My son’s best friend has a set hanging off the back bumper of his truck. Maybe he would let me mail them to Washington. I, too, am sad about the extended duty. I have seen up close and personal how this affects relationships. The wedding is off. He changed, she was not comfortable with the changes, and she has changed, too, and so they called it quits over the phone. Maybe it was all meant to be, but a lot of tears were shed over it. We all know that in the grand scheme of things, this was just a little story, but I can’t help but wonder how many times this has been multiplied. On the other hand, my mother gets so mad when people complain about these long enlistments. She was a teenager through WWII, and talks about how her older sister never laid eyes on her husband for 4 years while he traipsed all over Europe!! Their daughter was afraid of him when he came home; she didn’t know who he was. But he was a great guy, they went on to have 5 more kids and a happy marriage until the day he died. So it can be done, I guess it depends on what kind of people you are. I think the entire population of the USA needs to grow a set, now that I think about it. Stop the whining. Just knuckle down and get it done.
Lets not forget about the commitments, promises, and obligations the US Government has made to these mostly young people when they enlisted. There is a level of trust that is suppose to go on in the relationship between the military personnel and the leadership. But then again, I guess we all know that recruiters lie - so why not the government behind them?