(15JAN2009)
I’m officially halfway home.
I hit the 50% mark today, having completed half of the time from my deployment in August to my expected departure for R&R in June. I’ll still have a number of months after my break, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, I’m enjoying the sense of coasting downhill toward a Stateside break.
I’ll have been here 9 months by the time I leave, and will be more than ready, I think, for a decent bed and a beer (though not particularly in that order). My break will be a little less than a month, I think, and I am already cramming it chock-full of visits around the country, and a perfunctory appearance at the office in MD, all planned around two weddings.
This R&R may be the only time I make it home to the States during 2009, so I’m planning to make the most of it.
My redeployment (permanent departure) from Afghanistan is still unknown. When I volunteered to stand up this assignment, my command was concerned that we wouldn’t have the manpower or volunteers to backfill me. Wanting very much to come here, I offered that I’d stay for up to 2 years, and it was enough for them to allow me to come.
I never really expected to stay here for 2 years, though, and I still don’t. I emailed my boss a few days ago about the upcoming year, and we agreed that I’d stay on for all of 2009 – something I wanted, as I have some financial goals I’d like to meet. After that, though, nothing is certain.
My boss mentioned that there has been increased interest in the deployments – both in Iraq and here – and so we’ve bandied about a redeployment of January 2010. I’m coming to grips with that, and feel it might work well, though I can’t say I’m thrilled about giving up the adventure of the Middle East for my office job in Maryland. I offered to take an assignment in Kuwait after this ends, or possibly stand up a post in Germany. He replied simply “Let’s talk about it in June.”
With that possible departure in mind, though, I find some pleasure in imagining being within a year of leaving here. Each calendar day I toil through won’t have to be repeated now, and I like that. Groundhog Day will come and go and by the time the next one rolls around I’ll be somewhere else. I’ll watch next year’s Super Bowl in another country.
I think a lot about June, and look forward to it – I think some about next year and all the unknowns there. Mostly, though, the here and now keeps me occupied.
