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To absent friends, may god watch over them while they are away from us

I am in the reserves attempting to go active duty, (harder than you would think) and my boyfriend is deploying soon.

This will be the first time he deploys since we started dating and since I just moved to a brand new town (partially for him partially to be closer to my brother) I am nervous really.

I have never deployed, he has in the past before we knew each other. What should I expect? I have friends deployed but thats different. They live in other states and all but this is the man I love and we plan on one day getting married, not to mention we are attempting to have a child right now. (do not criticize that we arent married, we dont believe in it and will only do it one day for convenience)

While he is away does anyone know about how much he will be able to call, (unlimited calling cards due to my parents loving him) and would he get R&R to come back possibly for christmas, (that will be a good eight months into deployment)

Someone please let me know

and bring them safe to us in the end

Okay; first of all, I know from friends' experience just how hard it is to change components. Which is why I went active the first time. But that's not really what this is about.

The best advice I can give you regarding your significant other's upcoming deployment is: patience. If he's in the middle of nowhere, or a combat arms MOS and always running missions, he may not have a lot of downtime to call. On top of that, there's a nine-hour time difference between Iraq and the East Coast, and (I believe) 11 for Afghanistan. That also plays a factor. As for R&R, he'll get it. Whether or not he'll get it when he wants is anybody's guess. The unit decides when everyone takes their R&R and they don't really care how it works to suit anyone's schedules. They have enough deployment-related hassles without having to add more to their plate.

That being said, a deployment is tough on everyone, not just the deploying soldier. The loved ones have to carry on as best they can, sometimes not knowing anything that's happening to their soldier for long periods of time.

my boyfriend is about to Deploy for the first time too. If you need anyone to talk to , feel free to PM cause i have a pretty good idea what your going thru
We gotta stick toghter smile

Me and my husband got married right before he left to Iraq, lol our first year of being married and we were seperated. But remember one thing the Army is VERY unpredictable, he was saposed to come home for R@R in December but instead he came home for October.

Occupy your time hardcore with friends and s**t to do, and alot of the time dont show him tht your suffering and missing him really bad, he doesnt need to see that his girl is in pain and he cant be there to make things better. Dont tell him if guys are hitting on you, try to keep him a little bit out of the loop on certain things.

Lol some fo the things that worked very well with us. But like I said the only thing that you CAN do is keep yourself occupied.