployments you have experienced? My second question, how do you feel about them?