First post - introducing myself

[ak0725]

Hey all,

I am new here to the board. I was sent over by my wife, she's been posting in one of the boards for quite a while.

I read a post by another new guy from a few days back, and we seem to have very similar stories. I too, am gone about 7 months of the year, working off the coast of Eastern Africa though, Mozambique currently. I work for a geotechnical sampling and surveying company and have been for about 5 years now.

When I'm not in Africa, my wife and I call Houston home. We have a 7 1/2 month old son and two dogs. We try to travel when we can, and enjoy just about all things outdoors.

I look forward to chatting with you guys, my wife seems to have taken a real liking to posting on her board.

Cheers,
Andrew

[eddiegotsole]

Welcome! It's great that you found someone else with a similar job who you can relate to! Sounds like a situation not many will truly understand unless you've been through it!

[tjr42px]

ak0725, Welcome!

Do you work a similar 4 week on 3 week off schedule? Hope all is well where you are at and in Houston. Some nasty weather down there.

I second that eddiegotsole. That's a situation few truly understand, yet perhaps many try to. I was talking with someone yesterday. Her H is on his 4th deployment. This one is 8 months. She's struggling as anyone might. In an effort to comfort her a friend said "I know how you feel. H is away all next week at a conference." Wait what!?! 7 days verses the 4th time he's gone for 6-8 months?

[ak0725]

Jun 7, 2015 6:29:57 GMT -5 tjr42px said:

ak0725, Welcome!

Do you work a similar 4 week on 3 week off schedule? Hope all is well where you are at and in Houston. Some nasty weather down there.

I second that eddiegotsole. That's a situation few truly understand, yet perhaps many try to. I was talking with someone yesterday. Her H is on his 4th deployment. This one is 8 months. She's struggling as anyone might. In an effort to comfort her a friend said "I know how you feel. H is away all next week at a conference." Wait what!?! 7 days verses the 4th time he's gone for 6-8 months?

Thank you, glad to be here.

Ya, I work a very similar schedule. True "at work time" is 4 weeks, but you end up using 3 days before and 3 day after your rotation for travel. So it comes out to right at 5 weeks gone and 3 weeks home.

It can definitely put strains on any relationship. Luckily I have a wife who's as strong as stone and can handle things while I'm away, and still welcomes me back after missing a month worth of troubles at a time haha

We've had people say similar things to us before about, "oh *so-and-so* will be out of town for 5 or 6 days for work, I don't know how I'm going to manage." I can't imagine being gone for 8 months, especially on an active duty deployment, that's got to be rough on both halves. My short (in comparison) trips can barely scratch the surface of that, and I can't even compare the stress levels felt by each partner while they're deployed. The longest I've ever been gone was 9 weeks, and that was hell-ish enough for me.

Also- thanks for the comment about home in Houston. The weather has been crazy down there since I've been gone. However, according to the wife, we've made it through it unscathed. It seems the weather hit the opposite side of Houston much more-so than it did ours.

[tjr42px]

Dude don't sell yourself short; a deployment sucks, but that constant 4.5 weeks away routine is no picnic. Sure the stress of deployment adds to it, but yours is a lot of transition and it's constant. I guess each has its challenges. But I'd almost rather a solid block of time than all that back and forth. Personal preference though.

Glad things are well at home and most of the bad stuff missed you. Fingers crossed it's more good news as the season goes on.