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Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper (Post 366118)

Mark, the current deployments are more like seven or eight months per year in theater, and there are guys in Group with seven or eight tours already, most importantly, with no end in sight short of ETS/retirement.

No alcohol, or sex while deployed, no R&R trips. General Order Number One. If you deploy for a year or more, you come home once for two weeks leave.

A year or two as a young single or recently married man is doable, being gone 60% of the time (as is the average for our current force), every year for an entire career, is IMHO, not sustainable. Many families will not put up with it.

TR

Exactly! I did two tours in RVN and have 2 years in Astan...there is no comparison..in RVN on down time you could drink, get laid, whatever go to the incountry RnR site at Vung Tau and raise all kinds of hell (did, was locked in the arms room with two Aussies).
Like the QP said, I know guys with 7-8 tours and the living situation when not in the field sucks.
There is no comparison...none.

What a lot of people don't understand is after we've done our 6-8 month rotation we come home, and then deploy for team training, schools, etc. And then the cycle starts again.

On another note, Darren Markwick's team was at the same firebase with me in '06. I was there when he and others were shot up. Thank God for 18Ds. His 18D got a Silver Star for his actions on the battlefield. My 18Ds took over upon their return to the firebase while we waited for the medevacs.