Five Other Things

A little over a week ago I posted a list of the five little things I missed being away from home.  While there is no replacement for time with my wife and boys, the time off on the weekends, or the freedom of movement without fear of being blown up, there are some small benefits you learn to leverage on a deployment.

This week it’s the glass-half-full; five other things that are good you only have while being deployed.

1.  Laundry:  Bottom line is that someone else does it and I have a bag of clean stuff in about 24-hours.  While Bagram has ‘Green Beans’ and Kandahar has a boardwalk, I get clean clothes and nearly on demand.

2.  Foreign Military:  It’s great to be in such a big melting pot and in theater is one of the few places we get to spend a lot of time with our allied partners.  You learn a lot being around them and while sometimes the differences can be a little frustrating, the collegial atmosphere can bring it all together and you’ll leave with a net-gain having completed the exchange over the months.  I particularly love working with the British officers and senior NCOs.

3.    European-Style Grub:  I’ll be honest, the dining facilities on American Camps are way ahead of what we have here but I’ve learned to embrace some of the Euro-style treats available to us like cold-cuts, cheese and fresh bread.  Throw in some yogurt and dry cereal along with bangers and mash and I’m a happy camper.  Could be MREs all day so I’m happy to have my Euro-grub!

4.  Organized Chaos:  Our team deals with a lot of crisis management over here and it can get pretty frantic sometimes but while immersed, you have the chance to really focus.  I’m not worried about balancing a social calendar, real work, dumb work, tons of other people’s good ideas, etc.  Here it’s just three things…crisis work, preparing for crisis work and sleeping.

5.  Team Mates:  Because you’re all in it together and you have only an indirect tie to that family support network you really learn to rely on your team mates to deal with the day to day grind, personal frustrations, and all the other problem sets associated with work and being away from home.  A team is never closer than while deployed because you live, work, eat and sleep in the same places.  While you miss your privacy and especially your family, having a solid team inspires and gets you through the 12-15 months of shared difficulty.

My five other things:  good things worth taking the time to appreciate.  I think we work to find the best in a tough environment even if the initial shock is more negative than positive.  You have to do that just to cope.  So those are a few of the ‘other things’ that really only exist here to help me get through my days.