There may be no better time for empowerment than when faced with a looming deployment or when you are in the thick of one.
Join our Mission: Milspouse team as we share all our tips, lessons learned, best practices for coping, and our hearts in solidarity with you in all things deployment. Whether you are preparing for your first one or you navigating your 7th, we have the resources you need to thrive in one of the most challenging aspects of milspouse life.
Our resources span the gamut: From that first moment when your service member says “I’ve got news,” to establishing a battle rhythm in those first few weeks, to parenting solo, and to reintegrating after that homecoming kiss… We have resources to guide you every step of the way. We are raw, vulnerable, experienced, and ready to support you through this season!
Every year, Oct. 26 is celebrated as the National Day of the Deployed, a day where we honor all of those who have deployed in service to the nation, as well as the sacrifices military families must make while their loved one is overseas. Since 2012, every state in the U.S. observes the day.
And they should.
When I learned that my husband was going to deploy this year, their relationship left me nervous. It would be our first longer separation and the first my son would remember. I couldn’t help but worry, not only for them, but also for me. How would I connect with my son the way he connects with his dad?
My 3 1/2 year old son is a daddy’s boy, through and through.
He loves playing cars and dinos with Dad, matching clothes with Dad, and helping Dad with all the household tasks and projects.
Have you heard the song, “Watching You” by Rodney Atkins? (If not, you can listen here.) That’s them, in a nutshell.
During deployments and other separations, the spouse or significant other holds down the fort at home.
All the resources and blogs say that you don’t have to do the fort-holding alone.
You can and should ask for help when you need it, they say.
For more than 60 years, legendary comedian Bob Hope traveled around the world supporting our nation’s service members and their families. Inspired by his dedication to the troops and their families, the USO founded the Bob Hope Legacy Reading Program in 2017. This program is largely driven by virtual, on-demand story time offerings, helping military families stay connected no matter where their service takes them.
One thing about my husband that surprised me was that he told me he enjoys listening to sad music. As he put it, he wants to “feel all the feelings that life has to offer.”
When you find out a deployment is on the horizon, everything begins to be filtered through a new lens—the lens of deployment.
I’ve had the great opportunity to go through three deployments in my marriage: the first we were married for six months and had 30 days notice, the second we had six months of notice, and the most recent, I had a whole total of a week’s notice. I’ve experienced that prepping for a deployment can look different depending on how much time you have, and truthfully, how long your service member will be gone.
There are countless resources for those facing a deployment. I have consolidated a number of them here for you. However, if you feel like you’re missing something specific to you, then take the reins and do a little digging. There is a good chance that someone else has asked that question and has posted about it online!
Deployments are seasons. Just like military life has seasons, deployment is one of those. Within deployment, however, I like to think of them as almost micro-seasons. There are a lot of ups and downs that come along.
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