Oct

4

Before They Deploy

October 4, 2009 | 3 Comments

So before they leave for a cruise, go on a long deployment, just what is good to do, what to experience. Anyone that has gone through this before knows the drill. There is the extra work to get the ship ready, the loading on of food and other supplies, stores, for the first leg of the deployment, ammo onloads, to name a few of the tasks necessary.
For the sailors on the ship there is the stocking up on uniforms, socks and underwear (I always had a months worth, 30 pairs of socks and 30 sets of underwear for those times when the water went out as it did for 2 months on my first ship and no laundry for almost 2 months was done due to it), extra snacks and books to read, back then it was cassette tapes since CDs were not even around during most of my active duty time.
So stocking up on the little things to make life a touch easier is essential. As well as family time, most important, family time. Not spend tons of money time, of course that can happen. Instead time at the beach with the kids’ time, time just relaxing with the spouse time, time spent making a few memories to cherish time.
One thing I did not do as well as I could have myself, stock up on greeting cards. They are so simple and easy to send home, you can get stamps easy enough, but it is much more difficult to make sure you got birthday cards for the kids while you are gone, cards for the spouse just because cards, those little things that in the long run, the big picture, are not very expensive money wise. These are the things that help keep families together despite the thousands of miles.
Just one simple idea to spark the imagination as to what the one leaving can do to help out. It does brighten the day when the one left at home gets mail. Either a letter (Take envelopes because like with cards they can be in short supply at times), the before mentioned cards, post cards picked up overseas are always a hit. Many times during a cruise I would get no mail for a while, then all of a sudden weeks worth would arrive. The same applies with mail heading home. You need to plan that your spouse back home will be upset because they are not getting mail on a regular basis. So at least with postmarks and dates, you can show you care and love them, works both ways of course, with correspondence.
Planning ahead to help reduce the strife and stress during the times when the service member is away from home.
Kissing sailors, 1995 by bobster855

Kissing sailors, 1995 by bobster855

Anyone that has gone through this before knows the drill. There is the extra work to get the ship ready, the loading on of food and other supplies, stores, for the first leg of the deployment, ammo onloads, to name a few of the tasks necessary.

For the sailors on the ship there is the stocking up on uniforms, socks and underwear (I always had a months worth, 30 pairs of socks and 30 sets of underwear for those times when the water went out as it did for 2 months on my first ship and no laundry for almost 2 months was done due to it), extra snacks and books to read, back then it was cassette tapes since CDs were not even around during most of my active duty time.

So stocking up on the little things to make life a touch easier is essential. As well as family time, most important, family time. Not spend tons of money time, of course that can happen. Instead time at the beach with the kids’ time, time just relaxing with the spouse time, time spent making a few memories to cherish time.

One thing I did not do as well as I could have myself, stock up on greeting cards. They are so simple and easy to send home, you can get stamps easy enough, but it is much more difficult to make sure you got birthday cards for the kids while you are gone, cards for the spouse just because cards, those little things that in the long run, the big picture, are not very expensive money wise. These are the things that help keep families together despite the thousands of miles.

Just one simple idea to spark the imagination as to what the one leaving can do to help out. It does brighten the day when the one left at home gets mail. Either a letter (Take envelopes because like with cards they can be in short supply at times), the before mentioned cards, post cards picked up overseas are always a hit. Many times during a cruise I would get no mail for a while, then all of a sudden weeks worth would arrive. The same applies with mail heading home. You need to plan that your spouse back home will be upset because they are not getting mail on a regular basis. So at least with postmarks and dates, you can show you care and love them, works both ways of course, with correspondence.

Planning ahead to help reduce the strife and stress during the times when the service member is away from home.

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Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Rissa on January 1, 2010 4:44 pm

    Thanks for this! My husband is getting ready to deploy in the next six months and this will be very handy!

  2. Christian on May 23, 2010 7:51 pm

    Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
    I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!

    Thumbs up, and keep it going!

    Cheers
    Christian

  3. Christian on May 28, 2010 3:53 pm

    Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
    I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!

    Thumbs up, and keep it going!

    Cheers
    Christian

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