This morning, I hit the halfway point of my GSA tour. The Commanding General, my boss's boss, last week, jokingly told me he referred to the Individual Augmentee experience with the Army as the "Navy Appreciation Tour." He seemed to understand our common sentiments completely.
Most people experience the mid-deployment blues, figuring that it's been a rough first half, and there's just as much ahead as their has been behind. This being my fifth deployment, I'm not shocked at that feeling, and actually, rather than feeling down, feel sort of exhilarated.
The second half of deployment always seems to go by quicker, by now it should be well understood what the job requirements are and professional and personal expectations have either been met-or accepted that they never will be. I've managed to pass all those milestones and am looking forward to my next milestones: the next pay check, the month of March, ordering my new car, the end of Winter, and the three-quarter completion mark, which coincidentally begins the long string of halving-halves, until you begin to count the hours rather than the days, similar to the way in which a proud mother still refers to her child's age by months, "I'm very proud of him, he's only 60 months old." (No one else is impressed, understanding full well the kid is five years old and is barely able to stand up-right without drooling on himself. Why is it that the age of ugly children and car leases are the only lengths measured in months of such scale? I digress.) The point being-it's still an accomplishment and still an obvious point of pride. In that light, I'm the proud father of 2762 hours more of Afghan joy-that's 114.4 days for the rest of the world who looks down and just sees an ugly, foul smelling baby.
Follow the web-based deployment countdown tracker here: TerraNaut's Countdown to Returning Home
Most people experience the mid-deployment blues, figuring that it's been a rough first half, and there's just as much ahead as their has been behind. This being my fifth deployment, I'm not shocked at that feeling, and actually, rather than feeling down, feel sort of exhilarated.
The second half of deployment always seems to go by quicker, by now it should be well understood what the job requirements are and professional and personal expectations have either been met-or accepted that they never will be. I've managed to pass all those milestones and am looking forward to my next milestones: the next pay check, the month of March, ordering my new car, the end of Winter, and the three-quarter completion mark, which coincidentally begins the long string of halving-halves, until you begin to count the hours rather than the days, similar to the way in which a proud mother still refers to her child's age by months, "I'm very proud of him, he's only 60 months old." (No one else is impressed, understanding full well the kid is five years old and is barely able to stand up-right without drooling on himself. Why is it that the age of ugly children and car leases are the only lengths measured in months of such scale? I digress.) The point being-it's still an accomplishment and still an obvious point of pride. In that light, I'm the proud father of 2762 hours more of Afghan joy-that's 114.4 days for the rest of the world who looks down and just sees an ugly, foul smelling baby.
Follow the web-based deployment countdown tracker here: TerraNaut's Countdown to Returning Home
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