Call of Duty

Well, the time has come...just a bit quicker than expected.

Afghanistan, here I come....

I have known I would be deploying for some time now. However with a sudden change in training requirements, I am leaving home this week on only a few days notice.

It is always fun telling your spouse that you are leaving in a few days, and won't be home for 10 months.

As I said, the deployment was expected, but the training requirement that will end up lasting a full 50% of the actual deployment was not.

Like many others in service, particularly in the Army with their prolonged deployments, there will be things that I miss while I am gone. My 40th birthday with my family. My son's 2nd birthday. Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.... But I cannot complain. It is part of my service to my nation. I have known this since the day I joined. Of course things are always easier when you are a single 20-something, not an almost-40 husband and father. Such is life....

So in a couple of days I will be off on another grand adventure that will start with several weeks of Air Force training, another few weeks of Army Huah training (where they will teach me to shoot bigger guns, drive Humvees, and sleep in barracks), and finish with my third trip to the sandbox.

I am not sure what the future holds on the blogging front. I intend to go on as normal as long as I have access. I will be taking along my intrepid, and recently revived Apple iBook. It has already been to Qatar and Iraq, so lets hope it will survive my summer vacation in the shadow of the Hindu Kush.

While it is always an honor to serve, no matter what your role, it does seem a little more relevant if you do it on the front lines. This war is the defining moment of my generation, and to crib a famous quote, "There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins"

So, away I go....