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Deployment Soundtrack: Unity
Unity

Shinedown, 2012

Preview Song

He's home! Yay! Oh crap! What now?

I hope someone besides me is thinking that. If not, I may be closer than I thought to being fitted with my own monogrammed straight jacket.

We spend our time trying to put our best foot forward. We put out of our minds that we didn't save enough. We spent too much. We didn't pay off enough debt. The house is not clean enough. We focus on the perfect outfit and we take care of things that we haven't thought about since he left, like shaving our legs.

You get to the link up point and you can smell the testosterone. You see the bus pull in or the plane land. Your heart skips a beat, and with all due respect, you just want the general officer to shut up so that your sweet soldier can march in and hear the command, "Dismissed!"

This time I had just as many butterflies as I have had four times before. Lucky for me, he was in the front of the formation. Lucky for him (or maybe not), I am a redneck at those things and I was on my feet screaming!

"DISMISSED!"

Bedlam ensues and there were squeals, kisses, hugs! My friend was there to take pictures and I updated Facebook and Twitter immediately. We picked up his bag and headed home. He loved the big yellow ribbons on the house and he was anxious to meet our new dog.

Here's where things got real!

We walked through the door and the dog was not having any piece of my sweet soldier. It is not an exaggeration to say that the dog barked and snarled for an hour. That finally resolved and sweet dog realized that sweet soldier belonged there.

Kids got off the bus, shot through the door, greeted their daddy with a huge hug and talked non-stop about the day and the past year. It was amazing to watch. It was almost if no time had passed.

We recently celebrated 10 years since the invasion into Iraq. My sweet soldier was part of that. I remember the reintegration briefings then before the soldiers came home. I remember fearing that things would not be the same when he came home. I remember worrying that I would not be able to handle my soldier coming home from war. But we made it. It was difficult, but we made it.

In the Army, it seems nothing is constant except change. As my sweet soldier and I reintegrate, as he changes jobs and we lose neighbors and friends to PCS season, together, you and I will be able to use the resiliency that we have gained over the course of the deployment to face it all.

Today, I am learning that with reintegration, as with deployment, staying on schedule is key for me. I haven't been to the gym in four days and I am losing my mind! Today, I am determined to get back on track!

We navigated the deployment together and we can navigate homecoming together. Sweet friends, this is where the "rubber meets the road." I hear you out there, and just because we have closed the books on deployment number five doesn't mean that I am going to leave you behind.

We are in this for the long haul!

 

Strength and Courage ... sby

 

Editor's Note:Photo courtesy of Sarah B.Young
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