PRE-DEPLOYMENT PREPARATION:
Like all deployments with the military, mine also had a bit or rather a lot of Pre Deployment preparations and frustrations. I had four months after training to prepare for my deployment overseas, but even days before leaving the four months preparation was not enough. Some of those chosen from our selection course only had days to prepare for KAF after leaving Kingston, I couldn’t imagine being able to prepare myself in such a little amount of time.
I was fortunate to have the expertise of my husband to help me out with things that I would need. Little by little my paperwork started coming in, my uniforms arrived, and little by little I started to get things I would need for six months away from home, suitcases, clothes, shoes, and other accessories, my credit card was loving me, and I had nearly maxed it up, my credit limit had been raised twice over the course of my preparations, at this point I was glad I was not heading over for the money because I had a nice little bill to pay when I returned home. What I did not get, my husband made sure I had at Christmas, bungee cords, which I could see as useful though I never used, a headlamp, which was quite handy in the middle of the night for visits to the porta potty or for my midnight jogs around camp, and my most used and loved item, and MP3 player. Nothing fancy, just enough to put my favourite workout music on, and go. I put aside a small space for myself in the laundry room and put all my things there as I got them. As time drew nearer, I started packing things in the suitcases making sure I had everything I would need and could not live without for my arrival in “the host nation” and KAF in my carry on.
The stress on me and my husband was alike any other deployment we had been on together. By that time he had been on four deployments overseas and a couple other “deployments” in Canadian departures, and just like his deployments, we had the same frustrations and anxiety’s while preparing for mine, same difficulties, and same stresses that any soldier going on deployments has before going away. It started about a month before I left, and carried well into my tour. We were in quintessence preparing ourselves for the next six months without each other, employing our own bubble for what life would be like.
All deployment preparations aside, when I arrived, it was quickly observed that I had forgotten a few items, items that weren’t key to my survival, but all the same would give me a comfort that was much like splurging desert style. It was obvious that even with four months to prepare; one can never be prepared enough for such a trip.
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