Don't Tell Me You're Here

I'm beginning to think that it is a carefully crafted plan to make family members glad to see their loved ones leave.  Honestly, thinking back, I don't think that my husband has ever left for a deployment on time.  There's always some sort of delay, maybe a couple of hours or maybe a couple of days.  Sometimes you get a phone call the night before, "The ship's (insert some random part here) is broken and we can't pull out tomorrow."  Sometimes it is only after you've been sitting (insert location here) for hours and the announcement is made:  "Okay, folks.  The plane is in (insert some other location here) and it won't be here until (insert some time in the future.) "

The end result is usually the same.  The kids' emotions are worn out from the changes.  The spouses have now taken four days off work for the big good-bye.  Parents who flew in have already turned around and gone home.  The mood in the (insert goodbye location here) has changed from sad and gloomy to a bit humorous and anticipatory.  And as they get on the (insert form of transportation here), at least one spouse says:  "I don't care where you go, just don't call and tell me that you're still here."

Comments

[Moose]

I completely understand what you are saying. In all the years my husband was in the Army, he never left on time, not even on QRF1. For one deployment he left 7 days in a row before he finally left. By then I had given up. The 7th night I had even made dinner as if he was coming home, because I was out of food that I could just throw together when he showed up again.

[J]

Why do I get the feeling civilians would be horrified at this sentiment?? LOL.

[Cas]

I am right there with you. The WORST is when they go, then they call you 2 hours later when you've clearly left the house for retail therapy, "Oh, yeah...I'm still at Camp So and So." Awesome. I'm soooo glad you called. Ooiy.

[Sarah]

I have actually had the opposite problem, where my husband's date repeatedly gets pushed earlier and earlier! (Remember when we were at AFW's house in May and my husband called to say, "Instead of leaving in two days, we're leaving tomorrow," and I had to burn rubber to get home in time to see him off?) That stinks in a completely opposite way. I wish they could pick a date and time and stick to it, for our sanity!

[HomefrontSix]

Good friends of ours went through this exact thing during their last deployment. By day 4, she told her husband not to come home. The kids just couldn't handle yet another goodbye. He wound up sleeping on a friend's couch.

My civilian friends find this shocking. I don't.

[liberal army wife]

when you tell civilians the "oh just leave already"... I swear my co-workers thought I was the nastiest, coldest %&&# on the planet.

LAW

[synviaweb.com]

I completely understand what you are saying. In all the years my husband was in the Army, he never left on time, not even on QRF1. For one deployment he left 7 days in a row before he finally left. By then I had given up. The 7th night I had even made dinner as if he was coming home, because I was out of food that I could just throw together when he showed up again.

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