Despite the fact that the individual days add up to 11 months, this on-again off-again deployment has been going on for 5 years. I can't fault him for wanting to move on with his life (he is married). He volunteered, he did his time, and now he should be allowed to move on. Four deployments, no matter how long they lasted, are still four deployments. No reason he should get a fifth.
Sir - please listen to me. When I was flying, I was gone 270 days a year from my family - every year. I lost memories of my little girls growing up. I lost memories of my boy's first steps. I never knew a Christmas at home for 6 years.
I would have given honor to this man's 11 month's and change of service - had he not gone to the media and a judge to try and get out of his unit's committment.
If you wish to excuse him, I will go along with that -- provided we debate what this country's men are NOT doing. There are literally millions of able bodied men in the United States who have not served a damn in uniform for this nation.
I am not advocating a draft.
But if this country wants wars on three or four fronts, it has to pay for it in blood and flesh.
“Four deployments, no matter how long they lasted, are still four deployments. No reason he should get a fifth.”
That’s not a valid argument. I can say that as a guy with 13 years National Guard experience under my belt.
Even pre-9-11, I went on “deployments” beyond my normal one weekend a month, two weeks during the summer. Some of it was voluntary training, some of it was required. The required stuff was usually shorter stints, but I did one required two week period that was *in addition* to my normal two week summer stint - so match that against his 15 day deployment.
I was with one unit where we trained constantly. It wasn’t what weekend/month was I training, it was what weekend/month did I have off.
11 months total active duty time across five years DURING WARTIME is nothing. He really needs to suck it up and drive on. No excuses.
I realize that you changed your view on this guy after finding out about his 8 year enlistment. However, I would like to take the time to contrast this man's 11 total months of "deployment" with the deployments of men and women from this nation during WWII. In that war a "deployment" was pretty much for the duration of the war unless a soldier was injured to the point that they were no longer combat effective, or some significant issue arose at home which allowed the military to give an early separation (rare). In Vietman many soldiers were deployed for much longer than 365 days on a tour, while some soldiers spent several tours there without a significant break. This comment is only meant to try and give another perspective on the issue.
Uh, if he was a “regular” Reservist in peace time, he would have had “five deployments” in five years to meet his requirement to stay active. So you think ALL reservists shouldn’t have to “deploy” yearly even though it’s only for two weeks?
C’mon!
We have 40 of 70 months under our belt and you don’t see my husband hiring a lawyer. And he has a real job. It’s not just a hardship to our family (which we willingly accept, as he is a VOLUNTEER after all) but it’s a hardship to his hospital as well.