(10NOV2008)
One of the first things I received from my colleagues when I arrived in Iraq last year was an Excel file titled “Freedom”. I input my deployment start and end dates, and the spreadsheet reports how many weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds I’d been deployed – and how many of each I had left before I redeployed home.
The spreadsheet also displayed a pie chart wherein a desert scene was slowly replaced by the image of a tropical island as my time in country grew and my time left shrank. We each had one of these spreadsheets, and we would look enviously on others’ who were further along, closer to going home and a day off.
I didn’t receive or seek out that spreadsheet when I arrived in Afghanistan 73 days ago, but eventually I pieced together my own. If I leave for R&R when I expect to, I’ve got 278 days left before then – which means I’ve completed 26.27% of this first leg of my deployment. The first quarter of the first leg of my deployment went by quickly.
I’ve only completed 14.51% of my entire deployment, though, and that pie chart does not similarly inspire me. Also, that departure date – the date I leave Afghanistan for good – is entirely fluid. I could be even less far along.
I also looked at the total amount I’ve deployed over the past couple of years. I arrived in Kuwait on March 17, 2007 for my Iraq deployment. It’s been 600 days since then, and I’ve spent 309 of them in the Middle East.
You’d think my Arabic (or Pashti) would be better.
R&R = Rest and Relaxation
I’ve only completed 14.51% of my entire deployment, though, and that pie chart does not similarly inspire me. Also, that departure date – the date I leave Afghanistan for good – is entirely fluid. I could be even less far along.
