“Do the next thing”

So, when I went to sleep he was there and when I woke up he was gone.  With Erik doing the drive to the airport, I spared myself the long drive home crying the whole way.
What’s an Army wife to do?

Wait, I’m not really an Army wife.  Ok, I was, a long time again, but we gave that up for the Army National Guard so he could stay close to home and take care of Maine.  Now, I am again, though.  Yet, we are still a National Guard family, and therefore subject to the new rules set out in Washington this past week.

Basically the article seems to say that if you are a National Guardsman who got home from a 12 to 24 month deployment even as recently as last month, your time overseas is irrelevant and starting this past weekend, they could send you back at any time.  Of course, it should only be for 12 months this time rather than longer.

We don’t know how this will effect Fran, since he will have only served 6 months in this “starting now, we’re using this policy instead” thing.  They aren’t likely to send someone who only has 6 allowable months, overseas with a unit leaving on a 12 month deployment.  However, this new 12 month limit is only a hopeful guideline and not a mandatory rule.  Long story short, after Fran gets home, if this new policy isn’t modified, he could turn around and go right back before 5 years is up.

Good of them to come up with this new rule change AFTER he reenlisted.

My waving a flag on the homefront is getting a little tired after this sour bit of news at the end of our 2 week visit.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 21st, 2007 at 4:43 pm and is filed under The Daily Grind. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.