The guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55) breaks a Navy record as it completes a nearly seven month deployment in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations (AOO), Sept. 28.
www.navy.mil
I really love the Navy and Marine Corps and by a stroke of great luck or by Divine Providence I was blessed with being a member of the Navy/Marine Corps team. Three times. Plus my son is in the Marine Corps. I follow his career like reading a graphic novel. He teaches 18-20 year olds to blow up stuff. My personal best at-sea period without pulling in is 110 days. That was during the Iran/Iraq war and all that that implies. The only liberty at the edge of that empire was during in-chop and out-chop. The USS Stout shattered that with 208 days at sea. That's a lot of missed birthdays, holidays, first steps, first time baby saying da da, and many missed kisses from the honeyco.
I know I put too many Danny Downer posts on here on these type threads but my wife and I have been where current parents are now. She has plowed through this as a wife (numerous deployments aboard ship and with Marines) and now for nine years as a mom. On one of my son's deployments, he on his burner phone would call me before boarding a helicopter. I hate flying on helicopters. On one call I could hear the engines roaring and rotors rotating. I never asked him to not do that because I figured it might have brought him comfort to talk to me before leaving on a mission.
I stopped teaching during one period today to check messages from my daughter about my eldest grandson's dental procedure. They sedated him and I was worried. My students understood which helped me get by until I knew he was OK. I've written on here before that we see our son usually once and occasionally twice a year. And that has been in the past nine years. It does not get easier. I still see my boy as the kid who I've thrown 10s of thousands of batting practice pitches to and who went to the weight room and lifted after baseball practice to stay in shape for football season. He's a man now and is doing things that keep the free world free. These are the same things your kids will be doing in just a little while. It happens quick. Y'all need to get ready for that.