A few weeks ago, I was told by the cadre that DA is assigning our first duty posts based on deployment schedules. Supposedly, the duty post you are at is supposed to deploy within 6 weeks of arriving there. About 6 or so months ago when I looked up 502nd MI's deployment schedule I found that they were likely deploying in November of 2008. That would mean they return in November of 2009 and I would have about a year before actually deploying myself. After cadre had told me this, I emailed my contact who is in the 502nd and I finally got an email back from him yesterday. 502nd will probably deploy in October of this year. My contact told me that I should not start packing my bags or anything because with the new president and everything else going on most information is more a weather prediction than anything else, but if they are truly deploying in October, they should get their orders within the next couple of months. What does this mean? Well, it means that a month after reporting to Lewis I will deploy to Iraq. This changes our plans greatly. If I will only be in the states a mere month after reporting, it might make more sense to keep Susie and the baby in Texas until I get back from Iraq just because they will have a support network down there. It also might make PCSing from 15th a little shorter if I'm not transporting my household goods. Either way, it makes me very sad. I haven't spent much time with the family at all within the last couple of months and now it's looking like that time will stretch for years. Such is the life of an Army soldier I guess.
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