Deployment @ MindSay

Memorial Day is soon upon us, and as you may imagine, it has a fresh & heightened significance to our family this year.  With this in mind, this book caught my eye ... and heart.  It is a story about a child whose father is being deployed.  The boy wishes to give his father something of himself to make the separation more tolerable, so he traces his hands, measures the distance from one hand to his other hand and cuts a piece of yarn that length.  He sees it as a "paper hug."  Anytime his Dad feels lonely, he just has to wrap the paper hug around himself and feel his son's love.

The child center where I work has agreed to share this project.  We are making paper hugs and sending them to a unit about to deploy ... to any soldier who wants one, as many as we can make.

By Gerry J. Gilmore

American Forces Press Service

April 24, 2007 – Extended overseas deployments affecting soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other locales overseen by U.S. Central Command should help to alleviate the stress on the Army, a senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today.  "I'm absolutely confident that that's going to work and that'll manage the pressure and the stress on the force," Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team, said during a satellite-carried news conference.

All active U.S. Army units already operating within U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, or en route there "will deploy for not more than 15 months and return home for not less than 12 months," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced April 11 at a Pentagon news conference.

The change automatically increased the length of soldiers' overseas tours in those areas from 12 to 15 months.

A 22-year Army veteran, Schweitzer is on his second tour in Afghanistan, having previously served there in 2002. The colonel began his current tour of duty in Afghanistan in January.

The 4th Brigade Combat Team operates in Paktika, Paktia, Lowgar, Ghazni and Khost provinces in the southeastern part of Afghanistan, Schweitzer said, noting this is the brigade's first overseas deployment.

The 15-month deployments are needed to ensure that the Army retains the capacity to sustain the deployed force, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said April 13 from Baghdad during a teleconference with Pentagon reporters.

The tour extensions will provide more predictability and stability for soldiers and their families, Odierno said, noting the policy "will ensure 12 months at home station between rotations."

Schweitzer acknowledged difficulty in measuring how the extended deployment affects individual soldiers under his command. However, he expressed strong support for the personnel decisions made by senior defense department and Army leaders.

The Pentagon's civilian and military leaders "put a lot of rigor and analytical analysis into this (tour extension) to determine what is best for the service and what is sustainable," Schweitzer said.

Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA

American Forces Press Service

April 18, 2007 – The Defense Department today unveiled a program that will reward administrative leave to servicemembers whose service in combat does not meet the department's goal for the time at home station between deployments.  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates directed the development of this program Jan. 19, when he implemented a force management policy stating that DoD's goal was to give active-duty troops two years at home station for every year deployed, and reserve component troops five years at home station for every year deployed. At the time, Gates recognized that national security concerns would require servicemembers to be deployed more frequently than this goal, so he announced a compensation plan to make up for frequent deployments.

Under the new policy, active-duty servicemembers who are deployed for more than 12 months in a 36-month period will earn one day of administrative absence for each month beyond 12. If servicemembers are deployed for more than 18 months in a 36-month period, they will earn two days of administrative absence a month. Past 24 months, they will earn four days a month.

Members of the reserve components will earn one day of administrative absence a month for every month beyond 12 they are mobilized in a 72-month period. Members of the reserves will earn two days a month if they are mobilized past 18 months in a 72-month period, and four days a month if they are mobilized past 24 months in the same period.

Administrative absences are days off authorized by the commander, and are separate from normal leave accrued by a servicemember.

In a Pentagon news conference announcing the policy, Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said that this program is meant to recognize the sacrifices servicemembers make, but is in no way trying to put a physical value on their service.

"Secretary Gates and all of us honor the service of the men and women in uniform, particularly in these demanding times," Dominguez said. "This program can't be viewed as being commensurate with the level of service that they offer to the nation. In many respects, while it is substantive and it is tangible, it's also symbolic. It's part of our recognition that we're keeping them in our thoughts and we're trying to do something for them."

The policy is retroactive to Jan. 19, so any servicemember who was deployed or involuntarily mobilized from that day forward, whose service exceeds the time frame in the policy, will earn the days off, Dominguez said. Also, any troops who were deployed within the last three years, and are deployed now, will earn administrative leave for their current deployment, he said.

In deciding what compensation to give servicemembers who are deployed more frequently than DoD would like, defense officials considered a wide range of options, Dominguez said. Monetary compensation was considered, he said, but time off seemed the logical choice to reward increased frequency and intensity of service.

"We weren't trying to find some metaphysical balance between the service you were rendering and buckets full of gold, or any other thing we can do for you," Dominguez said. "This was about telling men and women of the armed forces that we know when we ask you to do something extraordinary."

DoD has had a policy since 2004 that pays servicemembers who are extended in theater beyond 12 months $1,000 a month, Dominguez said. That policy is still in effect, he said, and applies to Army personnel who now have to serve 15-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new policy is meant to deal with frequency of deployments, rather than the length of each deployment, Dominguez said. The administrative leave servicemembers earn under this policy will stay with them through their military career and can be used anytime, with commander approval, he said.

"This is what we do; it is the job," he said. "This is the job of the men and women of the armed forces, from which they do not shirk, and the volunteer force is extraordinary. This is just saying, 'Look, we know what you're doing, we recognize what you're doing, we're proud of what you're doing, we're grateful for what you're doing.'"

Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.

They announced this week that they were going to keep my husband longer in Iraq. BUT their is still a catch 22 going ... I was told 4 extra months, so far they have not announced that. Call it they want individuals to calm down or that they want families to calm down.
But facing the truth the best way to do this. You do not tell a group one time & know that you will be adding an extra month to it. That's gonna anger them even more ...

Supposidly there was a "leak" on this matter. Honestly, they only "leak" that should have happened was them notifying all families, but some decided to keep it to themselves. They reason they did not announce it, money. "Would they get this money or not?" Who really cares, we all want them to come back, We all deserve to know the truth on this matter ... you could have announced it without mentioning the anything financial. That would have prepared them.
In the end, you could have dealt with that when it happened. You should have getting individuals in there for the families & especially the kids. Someone they know will be there & know will help ... bring them to that group & get them talking. Once you do that, it will help ... it will give them something more to consider.

Instead, we watched a wife crying on the news. Talking about this or that death in front of her children. That is not exactly what should have happened ... not for those children.
Today, a few days after all this has occured ... my children are doing fine. Because I had time to get them adjusted & time to deal with it myself. I knew last month, so I was able to deal with this myself & once I had I was able to sit my children down. Once we did that, we were able to talk & discuss this, to get over the angry, and shock. So when they did that horrid announcement, my children were prepared.
That is the only thing I want for my kids, to be prepared & to know ... so they can deal with it in all ways. Children are acceptable to angry, shock, disappointment, sadness & everything that goes with it. Between them & my husband, those are my main concerns. To get this done & make it though this deployment.

After that we will work on recovering from the deployment ... it's just going to be a few more months longer than we expected.

Deployments are hell on anyone, & seeing I have been though them so many times ... trust me I am being honest. I have been so busy with my kids I have been able to get on there & say anything.
But now, I am watching something I told my kids "Don't worry, he's in a place that isn't as bad as Fallusa or Baghdad." After all, have you watched the news? The last unit we were with lost so many there ... it tore my husband up.
Guess were he's going ... & I have to sit down, tell my babies that daddy's gonna move to another area. One that isn't like where he's at. The location doesn't matter, the effect it will have on my children does. He's been gone for a while ... they have found they can die because of a PFO, they morned a soldier in his battery, they watch to find out if a dictator will be punished for the crimes he commited ...

They know this is dangerous. They are aware that when he goes why he's going ... they look at everything not just the bull that's on the news. They see the pictures of the children who walk or barely walk away from the bomb attacks (which was NOT meant to happen, they say it on accient). But now they are more open minded about it. "he's my age & they did that to him?" Because he was my son's age ... so we talked, news only when I am here. (Nerve racking to watch them veiwing it, but they learn so much from it.)

Don't get me wrong, they may watch news ... but  I still have kids who play on a trampoline, try new skate boarding tricks, play foot ball, learn to play tennis, learn to play guitar ... they are still my children but with a bit more knowledge than before. They still have that naive, just some of it, but eventually I know they will grow out of it.

Just how do you tell them that dad's going to an area that is still extremely active? "Trust in his ability to do his job..." just doesn't cut it. There are more active terrorist in those area than appear to be any where else ... I state appear, I could be wrong.
I am betting the thoughts going through those sicko's minds "fresh meat" .... and through mine "let them make it with out one more dying."

5 positive things

* 2 are learning to tennis

* 2 are learning guitar

* one is upping his football skills

* we have pulled out X-mas items

* we got stocking for all that with my hubby, they will love it