How Long Do You Have to Wait Before Getting Deployed Again

By Sydney Johnson

When a service fellow member gets the call about a new deployment, an array of emotions can wash over them. They may feel excited about embarking on a new experience and traveling to a place they may have never been earlier. They may exist nervous nigh performing new skills they oasis't utilized quite withal. They may besides feel sad knowing they'll accept to leave their families and spend a lot of time away from their homes, with minimal communication.

According to the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA), a deployment is when a service member is required to move from a home station to another location exterior of the United states. A "deployment bike," the phrase used to describe the entire deployment procedure, includes everything from the initial deployment notification through the period when a service member returns home.

Deployment cycles can often look very different across - and even within – dissimilar military machine branches.

For instance, a deployment for a Navy sailor could mean 6 months at sea on a ship; for a Marine information technology could mean flying to the other side of the earth to work for a few brusk months; or for an Ground forces soldier it could hateful living and working in an undisclosed location for up to xv months.

Although each and every deployment is truly unique, at that place are a few basic facts to know about military deployments in general:

Deployments Range in Length

Navy pilots make their style to a fake casualty during a flight deck drill on the Navy's but frontward-deployed shipping carrier USS Ronald Reagan. | Photograph credit DVIDS/Piffling Officer third Class Gabriel Martinez

The average military deployment is typically between six and 12 months long. Nonetheless, deployment lengths vary greatly from branch to branch, are situational and depend on several factors specific to each individual service member.

For example, some Navy submarine deployments are less than a month long, while some ship deployments can exist more than than a year. On the other hand, some members of the Air Forcefulness can undergo several shorter deployments with very short breaks in between each.

Service Members Must Consummate Pre-Deployment Training

Each deployment is a new assignment, and so service members undergo specific training earlier leaving for their destination, so they are prepared for the piece of work ahead. Sometimes, soldiers need to learn brand new skills to exist successful overseas, as deployments include many unlike jobs.

Photo credit DVIDS/Lance Cpl. Ujian Gosun

A mortarman establishes a defensive position in a patrol base operations result during practice Fuji Viper 21.1 at Combined Arms Grooming Center, Camp Fuji, Japan.

Pre-deployment preparation is required before every deployment assignment, no matter how many deployments a service member has completed, because each deployment is unique. Some service members are deployed over v times throughout their military careers, which means they've undergone just as much pre-deployment training as well.

Groups of Service Members or But Individuals Tin be Deployed

The number of service members that are selected to deploy depends on what kind of support is needed and how specialized the piece of work is. For more specialized missions, a smaller unit of measurement is usually deployed, while larger teams may be sent overseas for other operations.

Typically, entire units are deployed together, but sometimes the U.S. Army deploys individuals.

Deployments Don't Always Involve Combat

In popular movies, books or other media, military deployments are usually characterized as being very unsafe, with troops heading off to war in a remote location. While this is a possible reality for some service members, not all deployments involve combat situations.

Photograph credit DVIDS/Seaman Santiago Navarro

Navy seamen grooming on lee helm and helm operation on the send'southward command console in the span of the Ticonderoga-form guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh.

One case of a not-combat deployment is when a Navy submarine needs supplies while it is underway (that is, out at ocean) for a long period of time, a Navy submarine tender – which is a type of send designated to tending submarines when necessary – will deploy from its station with its unabridged coiffure aboard and set up sheet for the submarine's location. The tender may exist stationed at a port in Guam, and once a submarine's crew requests help, the tender will deploy for yet long it takes to supply the submarine with fuel, food, etc.

(Fun fact: Did yous know that troops deployed into combat zones receive "imminent danger pay," which is revenue enhancement-exempt bonus compensation?)

Staying in Affect During a Deployment Can be a Claiming

For many service members, staying in touch with loved ones while deployed tin can be quite the challenge. In some cases, it can be nearly impossible.

While some deployment locations offer Wi-Fi or phones to connect back home, many others are too remote for service members to have admission to any reliable communication.

Photo credit DVIDS/Staff Sgt. Timothy Sencindiver

More than 160 members return from a nine-month deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Republic of cuba.

For example, submariners serve in a role of the Navy nicknamed the "Silent Service," and in that location's a reason for that. Submarines stay hundreds of feet underwater for months at a time. Though in that location are ways to email and deliver messages to these service members while they are underway, it is difficult for them to maintain consistent communication with their loved ones while they are deployed.

Additionally, since deployments across all war machine branches can take service members all over the world, fourth dimension zones tin can brand information technology hard to coordinate with their loved ones back home.

An airman hugs her loved one upon render. | Photo credit DVIDS/Staff Sgt. Tony Harp

If a service member's family unit lives on the East Coast, and their service member is in Republic of korea, at that place would be an 13-60 minutes fourth dimension difference. Timing and lack of access to means of communications can force many families to become weeks, sometimes months, with lilliputian to no connection.

Many Deployed Service Members Tin Visit a USO Center to Stay in Touch with Loved Ones

Because staying in touch with loved ones during a deployment can be particularly challenging for some service members, the USO offers several programs, similar Operation Phone Home and the Bob Promise Legacy Reading Program, designed to help them connect back home.
This includes Wi-Fi, computers and telephone telephone call centers inside the USO location, too as pre-paid phone cards, all of which service members to use to connect with their families and friends back home. The Bob Hope Legacy Reading Programme allows service members to record themselves reading stories to their children, and then send that recording and a copy of the book back home, so that they can still "be there" for bedtime.

Service members can be away from their homes for months at a fourth dimension, but while they are in a afar location, they tin can even so stay connected to their families by taking advantage of the USO's free services, so they remain strong while completing their missions.

Deployment tin can be a tough experience, both physically and emotionally, which is why staying continued to their loved ones is peculiarly important.

- This story originally appeared on USO.org in 2020. It has been updated in 2022.

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Source: https://www.uso.org/stories/2871-how-long-is-a-military-deployment

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