Friday, July 27, 2012

~* Where's Waldo? *~


Erm....I mean...your spouse.

The redeployment briefing I went to last night made it sound like that's exactly what's gonna happen when the planes start coming back. And maybe this is the way things normally, happen. I wasn't here for the last homecoming. But it sounds like it's going to be a clusterfuck, 'scuse the language.

Here's the process, to the best of my understanding.

My FRG leader will call me. She will say something to the effect of  "Your hubs is on flight codename zebra" (obviously made up, OPSEC and whatnot). She will go on to say "Here is a phone number for you to call for information on that flight". I will call that number, give them my top-secret codename, probably along with a blood sample and fingerprints, and they will say "That flight is scheduled to come in on xxxx day around xxxx time". Then I have to call back every 6-ish hours the day the plane is scheduled to land, just to make sure it is still scheduled to land.

The plane will land at Green Ramp. The men will exit the plane. They will say their "Hi, I've missed you"s and then they will sit through a short speech. They will get on a bus. This should take no longer than 30 minutes (yeah, ok).

Now, if I choose to go to Green Ramp, it probably won't be too hard to follow the bus. And the traffic. And the masses of emotional family members. To wherever they decide to unload the men.

However, if I choose to skip that part to get a decent parking spot and really be able to welcome the hubs back home...well, who knows where that parking spot might be? If his unit has the majority of the men on the flight, no problem, got that location down. But if not...not only do I not know where he might end up, I won't know how to find out  or how to get there.

I"m not completely helpless. I will have his phone turned back on before then. But geez, it seems like kind of a mess. A completely worth it mess, but a mess nonetheless.


" Don't place your better days in the future."