Long Deployment Essay

Balancing Your Military Career and Family Life during Long Deployment

Military duties especially away from the usual environment can put a heavy strain on the family of a soldier. This is more common to the young and first time service members in mission areas, who have not been away from their families for longer period of time. There is always fear of unknown to both deployed soldier and the family being left behind. Therefore a strategy should be in place to check the foreseen stress and strain to both the soldiers and their families. The newly married soldiers in long deployment mission and multiple deployments have had their own experiences with uncertain outlook on the future, separation, divorce become common among such soldiers; this

Marriage in the military can be tough especially to the young newly married soldiers who are in the bonding phase with their spouses. The polarity between work and family life can make it easy for the uniformed personnel to lose sight of what really matters. The military gives us tangible feedback on our performance; we get awards, promotions, evaluation reports and recognition. On the contrary, family life is much different; we don’t get “father/mother of the year” trophies, marriage evaluation reports, or challenge coins from our in-laws. As a result, sometimes climbing the professional pyramid seems more appealing than nurturing the homesteads.

Personally I feel a soldier in a mission area or prolonged deployment strangles with the tension between uniform and family multiple times throughout the deployment period. However soldiers should always take and agree with their couples upon some family principles that can guide their every decision they make in their military career. Some of the practical principles that may help family stability of a soldier in the mission area

Time and time again I have heard leaders say,”you’re only going to be in the location for a short period of time, so make it count!” work hard always but every professional sprint is followed by another splint. Have seen many soldiers either burn themselves and their families out because they continue to climb professional mountain after a mountain without taking a break. Military is a marathon if you run for too long you won’t make the finish line. Pace yourself, to avoid family and personal life suffering while in the career. Follow-on assignments that don’t allow soldiers the mental white space for reflection and family time after particularly grueling tours of duty should be discouraged or