Actually, we don't.
The American people don't understand how the military is being used with the resources it has.
Do you think that every unit in Germany or Japan is just sitting around and has never been over to Afghanistan, or Iraq, or the UAE, or some other God forsaken place?
The odds are that they just returned - from 15 months or more, and are now retraining and getting sparse time with their families.
If you are Navy, you are at sea for months at a time in most units.
If you are Air Force aircrew, say C-17, F-16, or KC-10 - you life is not your own and never has been. Even if you are stationed in Germany flying C-130s, your unit is rotating to the Area of Operations (AOR) just like everyone else.
Don't think for a moment any unit is lolly gagging around.
The sad truth is this country expects a very small military to perform a plethora of missions with about 3% of the GNP (a historic low).
Thanks for that info.
You hit the nail on the head. Especially with the point about the airlifters. Those folks practically live overseas. Tanker and ISR crews, too.
Used to be a KC-10 Boom Operator with a few years at Beale AFB chasing the SR-71 around in the old “steam jet” equipped KC-135Q. You are right your life is not your own. My wife figured that out 2 days after we were married I was sent on a 3 day TDY that turned into an 11 day trip due to weather issues and the SR-71 breaking twice. I also spent about 6 months a year deployed for normal mission requirements.
When in the KC-10 she would get calls from the Squadron when I was already TDY asking if she had a problem with me being sent somewhere else a couple of days after coming home. I loved to fly and my wife was in the Air Force until our son was born. She understood my commitment to duty and sent me off. Missed a lot of Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Holidays deployed, but it is part of volunteering to serve.
I’m very proud to say after here chasing me around for 20 years while on active duty and almost 25 years of marriage neither one of us strayed and we are still happily married. If you every met a “crew dog” you would understand why we were called dogs. You volunteer to serve you take the good with the bad.