An intro, a flight, and rambling

My name is Katie, my husband has been in the National Guard for 10 years. We have been married for eight years. A month after our wedding he left for his first deployment. To Iraq, at that point I was almost 12 weeks pregnant. That deployment seems so far away  now. This is our second deployment. For the last three months he has been training stateside at Camp Shelby and I have been at home with our two sons. I will not say it has been easy, but it was not as hard as I thought, but then again I could talk and text him everyday, except for that two weeks when he was in California at NTC (National Training Center).

Looking back the last three months have flown by. It didn't seem so at the time. I can only hope that the next 9 months will fly by.

Today, January 7th 2012, he left Mississippi for Afghanistan. I am barely holding it together. But as is my rule I will not cry in front of our sons. This will be hard enough for them, they don't need mommy breaking down. I talked to him this morning as they were waiting to board a plane... one thinks of waiting at the airport gate, this is not so for Active duty military waiting to go overseas for deployment, they waited in the airplane hangar, not chairs, just the cold cement floor. Granted I suppose it wouldn't help seeing hundreds of men and women in uniform with their guns, waiting to board a plane, but I don't necessarily think it's fair to them. They are after all protecting our country, freedom and lives.


I am not sure why I am writing this, but so far out of all the deployment books I've seen, I haven't seen one that I truly connect with. Most are written by active duty military wives, which normally I am not. Like I said Jeff is in the National Guard. Although I don't think the term "weekend warriors" is befitting of what my husband puts into this position as Staff Sergeant in the 237th BSB. There are times that he brings home papers to fill out, and is constantly on the phone with people above and below him. It is not just a one weekend a month and two weeks a year job.