The Deployment – Leaving (Part 1)

These posts were written during my husband’s deployment but since I didn’t want to advertise that he was gone, I decided to save them to post after her had returned.  I understand that different branches of the military do deployments differently so I wanted to show what our experience was like.

Everything was packed and ready to go.

getting ready for a deployment

those tan undershirts...
My husband’s idea of packing…you know you can’t have enough tan undershirts or PT gear, lol!

Leaving

The alarm was going off…my clock blinked 2:30 am.  The time had come.

I stayed in my sweatpants and tshirt while my husband got into his uniform…Mabel was gently woken up and sleepily put into her car seat.  We drove to base so that we could drop him off and most of the drive was in silence.  It was a mixture of tiredness and sadness.

At the meetup point we met with a driver who would take my husband to where he would depart from.  It was real…he was leaving…leaving Mabel…leaving me.  I knew it wasn’t going to be a long deployment but half a year sure felt like it was going to be a long time.

After loading his luggage into the transport vehicle, the driver was kind enough to give us some space so that we could say our goodbyes.  I put Mabel into my husband’s arms, she was still sleepy and confused.  He told her he wasn’t going to be seeing her for a while but that he loved her and would miss her a lot.  He then gave her a kiss on her chubby cheek.

That’s when I began to cry.  Normally I’m not a crier…but I was sad for the time that he was going to miss out with her.

We had a family hug and Mabel was placed back in her car seat.

Now it was my turn and I told him how much I loved him in between my tears.  I felt a little silly crying so much…I kept thinking it’s only a few months.  He told me how much he was going to miss me, that he loved me more than I knew…and I cried more.

We hugged, kissed, and said one more goodbye.

And as I got back into our car, I watched him in our side-view mirror disappear into the transport vehicle.  For as long as possible I watched the glow of the taillights of his vehicle until they faded into the darkness.

 

6 thoughts on “The Deployment – Leaving (Part 1)

  1. Melissa says:

    This brought tears to my eyes too. I do so appreciate not only the sacrifices people in the military make but also the sacrifices their FAMILIES, like you guys, make!

  2. Candice says:

    I remember the first time my husband left after our son was born. I am not a crier at all, like for nothing….I ended up having to pull over to catch my breath and clear my eyes to see.

    • Morgan says:

      I was a mess on the drive home…cried myself back to sleep and then probably cried a bunch of times the next day. I think after the first few days it was mostly out of my system but it was definitely a big adjustment to getting used to being by myself with Mabel. Not looking forward to it happening again in the future…how many deployments have you been through?

  3. Pingback: The Deployment – First Day (Part 2)

  4. Jessica Eichhorn says:

    I dont even personaly know you but I’m crying reading this because I’ve been through this before with 2 deployments and one that we said our good byes a million times (because it was one of the 1st deployments and very unorganized and we had a ton of visitation days). Completly understand all of your feelings and fears.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.