Longer Troop Deployment

I feel as if I must rant about the increase in deployment time for the troops. As a military wife, I have to say that the extention is infuriating. As a veteran, I have to say that I almost understand. But not really. Troop deployment is already terrible...I know I should be thankful it isn't like it used to be back during earlier wars when you didn't hear anything from your soldier until they were on their way home 2 years later. But this is not the case now. Things are totally different, although I am inclined to believe that this war is very comparable to Vietnam.
I have been very lucky since I didn't deploy when I was active duty, and my husband has only been to Iraq once. ( He came back from Iraq and became a drill sergeant so he was basically gone for 2 years even though he was still living in my house.) But the year he was in Iraq was the first year of the War and it was miserable for them. They were living in their vehicles for a while...they had one bottle of water a day in 150 degree heat, they had 1 MRE a day and I didn't talk to him until 3 months into the deployment and that was only for 10 minutes every 2 weeks if the sattelite phone was working. I am not exaggerating this either. Many people have relatives that were in Iraq during the same time and they had phone conversations with their soldiers and computer instant messaging all the time. Not my husband's unit. well some did...not the "real" soldiers...the ones that were out on missions, pulling guard duty and overall doing all the work. You have several different types of soldiers in the Army...my husband is a Combat Engineer...he is a true combat soldier...he doesn't do paperwork( well a little), he works with and trains troops. He is a soldiers soldier. He loves doing his job and he loves working with his soldiers. But he also loves his family and as much as he wants to stay in the Army....I am not sure how much more he can take. For that matter any of the soldiers. I have talked to so many that would have made the Army a career if it not for all the deployments. We have some friends that have been to Iraq 4 times since 2003. There are so many higher ranking soldiers getting out because it is too much to handle. For a soldier to deploy for 15 months to have to turn around a deploy again in 7....yes that is happening...look at 4ID headquarters....I think that what should happen is that the people making the decisions about troop deployment should go to Iraq and spend 15 months there, running missions, dodging IEDs, Mortor rounds, AK47 shots by snipers, and pulling guard duty on a base that is sure to be subject to some type of attack at least once during the night. Then maybe they would understand why all of the soldiers have issues with the troop deployment of 15 months. Oh...wait...but they are going to get an extra $1000 a month over the 12 months...yes..yes this makes it all worth missing your children grow up, Missing your daughter's first date, missing the first day of school for your son or first football, soccer, baseball or any other sporting game, first tooth fall out. Or how about my husband who missed the birth of his daughter and didn't see her until she was 5 months old and that was for 2 weeks. There were many others that missed births too...and deaths. It is a sad world when we are fighting someone else's battle and they don't even want us there. When we have done enough and when it is time for them to take care of themselves they can't or won't...I am not saying we need to pull out completely all at once...but we do need to make them become more self sufficient and we aren't going to do that when we keep increasing the troop level instead of decreasing it!
Ok enough for now.... I am sure more to come...Especially since my husband will be deploying in June to Iraq...AGAIN